#victoria finlay's fabric

[deflare]

I expect I won't finish another book before the end of 2024, so here's my 2024 Reading Wrapped! I finished 26 books out of 31 I started this year.

Two of the books I started, I still intend to finish, but I got distracted by other things. "On War" was a dense bastard of a book, and I read the parts that I care about (and more). "In These Times" (a book on Britain during the wars of the French Revolution/Napoleon) was good, and hopefully I'll finish it at some point when I have a moment free; I was on a time limit when reading it, so I stopped after I got to the date I cared about.

My favorite fiction book was "Mammoths at the Gates". Nghi Vo's Singing Hills Cycle is generally really good, and Mammoths is one of the strongest in the series. I also liked "Uprooted", "Carrie", and "The Shining" (don't worry about why I had a sudden surge of Stephen King books in August).

My favorite nonfiction book was "Fabric", a history of textiles. The history of the materials it addresses is inherently interesting, but the book is also surprisingly emotional; the author started it just after the death of her parents, and the historical 'narrative' is interwoven (heh) with the story of how she processed those deaths over the subsequent years. Other shoutouts to "The Dawn of Everything" and "Entangled Life", which are both fascinating reads, and "The Reagan Years", which helps lay out just how infuriatingly shitty the Reagan administration was.

My favorite game book was "Fabula Ultima", an RPG dedicated to emulating the feel of a JRPG in tabletop format. The art is charming and I really want to play it at some point.

The next book in my queue is Kazuo Ishiguro's "The Buried Giant", which seems to be a... magical-realist historical fiction Arthuriana set in Britain's dark age? I dunno, I'm interested.

[jojotier]

Reading Fabric: the Hidden History of the Material World and genuinely I'm surprised by how candid the author is when interacting with indigenous cultures. Just from the cover I was sort of expecting it to be a little eurocentric but no, so far she's taken great pains to not only look to indigenous artists first but to secure permissions from Maisin tribal elders and describing the tactile and sensual parts of clothmaking. It's genuinely really nice, especially since she's also weaving in her own story in the background about processing the trauma of her parents dying, which she could easily make the book about herself but she Doesn't. She focuses on. The cloth. And what it means to the people who make it

[sleepnoises]

book ask book ask book ask!! 2, 3, 17?

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Piranesi before my friend's wedding where the registry was just "your favorite book." I was waffling between Piranesi and The Last Samurai and then at the rehearsal dinner they had fun facts including their favorite books are The Golden Compass and Wicked and i was like. you nerds are getting Piranesi. Also reread Unraveller, a bunch of Robert Jackson Bennett, a smattering of Tamora Pierce, Jeff Smith's Bone in an airbnb. Plus my emergency travel ebooks (Greta & Valdin, blake crouch's Recursion). Rereads increased as the year went on!

3. What were your top five books of the year?

ohhh boy let's say (in no real order)

Fabric by Victoria Finlay

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt

misc Harriet Lerners

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

I liked how much Exordia committed to consequences spiraling downward. No outs! The sequel to the Dawnhounds also got fascinatingly weird and ambitious. I was also genuinely surprised by the bits of the lord of the rings I really enjoyed that few of the subsequent works bother with (power is a horrible duty; walking sim).

[aperiodofhistory]

20 books in 2025

I'm so satisfied with the previous reading year. Probably because I have read mostly some of my favorite genres, fantasy, history, and horror. This year I want to tackle the following books, that have sat on my TBR for some time now. But also succumb to my mood reading habits of picking up books that feel right for that time of year.

The library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges

Babel by Rebecca F. Kuang

Legends & Lattes by Baldree Travis

Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World by Victoria Finlay

The Island of missing trees by Elif Shafak

Ways of being by James Bridle

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by various authors

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

Shakespearean: On Life & Language in Times of Disruption by Robert McCrum

Femina by Ramírez Janina

Anything by Ava Reid

The road by Cormac McCarthy

Red rising by Pierce Brown

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Spinning silver by Naomi Novik

Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

More of Jane Austen

The bog wife, by Kay Chronister

Throne of glass series, by Sarah J. Mass

The tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Bronte

[lavenderfables]

2, 9, 17 for the book asks!

