#Modern Embroidery Techniques

[charile0]

Precision Meets Artistry: Embroidery Laser Cutting at LW Pearl Atelier

In the ever-evolving world of design and craftsmanship, embroidery laser cutting has emerged as a revolutionary technique, combining precision technology with artistic expression. This innovative process transforms traditional embroidery by incorporating intricate laser-cut designs that elevate textiles to new heights. At the forefront of this trend is LW Pearl Atelier, a leader in bespoke embroidery and laser cutting artistry.

Laser cutting embroidery blends the best of both worlds: the delicate beauty of embroidery and the precision of laser technology. This technique allows for creating highly detailed patterns, clean edges, and unique textures that are impossible to achieve with manual cutting. Whether it’s floral motifs, geometric shapes, or custom designs, embroidery laser cutting offers limitless creative possibilities.

At LW Pearl Atelier, this process is taken to an art form. Specializing in custom designs, they use advanced laser technology to cut intricate patterns into fabrics, which are then enhanced with embroidery. This seamless combination adds depth and dimension, making every piece a true masterpiece. From high-fashion garments to unique accessories and interior textiles, their creations redefine modern elegance.

One of the key advantages of laser cutting embroidery is its versatility. It works with a wide range of materials, including delicate silks, sturdy leathers, and even synthetic fabrics. The precision ensures minimal waste and unmatched accuracy, making it an eco-friendly and efficient choice for designers.

For those seeking to push the boundaries of design, LW Pearl Atelier offers the perfect blend of technology and craftsmanship. Their expertise in embroidery laser cutting allows clients to achieve stunning, one-of-a-kind results that captivate and inspire.

Discover how LW Pearl Atelier is redefining embroidery and laser cutting, transforming simple textiles into extraordinary works of art that stand out in a world of innovation and creativity.

[samkkshopping]

Stitching Stories: Exploring Symbolism in American Lehenga Fashion

Embark on a vibrant exploration with "Cultural Chromatics," delving into the fusion of American fashion with diverse traditions. Uncover the symbolic language intricately woven into Lehengas, telling unique tales of heritage. This captivating journey unveils a colorful tapestry where traditional elegance seamlessly intertwines with modern trends. From intricate details to vibrant hues, each Lehenga for women narrates a story, creating a harmonious blend of cultures in the ever-evolving landscape of American fashion. "Cultural Chromatics" is a celebration of diversity, bridging the gap between tradition and contemporary style, inviting you to decode the rich narrative behind the beautiful Lehengas shaping the fashion landscape.

Selecting the ideal bridal lehenga is a crucial decision for any traditional Indian wedding, as it plays a pivotal role in enhancing the bride's beauty and elegance. With a myriad of styles and designs available, choosing the perfect lehenga can be overwhelming. Here are some guidelines to assist you in finding a bridal lehenga Choli that aligns with your style and accentuates your beauty.

A Guide to Choosing Your Perfect Bridal Lehenga

1. Consider Your Body Type:

   - Take into account your body type when selecting a Designer bridal lehenga, as different styles flatter different figures.

   - For a pear-shaped body, opt for a lehenga for wedding with a flared skirt and a fitted blouse, while an hourglass figure suits a lehenga Online with a fitted waist and flared skirt.

2. Choose the Right Fabric:

   - The fabric of your bridal lehenga for women is as crucial as the style. Different fabrics offer unique qualities and textures.

   - Options like silk, satin, velvet, and georgette each have distinct characteristics, so choose one that complements both your body type and skin tone.

3. Decide on the Length:

   - Bridal lehengas come in various lengths, from knee-length to floor-length.

   - Your choice depends on personal preference and the formality of the wedding. Traditional looks often feature floor-length lehengas, while knee-length Exclusive Bridal lehengas provide a more modern touch.

4. Pick the Right Colors:

   - While red is a traditional and popular color, feel free to choose a hue that complements your skin tone and personal style.

   - Popular Indian bridal lehenga colors include red, pastel, gold, and peach lehenga, but contemporary choices might include pastels or muted shades.

5. Consider the Embroidery and Embellishments:

   - The embroidery and embellishments on your bridal lehenga online can significantly impact its overall appearance.

   - Choose intricate and elegant embroidery styles, such as zari, gota, or sequins, to add a touch of glamour to your bridal ensemble.

6. Try On Different Lehengas:

   - Experiment with various lehengas online to identify the one that best suits your body and style.

   - Visiting bridal stores like Samyakk can be beneficial, as they offer a variety of bridal lehengas for brides and expert advice.

"Hey readers, let's unravel the viral allure of pastel lehengas, transforming brides into style sensations!"

Nowadays, celebrities prefer private day weddings with minimal settings. Mostly in day weddings, pastel bridal lehengas are becoming the most lovable preference for Bollywood bridal looks. Red has always been classic but nowadays we can witness pastels as the new red. Our pastel brides are choosing subtle colors for their bridal lehengas for wedding to attain a minimal and elegant look to soothe the whole vibe of the occasion.

Anushka Sharma is the OG bride who started the pastel bridal lehenga trend. Her wedding was one of the first celebrity weddings to go viral for all the right reasons. Her unique pastel pink lehenga by Sabyasachi was one of them. Her wedding lehenga clearly set the trend in 2017 for other brides by becoming a royal pastel bride, which is still appealing to us and ruling the top inspiration for many brides till date.

We've got to know that our B-town divas are going crazy to become pastel brides by ditching conventional red lehengas. It can be clearly seen how much they like to experiment with their wedding looks and set new trends. It can certainly inspire many of us and help to find the unique and best options for our big day.

Get ready to slay in the most lit Indian Bridal Attire, NYC style! Whether it's Indian Wedding Attire or the whole shebang of Indian Bridal Wedding Attire, we got you covered, fam. Cop the freshest Indian Bridal Wear in the USA straight from Samyakk – your plug for all things traditional and fire. Ready to stunt at weddings? Buy Indian Wedding Dresses Online in the USA and flex in that Traditional Indian Wedding Guest Dresses swag. Elevate your drip with our Traditional Indian Wedding Wear in the USA; you're about to be the talk of the town, guaranteed. Snag the best vibes with Traditional Indian Wedding Attire in the USA – because being extra is our tradition!

NowLet’s delve into Different Bridal Lehenga

The traditional lehenga choli ensemble comprises three elements: a lavishly adorned long skirt (lehenga), a snug-fitting blouse (choli), and a flowing dupatta (scarf). The intricately embellished skirt takes center stage, while the blouse, more subtly designed, complements the ensemble. Draped over the head and shoulders, the dupatta adds an element of grace and sophistication, completing the overall look.

Dive into the realm of bridal chic with a Crimson Red Silk Bridal Lehenga that radiates timeless elegance. This fiery ensemble is not just a garment; it's a statement, an ode to tradition with a contemporary twist. For those craving boldness, the Blackberry Raw Silk Bridal Lehenga steps in, embodying audacious style and unapologetic confidence. Its rich texture and deep hue make it a showstopper, perfect for the bride Dresses who dares to be different.

In the softer spectrum, the Light Lilac Purple Net Lehenga captures hearts with its ethereal charm. This dreamy creation blends delicacy with allure, creating a bridal Lehenga look that's both enchanting and modern. Meanwhile, the Cloud Cream Velvet Bridal Lehenga redefines opulence. Wrapped in creamy velvet Lehengas, it's a masterpiece that marries luxury and grace, ensuring the bride stands out as the epitome of sophistication.

Each Lehenga in Bride narrates a distinct tale – from the vibrant crimson to the regal blackberry, the soft lilac, and the cloud cream opulence. These choices allow brides to curate their narrative, expressing individual style on their momentous day. It's not just about wearing a lehenga blouse design; it's about donning an emblem of tradition, craftsmanship, and personal flair in the grand tapestry of a wedding day.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the significance of the bridal lehenga color?

A: The color of the bridal lehenga often holds cultural and symbolic significance. Red is a traditional choice symbolizing love and prosperity, while modern brides also explore pastels and other vibrant hues to reflect personal style.

2. How is the length of a bridal lehenga determined?

 A: Bridal lehenga length varies but is typically around 42 to 48 inches. It depends on personal preference, body type, and the desired look. Some brides opt for longer lengths for a more traditional appearance.

3. What are the common fabrics used in bridal lehengas?

 A: Bridal lehengas are crafted from various fabrics like silk, velvet, georgette, and tulle. Each fabric lends a different texture and feel to the outfit, contributing to the overall look and comfort.

4. What is the role of zari work in bridal lehengas?

 A: Zari work involves weaving threads of gold or silver into the fabric, adding intricate designs. In bridal lehengas, zari work enhances the richness and elevates the outfit's grandeur, making it perfect for weddings.

5. How do brides choose the right bridal lehenga pattern?

 A: Brides select lehenga patterns based on personal style, body shape, and the wedding theme. Popular patterns include A-line, mermaid, and traditional flared styles. Some brides opt for heavily embellished patterns for a royal look, while others prefer minimalist designs for a modern touch.

CONCLUSION

 The journey of selecting your dream bridal lehenga can be a delightful and exhilarating experience. By carefully considering factors such as body type, fabric, length, color, embroidery, and personal style, you can discover the perfect lehenga choli that not only enhances your beauty but also instills confidence on your special day. Explore the diverse and exquisite collection available on www.samyakk.com, offering a seamless shopping experience. For a more personalized touch and the opportunity to witness the opulence firsthand, we invite you to visit our store in Bangalore. Let Samyakk be your trusted companion in curating a bridal collection ensemble that embodies elegance and timeless beauty.

[fashioninstitutechennai-blog]

Pearl Embroidery Course: How to Learn the Art of Embroidery?

Embroidery is a beautiful art form that has been around for centuries. It involves stitching designs onto fabric using various techniques and materials. Pearl embroidery is a specific type of embroidery that involves the use of pearls, and beads. It utilizes other embellishments to create intricate designs. Are you interested in learning this art of embroidery? Then taking this course is a great…

[grison-in-space]

Man, there is a huge bias in the way that hobby fibercrafters approach and think about textiles—and I say that as a hobby fibercrafter myself! See, weaving has a high barrier to entry relative to knitting, crochet, spinning—even embroidery or sewing, these days, as the sewing machine automated much of the tedium of the craft. All of those crafts require a lot less in terms of startup costs to the hobby crafter than the machinery of a loom does.

But... look, if you want to understand mass produced textiles or textiles in any historical context, you have to understand weaving. If you want to understand how most of the cloth that people wear is made, you have to understand weaving, because weaving is the oldest art for mass producing cloth that can then be turned into garments.

Spinning is also very important, of course. Spinning is how you get the thread that you can turn into cloth any number of ways. Historically speaking, though, the most common way that thread or yarn becomes cloth is inarguably weaving. More to the point, weaving is also a historical center of industry and labor organizing. Ironically enough for the argument about how no one asked a woman, the industrialization of weaving is actually an interesting early case example of men organizing to push women out of a newly profitable position.

Besides that, knitting and crocheting in particular are incredibly modern crafts. Most modern knitting as we would understand the craft is shaped by the inventions of Elizabeth Zimmerman, and even things like the circular knitting needle date back only to the past century. Historically speaking, the great innovation of knitting as a tool for fiber craft is the ability to construct garments for small, odd shapes that can stretch and grip: stockings, gloves, underwear. Even that great innovation, the knit sweater, is an artifact of the 1850s—and the familiar cable knit sweaters of the Aran Isles are even newer than that. Crochet is even younger: the entire craft originated in the 1820s as far as anyone can document.

None of that is any shade on anyone. Like I said, I knit; that's the locus of my personal interest in textiles. I just think that textile history is neat, but if you're going to make big pronouncements about the historical development of textiles, it's important to think about what changed about the technology of textile production in the most common ways of turning raw fiber into cloth—and you cannot stop at the level of understanding how to make thread or yarn, because the properties of the cloth are always going to be an artifact of the construction of the cloth.

That's technology, baby! It's literally weavecraft. But it's not obvious that weaving is missing from the bounds of a person's experience with textile manipulation until and unless they're trying to understand and work with a wide range of fabric types—and when you can quite reasonably go from raw fiber to a finished garment using modern popular craft techniques that don't rely on anything that appears difficult for a medieval craftsman to make, it's easy to forget the role of weaving in the creation of cloth as a finished product.

I suppose the point I am making is: think deeply about what your own areas of expertise are not bringing to your understanding of history. It's easier to miss things you'd think.

[intermittentstitcher]

Here is my latest project. I have recently discovered blackwork embroidery and I have fallen in love with the technique.

The pattern comes from the book Blackwork Embroidery in Colour by Melanie Couffe

Goodreads :

[heedzhee-art]

Is there traditional dresses that is able to use Ukrainian colors?

Thank you for the question about my hyperfixation 🗣️

When we're talking about "traditional" Ukrainian clothing, the colours used for the fabric of dresses and vyshyvankas were white, gray and black:

White linen was widely used because it was the easiest and most practical material to produce, this fabric was the most thin.

Gray linen was typically made from undyed, untreated linen or hemp. Creating this fabric involved minimal processing, but it had a natural, earthy quality (it was the most expensive because of the meticulous selection of raw materials and specific weaving techniques, plus it was very durable)

Black linen was rarer and often used for solemn or formal occasions (commemorations and memorial days, funerals and mourning), but today a black vyshyvanka can be a stylistic choice and people won't be asking you who died if you wear it

Ukrainians never used the blue and yellow combination for traditional attire.

Personally, when I see that combo, I think about IKEA

Dresses and vyshyvankas like that exist (mass produced vyshyvankas use all colours possible, as well as custom designs made by modern seamstresses), it's just that they aren't traditional, they're something that was created as a modern interpretation

Instead, vyshyvankas reflected the natural dyes available in each region, with reds, blacks, whites, and earthy tones dominating the embroidery or weaved fabric patterns

If you're an artist and you want to draw something with the blue and yellow combo, I'd recommend going for a vyshyvanka shirt and pairing it with some modern clothes in the outfit, though it's a popular opinion among Ukrainians for the flag colours combo to be a kitsch element (most people see it as tasteless and some may consider it "sharovarshchyna" aka a misleading/harmful depiction), it's just that they are complimentary colours that clash unevenly on a white or black background, same as when one of the colours is a background shade and the other is used for the embroidery

But this is all personal taste and a modern vyshyvanka shirt or an embroidered ethnic-inspired dress can be any colour you like: pink, black, brown, green, you name it, it's just that it wouldn't be "traditional". Have fun 👌

[manic-maniac-man]

HUgE Oct 2010

Leather Obsession

No matter how much trends change, leather blousons remain popular. This season's lineup has evolved even further. Get the unique presence that leather has to offer!

This single riders jacket has a solid and rugged appearance. The excellent processing makes it look like it is vintage. The diagonal darts on the body and the logo on the arm are accents that are not forgotten. This is a masterpiece that is typical of UNDERCOVERISM, who has an extraordinary commitment to riders.

¥157,500 (UNDERCOVERISM)

This piece is a Melton blouson with flight jacket details attached using horse leather. The unique texture created by the special processing is also a highlight.

¥141,750 (Miharayasuhiro Tokyo)

The fabric has been washed to give it a vintage, wrinkled look. Outstanding pocket opening design and cuff details Couture techniques were also on display. ¥147,000 (M INC)

_High-quality lamb leather creates an elegant atmosphere. The double zipper on the front allows you to adjust the shape. ¥498,750 (Gucci Group Japan Yves Saint Laurent Division)

_Rick Owens is well known for its leather. The beautiful silhouette is created by the use of cut-outs and the shape of the back. The minimalist design makes this stand out even more. ¥250,950 (Pred PR)

The calf leather used is finished with a tasteful texture through product dyeing.