2. Did you reread anything? What?

Yes. I love rereading, so there's been a few.

Sense And Sensibility by Jane Austen (Reread twice)

Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

The Red Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Tales From The Five Kingdoms by Vivian French (Whole series of 5 books)

Deerskin by Robin McKinley

Persuasion by Jane Austen

9. Did you get into any new genres?

Alas, nothing much this year. I've been dealing with a lot of fatigue, so I've only been reading what I can muster the energy for. Bless audiobooks; if not for them, I'd have only read maybe 4 or so books this year.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Yes, a few!

Femina by Janina Ramírez (Non-fiction, history, gender)

The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip (Fiction, fantasy)

Wizard's Hall by Jane Yolen (Fiction, fantasy)

Fabric by Victoria Finlay (Non-fiction, history, art)

The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley (Fiction, fantasy)

The Light Eaters by Zoë Schanlger (Non-fiction, nature)

Wolfish by Erica Berry (Non-fiction, nature, gender)

The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle (Fiction, fantasy)

end-of-year book ask

[bitstitchbitch]

I found the fiber art history book I’ve been wanting - “Fabric - The Hidden History of the Material World” by Victoria Finlay. I’ve only read one chapter so far and it’s already fascinating.

[mmagpye]

from Victoria Finlay’s, Fabric

[sempiternal-meridians]

“Over the last decade, I have learned to appreciate the textures and rhythms of the later months of the year. Russet is the color of November in Maine. The color that emerges when all the more spectacular leaves have fallen: the yellow coins of the white birch, the big, hand-shaped crimson leaves of the red maple, the papery pumpkin-hued spears of the beech trees. The oaks are always the last to shed their plumage, and their leaves are the dullest color. They’re the darkest, the closest to brown. But if you pay attention, you’ll see that they’re actually quite pretty. Russet is a subtle color, complicated by undertones of orange and purple. Indeed, according to some color wheel systems, “russet” is the name given to the tertiary color created by mixing those two secondary colors. Its only companions in this category are slate (made from purple and green) and citron (made from green and yellow). Like russet, citron and slate occur often in the natural world. Our Earth is a blue marble if you get far enough away, but from up close, it’s so very brown, so often gray. This may explain why many cultures think of russet and similar dull reds as neutral hues, akin to the monochrome scale of white, black, and the innumerable shades between. True reds, the crimsons and vermilions and scarlets, have historically been associated with fire, blood, and power. In Red: The History of a Color, Michel Pastoureau explains that, for thousands of years, red was “the only true color.” He continues, “as much on the chronological as hierarchical level, it outstripped all others.” In ancient Greece, high priests and priestesses dressed in crimson, as did (they imagined) the gods themselves. In contrast, the dull reds, the brown reds, have been understood as “emblematic of peasantry and impoverishment,” claims Victoria Finlay in An Atlas of Rare & Familiar Colour. Finlay files red ocher among the browns—the ruddy pigment used in the caves of Lascaux—which is perhaps where it belongs. Perhaps that’s where russet belongs, too. […] It seems likely that russet, as a word, is an offshoot of red (Old French rousset from Latin russus, “reddish”). But russet means more than red-like, red-adjacent. Russet also means rustic, homely, rough. It also evokes mottled, textured, coarse. The word describes a quality of being that can affect people as well as vegetables. Apples can be russet, when they have brown patches on their skin. Potatoes famously are russet; their skin often has that strange texture that makes it impossible to tell where the earth ends and the root begins. There are russet birds and russet horses—it’s an earthy word that fits comfortably on many creatures. For Shakespeare, it was a color of poverty and prudence, mourning and morning. In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Biron imagines a life without the finer things, without silks and taffeta, a life of sacrifice undertaken to prove his love. The color of his penance? Russet. “and I here protest, By this white glove;—how white the hand, God knows!— Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express’d In russet yeas and honest kersey noes: And, to begin, wench,—so God help me, la!— My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.” Just a few decades after this was written, in a country not too far away, Peter Paul Rubens was painting with brilliant crimson and shocking vermilion. Rubens was a devout Roman Catholic, a religion that embraced sumptuous fabrics and rich colors. A generation later, another northern painter would rise to prominence: Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. While Catholic Rubens loved shocking reds, rich blues, and even sunny yellows, Protestant Rembrandt painted with a far more restrained palette. Many of his most famous paintings (including his self portraits) are predominantly brown and gray. And when he did use color, Rembrandt very often reached for russet, auburn, fulvous, and tawny. Reds that leaned brown, and browns that leaned red. Sometimes, he brought in a splash of crimson to tell the viewer where they should focus (the vibrant sash in Night Watch, the cloaks in Prodigal Son), and sometimes he let soft, misty yellow light bathe his bucolic landscapes. His work was earthy, imbued with the quiet chill of early November […]” — Katy Kelleher, “Russet, the Color of Peasants, Fox Fur, and Penance” from The Paris Review