The stand-up collar and ribbing create a modern look. Also available in pink.

¥152,250 (ATTACHMENT Daikanyama main store)

This piece is inspired by the fusion of riders and judo uniforms, and the contrast between the suede and the leather is appealing. The distinctive, hard finish is the essence of Blackmeans. ¥147,000 (blackmeans)

The design is inspired by cowboys, with striking fringes, silver buttons, and studs. The comical bead embroidery on the chest pocket As an accent. ¥134,400 (Nepenthes Tokyo)

The soft jersey base is covered with ultra-thin jungle suede. After two-stage dyeing, the unique texture created by uneven rubbing gives it a one-of-a-kind presence. ¥145,950 (Pred PR)

Epaulets and flap pockets, This piece has a military feel with a belt and other details. The unique texture of the washed calfskin is also impressive. The sleeves are detachable with a zipper. ¥500,850 (Lanvin Japan)

From the double-name series with VANSON. Based on the US NAVY peacoat, the silhouette is smartly arranged. The charming camouflage pattern on the lining is also appealing. ¥198,450 (Comme des Garcons)

It features a voluminous hood and long ribs. There is also a hidden pocket along the seam of the body. It is wax-coated for water repellency. ¥199,500 (The Viridi-anne)

[burins]

I read a LOT of books this year, which is always exciting. I also neglected to do much in the way of write ups during the year proper, so here are little opinions about all 84(!) book-books I read. I love to yap about what I read and I would love to talk about any and all of these. (Graphic novels and comics are gonna be their own post because there are also too many of those.) Bold are my top faves, headphones are things I read as audiobooks.

JAN

Less - Andrew Sean Greer

Shockingly funny book on a writer’s midlife gay crisis. I was a little mid on the end but the prose here was fantastic.

The Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future - Ryder Carroll

Beyond Bullets: Creative Journaling Ideas to Customize Your Personal Productivity System - Megan Rutell

Read about a million of these for a program; this was the only one worth recommending if you want to try journaling. (The official guide is Fine but it throws a lot at you at once.)

The 365 Bullet Guide: Organize Your Life Creatively, One Day at a Time - Zennor Compton

Lettering for Planners: A Step- - -Step Guide to Hand Lettering and Modern Calligraphy for Bullet Journals and Beyond - Jordan Truster and Jillian Reece

This should not have been a book.

Afterparties: Stories - Anthony Veasna So

I’ve been meaning to read this for years and years-- So was a friend of a friend-- and it was as excellent as I expected, and also made me tremendously sad that we won’t get more writing from him. 

Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space - Amanda Leduc 🎧

This is theory for a general audience but I still wished it was more robust-- Leduc’s arguments had about the academic rigor of a tumblr post, which is a shame.

Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945–1955 - Harald Jähner 🎧

Nation-making and identity formation in the aftermath of fascism. There has been a lot of writing about the German project of the post-Nazi era, but this was a very solid read.

Water and Salt - Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

I came across Tuffaha’s gut-punch of a poem, “Running Orders,” online, and while the rest of the collection doesn’t always hit as hard, it’s still fantastic.

Bring Up the Bodies - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Reading this and The Mirror and the Light at the beginning of the year really ruined me for all other prose for the entirety of 2024, tbh. Nobody does it like Mantel.

Bandits, Misfits, and Superheroes: Whiteness and Its Borderlands in American Comics and Graphic Novels - Josef Benson and Doug Singsen

After reading Birds of Prey in October-December I really wanted to read some writing on whiteness in comics. This didn’t touch on what I was most interested in exploring and I did come away from the book thinking damn. None of that book was nearly as good as Tony Wei Ling’s fantastic piece on Crumb and alt-comics’ self-hagiography in SOLRAD.

Mending with Boro - Harumi Horiuchi

Make and Mend: Sashiko-Inspired Embroidery Projects to Customize and Repair Textiles and Decorate Your Home - Jessica Marquez

Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto - Kate Sekules

Mending with Love: Creative Repairs for Your Favorite Things - Noriko Misumi

Mend It, Wear It, Love It!: Stitch Your Way to a Sustainable Wardrobe - Zoe Edwards

Can you tell I taught a visible mending class in February? Honestly any one of these are a good pick if you’re wanting to get into visible mending. This is the best for giving you a whole menu of techniques to choose from and having very accessible instructions.

Modern Mending - Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald

Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More - Katrina Rodabaugh

Creative Mending: Beautiful Darning, Patching and Stitching Techniques - Hikaru Noguchi

This is the best one for getting into the ethos of visible mending. It’s a deeply kind book.

Joyful Mending: Visible Repairs for the Perfectly Imperfect Things We Love! - Noriko Misumi

Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love - Arounna Khounnoraj

The Mirror and the Light - Hilary Mantel 🎧

Once again. Nobody is doing it like Hilary Mantel.

FEB

Finna - Nino Cipri 🎧

Anticapitalist multiverse Ikea relationship drama should have been my entire jam but this book was simply quite bad.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy - Cathy O’Neil 🎧

Are you ready to get depressed about data? This is a great book for your liberal mom. I could wish it were more anticarceral but for what it’s actually covering it does a great job.

Vegetables Love Flowers: Companion Planting for Beauty and Bounty - Lisa Mason Ziegler

Garden planning :) 

Flux - Jinwoo Chong 🎧

If you liked Severance (the show) or have ever projected some identity feelings onto a not-very-good TV show, this is a book for you. Imperfect pacing but still gripping, and I’m excited to see what Chong does next-- this is his first book.

Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell

The premise of this book is simply so sexy. And overall the book is too!

The Imposition of Unnecessary Obstacles - Malka Older

Yayyyy Mossa and Pleiti return! I love this series and I loved this book.

A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism edited - Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Esther Farmer, & Sarah Sills

I don't really have a write up for this. It's powerful and well written and I would recommend it.

Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time - Teju Cole

Best book I read all year, frankly. Teju Cole writes about art and culture and being alive when the world is falling apart like nobody else.

MAR

The Deepest South of All: True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi - Richard Grant 🎧

Oh you hate to see a British guy get sucked in by white Southern niceness. (Richard Grant, in this case, is the British guy.) A lot of the stories in this were excellent but Grant gives way too much credit to folks clinging to the tattered remnants of the Old South.

Ottoman Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early Twentieth-Century Palestine - Michelle U. Campos

Excellent historical antidote to the idea of perpetual struggle in Palestine. Also interesting read just for looking at how citizens of Jerusalem were using national and imperial identities for their political agendas at the time.

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us - Ed Yong 🎧

Lovely book that resists anthropomorphism and rendered me a font of “hey babe can I tell you a cool snake fact?” for about three weeks. 

The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free - Paulina Bren 🎧

You know I should have expected a book like this to be exactly what it was and yet. In addition to the sort of milquetoast stabs at feminism the structure is bad-- it devolves into Sylvia Plath’s life story and doesn’t really recover. I don’t mind reading a book about Sylvia Plath but I would like to plan to do that going in. 

The Hunter - Tana French

Only Tana can manage to write a book that is mostly just pretty normal conversations for 75% of its runtime and yet made me unbelievably stressed the whole time I was reading. Creeping dread! We love it.

Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde

I last read this in high school when I was so excited to see that the sequel would be coming out any day now. Over a decade later, any day at last arrived! So it was time for a reread. The sexual politics of this book are insane, which I didn’t pick up on in 10th grade, but it is still an extremely clever and enjoyable book.

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik 🎧

I learned a lot of fun facts in this book but it was rambling and also I do wish books like this would stop trying to overstate the importance of their topic. Rabies can’t be the source of vampire legends AND zombie legends AND werewolves. (Zombies in particular. We know where those come from and it ain’t rabies!)

The Transcriptionist - Amy Rowland 🎧

As a former transcriptionist the idea of a mystery that revolves around the intrinsic weirdness of being the fly on the wall was very appealing to me! This wasn’t quite the book I thought it was but I still enjoyed it. 

City Editor - Stanley Walker

If you can ignore the amount of name-dropping of people who were certainly famous in 1934 newsrooms but I have certainly never heard of, there are definitely some amusing anecdotes. Walker writes with a dynamism and bombast I would love to see in any kind of writing nowadays. However it is also a book written - a newspaperman in 1934 so it does hit every single -ism like it’s trying to get a pinball high score.

The Times: How the Newspaper of Record Survived Scandal, Scorn, and the Transformation of Journalism - Adam Nagourney 🎧

This book is exceedingly kind to the NYT and it was wild to read this the month that the Hamas mass rape story very publicly fell apart. However reading it did give me a very clear picture of how that story, and stories like it, happened in the first place. 

Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom - Carl Bernstein 🎧

Of all the “how do newspapers work?” books I read in March-April to prep for a fic I didn’t end up being able to write, this was my favorite. Bernstein is an engaging narrator and this answered my questions about how a story actually happens (particularly pre-internet.)

APR

Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America's Community Newspapers - Dave Hoekstra

This ping-pongs between case studies in a way that would be totally fine in a feature story and is unforgivable in a book. But the case studies are interesting!

Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life - Margaret Sullivan

This is more memoir than NYT hagiography, and thus I enjoyed it much more.

Ocean’s Godori - Elaine Cho

I’ve got to stop reading SFF that came out this year. Unfortunately, it is part of my job to be aware of SFF that comes out this year. The pacing on this was UNBELIEVABLY sick-- the inciting plot incident only occurred halfway through the book, and the first 60 pages were us being fairly clumsily introduced to too many characters. The author’s end notes effusively thanked her editor and I think she should not have done that because a really solid editing job could have made this into something I really enjoyed. (People who work in publishing I’m sorry about publishing.)

Bombshell - Sarah MacLean

If your whole plot is going to hinge on a Deep Dark Secret, it better be deep and dark. 

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance - Jeremy Eichler 🎧

I got this for my grandma for Christmas and that was a mistake because this book is so depressing. If I had thought for two seconds I would have known this! However. I did like it! 

MAY

JUN

Desegregating Comics: Debating Blackness in the Golden Age of American Comics - Qiana Whitted

Really loved this one. 

Super Bodies: Comic Book Illustration, Artistic Styles, and Narrative Impact - Jeffrey A. Brown

This book would have been fantastic if the author had a) had any art historical or visual analysis training and b) done research about manga and the ways its styles have been used in the west. As neither of those were true this book mostly made me wish it was another, better book. Good comics recs though. 

Red Side Story - Jasper Fforde

Long-awaited sequel! This is an entirely solid book, though I wish I could have read it when I was a teen because it would have rocked my shit then. 

JULY

The Ladies Rewrite the Rules - Suzanne Allain

Really the only thing you need to know about this Regency #girlboss book is that at the very end of the book, which made almost no pretenses to historical accuracy wrt attitudes about gender roles, the main narrative tension is the love interest’s plans to go off with the East India Company to make his fortune. The other characters have no moral qualms about this; it’s proposed with the same air that a modern book would talk about someone going to college across the country. It made me feel completely insane. 

Escape Velocity - Victor Manibo

You know when you read a book and you say wow, I can’t wait to watch this as a Netflix special, but boy was it not very good as a book? That. Also I really wish we had spent more than about two scenes with the servants on the space hotel, so that I could care about them as people and not as plot devices!

Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia - Emily Hilliard

Engaging stories of modern West Virginia.

Belonging: A Culture of Place - bell hooks

The writing on exile in this did make me cry while I was eating lunch.

AUG

Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People - Erica Adams Locklear

More historical than I expected but solid writing on how perception of food affects perception of people.

What You Are Looking For is in the Library - Michiko Aoyama

I really didn’t expect this to get me but I am not immune to lovely, small-scale stories of people being kind to one another in community. Teared up on desk. 

SEPT

Watercolor Is for Everyone: Simple Lessons to Make Your Creative Practice a Daily Habit - Kateri Ewing

This was for a class and everyone liked the class! 

Hot Summer - Elle Everhart

I am so hit or miss on contemporary romance. This was a messy, delightful reality show romp. Light on drama, but the robust character relationships are the star of the show.

Loving Mountains, Loving Men - Jeff Mann

The poems here are generally better than the prose, which gets a bit repetitive at times. The poems are also generally very good, and a few of them made me cry. 

Second Night Stand - Karelia and Fay Stetz-Waters

I wish I had known going in that the authors were a married couple looking to tell “a story about a healthy queer romance.” All love to them, but I am simply not very interested in reading a story that bills itself that way! And as you might imagine there was a lot of therapy speak and very little narrative tension. Sex scenes were great, though, and if you want a very queer comfort read you might enjoy this. 

You Should Be So Lucky - Cat Sebastian

Very chewy character relationships. Sebastian manages to tell a story that feels of its time (1950s sports/journalism) while not being deeply bleak, which is a balance that many many queer historical romances completely bomb.

Lady Eve's Last Con - Rebecca Fraimow

Delightful lesbian screwball comedy. In space! 

OCT

Slippery Creatures - KJ Charles

The Sugared Game - KJ Charles

Subtle Blood - KJ Charles

Imagine if Lord Peter Wimsey had a passionate love affair with a gruff and tortured soldier recently back from WWI. That’s basically these books and I inhaled them. Shout out to detectorist for the rec!

The No-Show - Beth O’Leary 🎧

About 60% of the way through this book, I said, oh man, I hope that the twist to this book isn’t [redacted]. That would make me so mad. Well, it was, and it did! 

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words - Eddie Robson 🎧

Scratched the itch for sci-fi mystery, and the premise is fantastic. The narrator does a mostly excellent job but her American accents are distractingly bad, so if that will bother you read the book.

Deviant Hollers: Queering Appalachian Ecologies for a Sustainable Future edited - Zane McNeill and Rebecca Scott

Most of the essays in this are great! Every so often I get in my head about whether I can claim an Appalachian or Southern identity and whether I should do any writing on the subject. And then I read an essay that makes a lot of claims about “I centralize queer, trans, rural southern voices” and then does not proceed to actually demonstrate how they are doing any of that work, and go oh wait I’m actually fine. 

NOV

Better the Blood - Michael Bennett 🎧

A pretty solid thriller elevated by a very solid conceit: a Maori detective is investigating modern-day killings connected to a 19th century execution of a Maori chief by a group of British soldiers. This suffered a little from being written by a screenwriter who very clearly had certain shots in mind while writing (sometimes that works in prose, sometimes it doesn’t) and also from periodic intercut scenes from the killer’s POV (also a convention that works better in TV) which did undercut whodunit tension. Also the main character is a cop. But I ended up finding her sympathetic, which is a HUGE ask given the subject matter. 

The Stars Too Fondly - Emily Hamilton 🎧

Hated this. I tried to be measured in my initial review but every single part of this book was simply so bad. I wish I had those 11 hours of my life back. If this author is your friend I apologize, and also I hope she didn’t base a character on you, because every character in this book acts like a 15yo.  

Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy edited by Meredith McCarroll & Anthony Harkins

I worked my way through my own booklist this fall and this was one of the best books on it. I kept trying to put it on display at the library but our copy was checked out the entire time. Give this to your uncle who won’t shut up about Ohio. 

The Pairing - Casey McQuiston 🎧

First half of this was way more compelling than I expected it to be, and then McQuiston makes the WILD choice to switch POVs entirely and permanently halfway through the book. And I found the second character pretentious and given to fits of purple prose (he describes the first character as a “superbloom” at one point and also won’t shut up about the most art history 101 pieces of art) so I did not particularly enjoy the book as a whole. I will give it points though for having a pretty non-cringey “hi i’m actually nonbinary” conversation, which is astonishingly rare.