[thundercrackfic]

Fabric by Victoria Finlay

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[pastedpast]

I was reading up on birthstones as a possible monthly feature to write about next year when I remembered this book* in my collection. Chapters are: Amber; Jet; Pearl; Opal; Peridot; Emerald; Sapphire; Ruby; Diamond.

Precious and semi-precious stones have been essential decorative components in the art of jewellery-making since ancient times, so people could be forgiven for thinking that the concept of birthstones - i.e. specified gemstones designated to the month of one's birth - has some deeply significant, historical backstory. However, their origin is far more mundane. On page 388 of Victoria Finlay's book, 'Jewels: A Secret History' (pub. 2005), there is a list of birthstones commonly associated with each month of the year. The list was drawn up by the American National Association of Jewellers in 1912 and the stones which appear on it were those that jewellers in America most wanted to sell. The author says: "One of the greatest mysteries about the birthstone system is how widely it was accepted, even if it had no provenance beyond a Missouri boardroom", commenting that even today people throughout the world continue to choose gems according to an arbitrary decision made by businesspeople [over] a century ago.

The twelve stones listed in Finlay's book are: garnet; amethyst; aquamarine; diamond; emerald; pearl or moonstone; ruby; peridot; sapphire; opal or tourmaline; topaz or citrine; turquoise or blue topaz. However, note that this list differs on occasion from the ones offered by George F. Kunz in 'The Curious Lore of Precious Stones', published in 1913 (and referenced on the Wikipedia 'Birthstone' page). Furthermore, Kunz provides two lists, one for 1912, and the other for the period preceding it, beginning in the 15th century.

The reference to Kunz's work includes a discussion about the belief of the first-century Roman-Jewish historian, Josephus, who posited there was a connection between the twelve stones in the breastplate of Aaron, the elder brother of Moses, (which signified the twelve tribes of Israel, as described in the Old Testament's 'Book of Exodus'), the twelve months of the year, and the twelve signs of the zodiac. There are other theories too, regarding apostles and foundation stones, but all are unrelated to the modern list. Like Finlay, author Rupert Gleadow ('The Origin of the Zodiac', 2001) is cited as describing the 1912 list as "nothing but a piece of unfounded salesmanship". Indeed, twenty-five years later the British National Association of Goldsmiths created its own list which is at variance with its antecedents.

Finlay provides, in addition, a list of 'old' and modern wedding anniversary gemstones. She says the 'old list' was drawn up and promoted by American etiquette writer Emily Post, first in 1927 and then revised thirty years later. Post's lists placed diamonds, exquisite, rare stones of high monetary value, to celebrate the longer and therefore more remarkable periods of marriage, i.e., sixty and seventy-five years. At some point, the list was modified by modern jewellers who, unable and unwilling to wait that long to sell a diamond, deftly added it to a newly invented ten-year anniversary in a canny bid to maximise sales.