Jonny Appleseed - Joshua Whitehead

This was initially a book club pick for a meeting that didn’t end up happening, which is a bummer because I would like to talk about this book with more people! A lot of lines in this are going to stick with me-- Whitehead shifts through time and place with deftness and grace. If you like K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary I think you will enjoy this-- Whitehead revels in the body in a similar way.  

I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition - Lucy Sante 🎧

If you’re not already a little familiar with the NYC art scene in the 70s and 80s you may not enjoy this, because Sante name-drops a lot. I am, and I loved it-- it’s a lovely meditation on growing old and hitting your breaking point. Sante is also a fantastic writer, and this is an excellent counterbalance to the particular type of trans writing that is very very common online. (Nothing wrong with that writing, but you need a balanced diet.)

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society - CM Waggoner

I loved Waggoner’s previous books and I did end up enjoying this one a lot! It’s an enjoyable send-up of the cozy mystery genre.

Regarding the Pain of Others - Susan Sontag

A reread for my yaoi zine piece! Not only does this still hit but I think it’s a particularly apt piece of writing to be reading right now, when we are daily surrounded - images of suffering. Sontag, as ever, does not have any neat answers for us, but she does make you think more deeply about the world that surrounds you.

DEC

How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom - Johanna Hedva 🎧

I loved parts of this, and I hated other parts, which for me is a good sign about a book of theory. I have more thoughts about disability activism and being online that don’t fit into a quick write-up for a book. 

Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia - Stephen Stoll

This took me six months to read, but mostly because I was reading it occasionally on desk and I kept having to return the ebook. It demands a little bit more sustained attention than I was giving it! It’s an excellent overview of the history of land use in Appalachia through the 1930s and it gave me a lot of good context for the mountains I grew up under. 

The Forbidden Book - Sacha Lamb 🎧

Unfortunately, I think I would have liked this a lot more if I hadn’t read When The Angels Left the Old Country first! It’s a perfectly nice YA story-- but it definitely feels YA, and I don’t tend to enjoy reading a lot of YA.

Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am - Julia Cooke 🎧

I still don’t really know how I feel about this book. It does avoid some of the pitfalls of #girlboss nonfiction, but also it falls right into others. Mostly I wish it had engaged really at all with the people these women met on their travels, or like. Literally anyone Vietnamese. 

Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation - Eli Clare

Oof ouch my bones!!! This hits on a lot and does it with incredible grace.

To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis🎧

I wish my grandma was still alive so I could recommend this to her, because she would have adored it. Delightful time travel Victoriana. 

The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates 🎧

I really admire the move of making the entire second half of your highly anticipated book about the injustices you saw in Palestine, and I hope it pays off and every NPR listener who loved Between the World and Me picks this up and reads to the end. 

Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin

This book reads like a 200-page panic attack, which is not a diss! Really revels in the situational hilarity of anxiety/OCD/something unspecified.

Rules for Ghosting by Shelly Jay Shore

Okay I had to add this one in because I finished it after making my post. This book (contemporary queer Jewish romance with a bit of the supernatural) was so lovely and deeply felt and often laugh out loud funny. The family relationships are the real star although the romance is also very sweet.

[banji-effect]

...Practitioners of Palestinian embroidery, mostly in women’s collectives, are keeping the tradition alive, preserving old stitch techniques along with Palestinian history. The thobe is one of the most important and recognizable symbols of Palestinian identity as well as a link to a deeply contested land. Women’s tradition of embroidering their own thobes became widespread across the Middle East starting in the ninth century, said Hanan Munayyer, a Palestinian American who wrote the book “Traditional Palestinian Costume: Origins and Evolution.”

...As the handicraft evolves, its practitioners see it in the context of history. “This is not the old heritage,” [Halima Fareed, member of the Surif Women’s Cooperative] said as she sewed the edges of a multicolored pillowcase. “It is our heritage, but it has been modernized.” The director of the cooperative, Taghrid Hudoosh, 55, nodded. “We are a continuation of our heritage,” she said.

[thehaberdasheress]

This week we did the first two live markets of the year!

To be honest, the net profit was -$10 at one and positive $55 at another, but while I wish they made more, I don't just do these for the money.

It was great and chaotic and a huge learning experience, figuring out how to visually present all our products and demonstrate them to people.

Every market, I get more information on what works and what doesn't. Last week I spent time in the woodshop making different display elements, like a turntable to put all my embroidery patterns on, and now I've learned I need to change one of the base plates to make it turn smoothly. The signs and packaging that I made were way too small for people to easily make out from a normal standing distance—I'm way too used to working with photography that captures all the details, not thinking about how it gets viewed from 20 feet back.

Also, I'm working on building up stock of sewing supplies! In three categories:

Premade tools, unadulterated (buttonhole gauges, thimbles, scissors, etc)

Convenient package sizes I've made of tools and materials (thread wax buttons, bobbins of thread made from natural fibers and/or dyed using pre-modern techniques, sewing kits, etc)

Custom kits for common projects, like an embroidered belt purse or a blackworked renaissance shirt, with materials and detailed step-by-step instructions

When will any of these be up on Etsy? I wish I could tell you. My bank gave me a wee bit of funding so I could afford to hire a part-time online marketing assistant, but unfortunately she's been having some health issues lately. Hopefully she gets better soon, but until then, I can't give you an ETA.

[travelingthief]

Lady Athena Devotional Post

Learn About:

Literally anything. Dedicate your learning, school or otherwise to Her. 

Owls

Ancient Greece/the Ancient World

Battle strategies

Wars and how they were won

What led to wars being lost

Traditional epithets for Her/other gods

Her Roman counterpart, Minerva (and other goddesses she is associated with) 

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Politics

Democracy in Ancient Greece

Armor and weapons, traditional or modern

Crafts

Sewing

Weaving

Embroidery

Cross stitch

Knitting

Crocheting

Pottery

Catch and release spiders in your home

Wisdom

Reading

Learn a new skill

Studying (for school or personal studies)

Thinking before taking action

Plan out your day/keep a planner

Play chess

Tutor someone/get tutoring for areas you need help in

Watch TEDtalks/listen to educational podcasts

Meditate and journal

Learn new vocab words

Make your notes pretty

Learn study techniques

Take appropriate study breaks

Do projects for Her 

Challenge yourself

Learn grounding techniques

Do your homework

Give up things that are unhealthy for your brain (like smoking cannabis, drinking, etc.)

Strategic War

Work out

Take a self-defense course

Learn basic first aid

Go to protests/advocate

Play strategy war games

Take care of your body 

              Offerings

Owl stuffed animals/art/figurines/other imagery

Owl pellets

Owl decoys for gardens

Olives

Work out clothes/gear

Fidget toys for when you’re working

Brain imagery

Spider imagery

Crafts you have made

Certificates/degrees/awards for achievements

Strategy games

Favorite books/books on mythos or Greece

Knitting/crocheting/crafting materials

Needles

Your glasses

Coffee/tea

Nice pens/pencils

Journals/notebooks

Voting stickers/cards

Spears/swords/daggers/helmets

Protest signs

[themakeupbrush]

Miss Universe Norway 2023 National Costume

A tribute to Her Majesty Queen Sonja of Norway, who has an interest in quality, sewing, reuse and craftsmanship. The Queen studied dressmaking and tailoring, and is known as 'Queen of reuse' - an honorary title given to her long before the circular economy became part of the Norwegian vernacular. This elaborate regal version of the Norwegian 'Bunad' features; the Norwegian national emblem depicting a golden lion, bearing a golden crown & axe representing the Kingdom; the iconic & traditional form of decorative Norwegian needlework hardangersom (Hardanger embroidery), made in modern techniques with up-cycled materials; And the Norwegian national tricolour of red, white & blue, three colours that denote freedom.

[beyourselfchulanmaria]

(Chinese speaking, with english subtitle)

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗ 很愛 #蘇繡 #fineartcraft #suembroidery #中國非物質文化遺產 #文化藝術傳承 #design #簡針繡

👍結合創新改造，保留傳統技藝。💎 Thanks 🙏

Su embroidery, a craftsmanship on China's list of intangible cultural heritage, has a history of more than 2,000 years. This traditional art form is characterized by its intricate needlework, vibrant colors, and elaborate designs. Blending Chinese tradition with modern fashion, luxury brand Dior has collaborated with Chinese artisans to incorporate Su embroidery completed by the dazi, or seed, stitching technique into its menswear collection. Check out the documentary Revival of Ancient Arts.

[gothgleek]

Migration 23

‘Migration’ co-designed with Deerah, is a collection made to reflect the state of a displaced Palestinian. A fusion of tradition and innovation. Using old and familiar techniques to create relevant and modern piece, a practice our ancestors used to create their traditional clothing. Unlike what is known about Palestinian embroidery, the women were designers creating and learning new techniques constantly. This skill was later harnessed by the women forced into exile and exposed to different fashion trends suddenly. This is the story of a woman creating in her new environment with the skills of her elders. A rebellious union of old and new.

The collection is designed by Meera Albaba and Sara Jayyusi, Palestinian business owners and entrepreneurs.

[reyaint]

culture of HAIQIN | fashion and jewelry

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date: november 10, 2024

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The Fashion of Haiqin

Fashion

Fashion and Aesthetics:

Haiqin's fashion culture is deeply rooted in the natural world and the balance between tradition and modernity. The country's fashion scene reflects a fusion of aesthetic choices that combine the elegance of its diverse provinces with the functionality needed for daily life. The use of natural fibers, organic dyes, and handcrafted techniques is central to the Haiqin way of dressing, which emphasizes individuality, personal expression, and a deep connection to nature.

General Fashion Trends:

The national fashion landscape in Haiqin is characterized by vibrant colors and soft textures. Traditional elements, such as flowing robes and embroidered accessories, blend seamlessly with contemporary cuts and styles. This creates a style that feels both timeless and modern. Natural dyes and locally sourced fabrics, such as cotton, silk, and wool, are commonly used. Handmade garments showcase intricate patterns and motifs often inspired by nature, from plants to animals, representing the nation's reverence for the goddess Nera, the deity of nature and life.

Fashion is characterized by vibrant colors and soft, comfortable designs. Many garments incorporate natural dyes sourced from plants and minerals, reflecting Haiqin’s deep connection to the earth. Loose, flowing fabrics are common, with a focus on ease of movement and breathability, making them suitable for both formal and informal settings. There is also a trend towards minimalist, clean designs, especially in urban centers, where modern styles meet traditional sensibilities.

Jewelry:

In Haiqin, jewelry is not just an accessory but a vital part of self-expression. People across all social classes adorn themselves with handmade pieces that tell stories of their heritage, social status, and connection to nature. Traditional designs often incorporate symbols of the local fauna, flora, and spiritual beliefs. Popular materials include silver, gold, gemstones, and materials sourced from the local environment, such as shells, wood, and bone. Jewelry is worn for both aesthetic purposes and as a spiritual offering to Nera, symbolizing one’s bond with the land and nature.

Cultural Significance of Accessories:

Accessories are deeply meaningful in Haiqin's culture. Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and rings are not only ornamental but also carry cultural and spiritual significance. Each region has its own style, with some using charms and amulets for protection or blessings. For example, in Nirin, desert-inspired jewelry with motifs like lions, bones and scorpions is common, while in Stellis, cutting-edge designs represent technological advancements.

Showy Clothing vs. Modesty:

In Haiqin, there is a clear divide between younger generations' embrace of more extravagant and showy clothing and the older generations' preference for modesty. Among those aged 16 and older, especially in urban centers like Stellis, fashion often includes dramatic, eye-catching pieces that make bold statements. Bright, showy attire is embraced by the younger population (16+), blending traditional styles with contemporary influences. While vibrant, clothing remains modest, often featuring delicate layers and tailored structures that blend modern cuts with historical elements. However, for younger individuals, modesty is still an important value, especially during ceremonies or traditional festivals.

Traditional Clothing for Festivals:

Festivals in Haiqin are a celebration of the nation’s rich heritage and the natural world. The traditional clothing worn during festivals is often elaborate, featuring flowing fabrics adorned with detailed embroidery or prints representing plants, animals, and natural phenomena. These garments are designed to be visually stunning while maintaining respect for cultural customs. In some provinces, modesty is observed in the attire of younger individuals, though many outfits feature bold patterns or colors, reflecting the vibrancy of the festival itself. Jewelry, often made from gold, silver, and precious stones, is worn with great pride during these times.

Military Attire:

Haiqin’s military attire reflects its deep connection to the natural world, with uniforms incorporating animal motifs such as claws or talons, representing strength and power. These designs, rooted in the nation's historical warrior culture, are maintained even in the modern era, where soldiers still wear uniforms that blend traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology. This sense of unity between the ancient and modern is also reflected in the weapons and tools used by the military, which draw inspiration from the natural elements of Haiqin’s landscape.

Fashion in each Province

Fashion Styles

Stellis: 

As the capital, Stellis is the hub of contemporary fashion, where high-tech, innovative designs are the norm. Urban wear is often trendy, with a heavy influence from the tech and finance industries. Neon colors, metallics, and sleek, minimalist designs are popular, especially among the younger population. Fashion shows are common here, with designers showcasing the fusion of modern aesthetics and traditional craftsmanship, such as clothing adorned with subtle patterns of native plants or animals. People often wear clothing with smart fabric technology, blending style with function.

Eldariaz: 

Eldariaz is home to the royal family, and its fashion reflects the province’s rich, aristocratic heritage. Elegant, opulent attire is common, featuring long, flowing gowns for women and tailored suits for men. Clothing is often made from luxurious silks and velvets, with intricate embroidery and beadwork showcasing the region's craftsmanship. During festivals, these elaborate outfits are paired with opulent jewelry, often featuring gemstones that reflect the province's royal history.

Nirin: 

Nirin’s desert climate necessitates practical, lightweight clothing made from breathable fabrics. Tunics and skirts for women are common, often adorned with animal motifs in the embroidery. Jewelry in Nirin is simple yet striking, often featuring designs inspired by the local fauna, such as scorpions, lizards, and desert flowers. And animals too like the waterlight golden butterfly, lions, and foxes. The people of Nirin value functionality and their clothing is designed to keep them cool in the hot, arid climate while reflecting their deep connection to nature. Usually, very colorful, short tops and long skirts are in style.

Those living in waterlight city and other smaller cities within the canyon, they have more showy and contemporary as the climate is better. 

Sandals or shoes are similar to claws but not sharp on the bottom, based on older weapons.

from WLOP's ghostblade (aeolian and lylian)

Primos: 

Known for its rugged mountain terrain, Primos’ fashion is built around functionality and durability. Adventure-ready clothing such as hiking gear, durable boots, and outdoor accessories is popular. The colors are often bright and vibrant, reflecting the natural beauty of the mountains. Wool, furs, and thick fabrics are used to keep people warm during the colder months, while outdoor festivals celebrate the region’s spirit of exploration, with people dressing in practical yet stylish gear suitable for climbing or trekking.

Mian: 

Mian blends ancient traditions with modern life, with clothing reflecting this duality. Loose-fitting garments that emphasize comfort and ease are common, and many fabrics feature ancient patterns and motifs. Mian’s fashion draws heavily from the province's ruins and historical landmarks, with clothing designs inspired by the classical art and architecture that once flourished here. During festivals, people wear clothes that evoke nostalgia for Mian’s ancient history, adorned with delicate jewelry featuring geometric patterns and symbols of the past.

Valero: 

Valero’s coastal environment influences its fashion, with a focus on nautical-inspired attire. Light, breathable dresses, buttoned shirts, and coastal accessories like wide-brimmed hats and sunglasses are commonly worn. Bright colors and floral patterns are favored, reflecting the province's sunny and warm climate. Festivals here celebrate the sea, with people dressing in garments made from lightweight fabrics to ensure comfort during the humid, saltwater-laden air.

Naidya: 

The tropical island atmosphere of Naidya promotes vibrant, flowy resort wear. Bright colors, floral patterns, and lightweight fabrics dominate the clothing choices here, often designed with ease and relaxation in mind. Swimwear is a significant part of the fashion culture due to the province’s proximity to the ocean. At festivals, people wear brightly colored sarongs and dresses, many adorned with tropical prints that celebrate the island’s rich biodiversity.

Agrios: 

Known for its industrial landscape, Agrios has a fashion culture that mixes urban chic with practical functionality. Darker colors such as black, grey, and navy are common, reflecting the industrial atmosphere. Clothing often incorporates metallic elements, such as buckles or studs, and leather accents. Despite the industrial tone, there is a growing movement of artists in Agrios who are blending eco-conscious, stylish designs with the urban aesthetic.

Dridells: 

Fashion in Dridells emphasizes sustainability and eco-conscious choices. Natural fabrics, organic dyes, and green designs are popular, reflecting the region’s commitment to environmental preservation. People wear clothing made from hemp, cotton, and other renewable resources, and jewelry often represents local wildlife or plant life. During festivals, attendees wear nature-inspired garments, with designers showcasing their innovative eco-friendly creations.

Luminiaz: 

Luminiaz’s lush ecosystems influence its fashion culture, where earth tones and nature-inspired designs are the norm. Clothing is made from organic materials such as bamboo, hemp, and organic cotton. Bright green, vibrant floral prints, and shades of blue reflect the province’s emphasis on biodiversity. Sustainable fashion practices are encouraged, and many people in Luminiaz wear handmade, environmentally conscious accessories such as beaded necklaces and handwoven bags during festivals.

Influences

Stellis: Cutting-edge trends and high-tech fabrics.

Eldariaz: Royal influences, opulent fabrics, and intricate designs.

Nirin: Desert practicality, lightweight materials, and fauna-inspired designs. Those living in the canyon have more trendy style

Primos: Adventure-wear, rugged designs, bright colors, and outdoor festivals.

Mian: Comfort, loose-fitting garments, and historical patterns.

Valero: Nautical influences, coastal light fabrics, and bright patterns.

Naidya: Vibrant, tropical resort wear with a focus on beach fashion.

Agrios: Industrial chic, urban functionality, and growing eco-awareness.

Dridells: Eco-friendly, sustainable fashion focused on nature.

Luminiaz: Nature-inspired designs, earth tones, and sustainability.

Tattoos and Piercings

Cultural Significance

Symbolism and Tradition:

In Haiqin, tattoos and piercings carry meanings that connect individuals to their heritage, local deities, and the natural world. Symbolic tattoos often feature animals, plants, and celestial bodies, tying the wearer to their land, community, or personal beliefs. It is common to see tattoos representing native flora and fauna, rivers, and even seasonal cycles, which are believed to grant strength, luck, or wisdom to the bearer.

Some tattoos are purely artistic, allowing individuals to showcase their unique identities, while others represent specific cultural or familial ties. Tattoos associated with the main religions often include symbols of protection, blessings, or homage to deities, serving as reminders of faith and devotion.

Rites of Passage:

Many tattoos and piercings in Haiqin are obtained during important life events, marking transitions such as reaching adulthood, marriage, childbirth, or personal milestones. Coming-of-age tattoos are particularly common; young adults receive their first tattoo to symbolize maturity and responsibility within their community. These designs are typically small and located on visible parts of the body, such as the wrist or shoulder, to honor their significance openly.

Similarly, marriage tattoos are common, with couples choosing matching designs or complementary symbols to represent their bond. Certain regions even practice generational tattoos, where family members share specific patterns, each generation adding to the family motif as a symbol of unity and continuity.

Artisans and Community Respect:

Tattoo and piercing artisans hold esteemed positions within Haiqin society, particularly in regions with longstanding traditions of body art. Becoming an artisan is often an intergenerational craft, with skills, techniques, and specific styles passed down through families. These artisans undergo years of training, and their work is viewed as a collaborative art form, as they work closely with clients to create designs that are both meaningful and aesthetically unique. Artisans are celebrated not just for their skill but for their deep knowledge of cultural symbols and the ability to bring a person’s story or beliefs to life through their art.

Religious and Spiritual Elements:

For followers of the main religions in Haiqin, tattoos and piercings often hold spiritual significance. Symbols associated with deities, sacred animals, or elements like the sun and moon are commonly tattooed as acts of devotion, protection, or blessing. Some communities believe these tattoos connect the wearer to divine energies or serve as a form of spiritual armor, warding off negative influences.

Many followers also have symbolic piercings, such as earrings or nose rings, representing their connection to specific deities or as tributes during religious festivals. These religious piercings are often adorned with stones or designs believed to hold protective or purifying qualities, such as turquoise, amethyst, or symbols related to water or fire.

Modern and Artistic Tattoos:

With the rise of popular culture, Haiqin has also embraced modern tattoo trends, such as minimalist designs, geometric patterns, and even tattoo styles influenced by global trends. Many younger generations experiment with these styles, blending traditional symbolism with modern art to create pieces that are both culturally meaningful and personally expressive.

Community and Celebratory Tattoos:

Festivals often feature tattooing events where people come together to receive or renew tattoos as a sign of unity. During these events, individuals might get matching tattoos with friends or family to commemorate the occasion. Additionally, new designs inspired by festival themes are crafted each year, adding to the evolving artistic expressions in Haiqin’s tattoo culture.

Regional Styles

Stellis

Stellis is known for its fusion styles, combining modern tattoo trends with traditional Haiqin designs. Popular styles include intricate geometric patterns and minimalist animal motifs. Piercings are often elaborate, with multi-stone jewelry and custom-made pieces that blend modern fashion with cultural motifs, including depictions of birds or flowers unique to Stellis.

Eldariaz

The body art in Eldariaz is distinguished by its use of vibrant colors and tropical themes, often showcasing lush plants, exotic animals, and sun motifs. Tattoos here are known for their intricacy and symbolic ties to the region’s royal history. Piercings often use tropical gems like coral and aquamarine, symbolizing life and vitality.

Nirin

Nirin’s tattoo culture has strong ties to its rugged landscape, often featuring cactus motifs, canyon-inspired designs, and earthy tones. Tattoos are often large and bold, symbolizing resilience and strength. Floral tattoos inspired by local wildflowers are popular among residents of Waterlight City, who believe these designs bring peace and clarity. Piercings here are minimalist but symbolic, often featuring hammered metal or small stones to represent nature’s raw beauty.

Primos

In Primos, tattoos and piercings reflect the mountainous landscape, incorporating earthy hues and natural textures. Tattoos of mountain ranges, clouds, and animals native to the region are popular, symbolizing courage and endurance. Piercings tend to be rugged, using natural stones and metals, often crafted by local artisans as a testament to the region’s craftsmanship.

Mian

Mian’s tattoo culture focuses on symbolism and simplicity, with designs that often feature circles, cycles, or connected shapes to symbolize community and unity. Tattoos here are usually located on the hands or arms as symbols of togetherness. Piercings are understated but elegant, with many people wearing jewelry inspired by leaves, branches, and river motifs, often passed down through families as heirlooms.

Valero

In coastal Valero, tattoos often represent the ocean, waves, and marine life. Many residents have tattoos of fish, shells, or sea birds, believed to bring good fortune and protection on the water. Piercings feature pearls and oceanic colors, often in the shape of fish or shells, adding a touch of the sea to personal adornment.

Naidya

Tattoos in Naidya are vibrant and tropical, inspired by the island’s lush environment. Floral patterns, fruits, and sea creatures are popular, representing growth and harmony with nature. Piercings often include sea glass and natural materials, emphasizing sustainability, with many choosing designs that resemble native flowers or fish as a tribute to the region’s ecology.

Agrios

Agrios, with its industrial roots, favors bold and rugged tattoo designs. Common motifs include industrial-inspired patterns, animals symbolizing strength, and family insignias. Piercings are edgy, with many favoring silver and metalwork, adding a modern, urban twist while paying homage to traditional styles.

Dridells

In Dridells, body art focuses on river life and the flora around it. Tattoos often depict fish, river plants, and patterns that resemble flowing water, symbolizing fluidity and adaptability. Piercings incorporate freshwater pearls and green stones, often in wave or leaf shapes, blending tradition with urban influences.

Luminiaz

Luminiaz’s tattoos focus on sustainability, with many residents opting for plant-based ink. Common motifs include wild herbs, mountains, and the moon, symbolizing balance and mindfulness. Piercings here are simple and eco-friendly, using recycled materials or sustainably sourced stones to reflect the region’s respect for nature.

Piercing Styles and Symbolism

Piercings and Jewelry:

Piercings are equally significant, often seen as an extension of one’s personal or spiritual identity. Jewelry styles vary by region but commonly feature gems, metals, and designs inspired by nature. Piercings are often adorned with charms representing animals or symbols associated with protection, wisdom, or resilience.

Gems and Jewelry:

Jewelry worn in piercings frequently includes precious stones or metals, believed to carry protective or spiritual properties. Amethysts, sapphires, and moonstones are popular choices, each believed to channel different energies, such as peace, wisdom, or courage.

Animal Representations:

Animal motifs are a common feature in jewelry. Many people wear charms shaped like animals that are symbolic to their family or region, such as birds for freedom, serpents for wisdom, or fish for adaptability.

Cultural and Modern Influences:

While piercings often retain cultural meanings, there are also trends inspired by global fashion. Younger generations in urban areas may mix traditional jewelry with modern piercings, combining symbols of nature with current designs for a personalized, hybrid aesthetic.

Personalization:

Piercings in Haiqin are highly personalized and rich in symbolism. Common motifs include animals, plants, and celestial bodies, often set in delicate gold or silver settings with precious gems. Animal-shaped jewelry, representing totemic animals of a region, is particularly popular, as is jewelry inspired by the natural elements, such as raindrop earrings or leaf-shaped nose rings.

Body Piercings:

Belly button piercings or piercings along the collarbones or ribs can hold personal or spiritual significance. Some individuals even opt for piercings along their arms or legs as a form of protection or to symbolize their connection to the earth.

Earrings and Ear Piercings:

Earrings, often made from gold or silver and embedded with stones like amethyst, turquoise, or onyx, are extremely popular. These piercings might symbolize wisdom, strength, or prosperity, depending on the stone.

Facial Piercings:

Nose piercings, eyebrow piercings, and lip piercings are common in both traditional and modern settings, often featuring small, gleaming gems that catch the light.

Beliefs:

For those following traditional beliefs, each piercing may carry specific spiritual or personal significance. For instance, some piercings represent a protective spirit animal, while others are believed to enhance qualities like wisdom, strength, or compassion.

[intermittentstitcher]

List of Online Embroidery/ Sewing / Needlework Resources

Hello my name is Cleo and this is my masterpost full of resources and information that will help you in your stitching journey.

Taglist Form

Invite link to my community Fibre Artists on Tumblr

My Tags

Intermittent Stitcher Recommends

I don’t go here but I wanted to pass it on

Intermittent Stitcher Thoughts

Intermittent Stitcher Opinions

Intermittent Stitcher Poll

I love myself a beautiful gradient

Intermittent Stitcher PSA

Intermittent Stitcher FO’S

Intermittent Stitcher Tips

Cats of Craftblr

Personal Project Poll

My Perchance Generators

Random Things to Stitch

Needle Type generator

Random Textile Craft and Technique generator

Random Thread Colour Generator - DMC .

Random Thread Colour Generator - DMC Colour Variations

Embroidery Website randomiser

Embroidery Hoop Size randomiser - in inches

Embroidery pattern Design Prompts

Random Embroidery stitch Generator

Aida Fabric Count generator

Embroidery Styles

Embroidery Project Generator

Other resources that I have made

My Goodreads book recs

Needle Organisation System

Embroidery Organisation Bingo Card

My Embroidery Pinterest board

Songs to Stitch To - my Spotify playlist for when I’m crafting

Orchestral Crafting Music - for when you really want to focus on your projects.

Crafting Acronyms - a list of acronyms used in the crafting community.

Videos to embroider to - videos that I like to put on in the background whilst I’m stitching.

Other Resources that I have found

Threadcolors.com - colour matching for DMC threads

Thread - Bare Stitching - tools and calculators

Flossmaxx - colour conversion for major floss brands

Needle N’ Thread - blog with useful tricks and tips.

Royal School of Needlework Stitchbank - has a wide variety of modern and historical stitches.

Sarah’s hand Embroidery Tutorials - a visual dictionary of embroidery stitches

StitchLifeStudio - an Etsy store that sells custom frames for embroidery hoops

Colour Scheme - good for helping you to select fabric/ thread colour palettes for your projects.

Color Designer - a website that has a wide variety of tools that can help you develop colour palettes for your projects.

List of colours ( alphabetical)

List of colours by shade

List of Crayola crayon colors

The symbolism of flowers

Sew What Podcast - A podcast where the host Isabella Rosner talks about historical embroidery and interviews a wide range of guests

Sarah Homfray Embroidery - YouTube channel

Antique Pattern Library

Bernadette Banner - Historical recreation YouTube channel

Sewstine - a historical recreation YouTuber that specialises in machine embroidery

Danielle Clough - A South African embroidery artist who produces beautiful pieces with bright colours. I have linked her Instagram.

Quilter’s Paradise - free online quilting calculators

ImageColorPicker - allows you to pick colours from photos

Loose Ends Project - This allows crafters to sign up to finish the craft projects of those who have passed away or have become disabled.

DMC - A well known embroidery supply brand. They produce high quality stranded cotton as well as a litany of kits and free patterns.

The DMC Youtube channel- has lots of tutorials and information. 

Sylko thread colour inventory list - for those who have inherited their grandmother’s thread stash

Omni calculator - allows you to convert various lengths

Thread colour palette generator - allows you to generate colour palettes to use in your projects

Stitchpoint - allows you to write phrases in 7 different cross stitch fonts

FlossCross - a free online cross stitch pattern maker

Hours Tracker - the app I use to keep track of the hours I spend stitching

r/Embroidery - the embroidery subreddit is a really good source of information, encouragement and inspiration

r/CrossStitch - the cross stitch subreddit is a really good source of information, encouragement and inspiration

Code Crafters Quilt Generator - allows you to generate a random quilt design

Freebloss - a Amazon store that produces kits for many crafts including embroidery and they are affordable and high quality

prettycolors - a Tumblr blog that posts random colours along with the hex code and this can be a helpful resource for fibrecrafters when they are trying to pick a colour for their project(s).

colour-palettes - a blog that posts user submitted colour palettes and I think that this blog can also be used as inspiration for fibrecrafters when selecting colours to use in their project(s).

Swatches - this app allows you to swatch colours from photos as well as being able to swatch colours in real time.

John James Needle Guide - a guide to different types of needle and their uses.

Cable Patterns - allows you to make your own cable patterns for knitting

RSN collection and archive- photographs of objects in the Royal School of needle work collection. The first 100 objects have just been digitised and put online.

Hand exercises for knitters- these can also be used by other crafters in general

Things that I suggest you buy

I have not received anything in exchange for recommending these products

A colour wheel - this will enable you to choose the best colours for your projects

Multicoloured cases - this box filled with multicoloured cases will help you to organise your threads ant to easily take them on the go.

Plastic embroidery hoops- I find that plastic hoops are able to maintain tension and keep your projects drum tight.

Embroidery Floss Organisers- these help you to keep all of the various colours that you are using in your projects in one convenient place.

Pellon Stick-N-Washaway Embroidery Stabilizer - allows you to trace or print out your design and stick it onto your fabric, stitch over it and then wash it off once you’re done.