*The book was published the following year under a different title: 'Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box'. I think I've mentioned her first book 'Colour: Travels Through the Paint Box', (2002) before on this blog, but didn't know until know she has written another in the series: 'Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World', (2021).

[harriettejoiner]

portfolio part two smaller topics to further investigate

References

Books

An immense world -Ed Yong

The living planet -David Attenborough

Life in extreme environments - British ecological society

The style thesaurus -Hannah kane

Fashion pattern making techniques-haute couture vol 2 Antonio Donnanoo

Fabric -Victoria Finlay

Colour -Victoria Finlay

Documentaries

David Attenborough multiple (particularly enjoyed life in colour )

Absurd planet Netflix

Websites

Biologists journals, a solution to nature's haemoglobin knockout

Leeds article exploring how climate change affects antarctic ecosystems

Messynessychic histories quietest icon the many faces pierrot

Montereybayaquarium vampire squid

Scientific american icefish adds another color to the story of blood

Phys.org mantis shrimp world eyes but

Scholarblogs vision in mantis shrimps

Nhm survival at hydrothermal vents

Science giant deep sea tube worm meal ticket comes skin infection

Plant orchid coryanthes bucket orchid or monkey throat orchid

Britannica bucket orchid

Oceana leafy sea dragon

[ekiramii]

Fabric Victoria Finlay, Book Cover Remake. 

[sleepnoises]

I think Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes (2019) by Dana Thomas, supplemented by Worn: A People's History of Clothing (2022) by Sofi Thanhauser and Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World (2022) by Victoria Finlay, are not bad for "real documentation" btw

Will any of them open to one page that provides a precise summary of current manufacturing conditions: No. Will these books help a reader in 2024 understand the difficulty and tradeoffs of making good fabric, much less affordable good fabric: Maybe a little

so many articles about Fast Fashion, not enough articles about what the hell is happening to the quality of clothes

Like okay. People own more pieces of clothing nowadays and they wear them a lesser number of times before throwing them out. BUT.

Why do we pretend like this is pure vanity or careless wastefulness, rather than forced by the qualities of the clothes themselves?

The other day, I was going through boxes of old clothes in the basement in search of fabric to practice sewing on. The difference in quality of the fabrics themselves is shocking! The worn-out old jeans from twenty years ago are MUCH thicker and tougher than anything more recent. My old baby clothes are made as sturdy as my work clothes from today.

In the past couple years, I have had entire seams rip out of clothes on the first wash. That's not normal!

Polyester blend shirts that feel cozy and soft when they are new, become scratchy and rough after 20 washes or so. I am trying to avoid polyester, but it gets harder and harder; the other day i couldn't find a single pack of crew socks that was 100% cotton. SOCKS!

Also, pilling is out of control. The newest pants I bought developed pills within a single day of walking around campus with a backpack.

These companies are trying to frog-boil us but touching clothes from twenty years ago, the useless crap of today would stick out like a sore thumb...

[sleepnoises]

oo oo 4 (new author you love) and 16 (most overhyped)!

i'm gonna decide 4 means "new to you" more generally

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I laboriously got through Fabric by Victoria Finlay and scuttled back out to get her earlier book Color! it's about color. my brain is not in gear for nonfiction lately but i enjoy her topics and how she blends history+investigative travel in the present day.

I also read, as you know, The Last Samurai and then went down a helen dewitt rabbithole. the english understand wool is kind of a pocket-size last samurai—similar themes of taste+integrity imo.

Runners up: Sascha Stronach (varyingly coherent post-post-homestuck sci-fi), C. Pam Zhang (Land of Milk and Honey—sexy yet deeply sad food descriptions), Courtney Summers (The Project—YA with a well-researched cult). these are all runners up because I merely feel positively about reading other books by them and haven't acted on it.

16 answered! bonus answer: I read "More: A Memoir of an Open Marriage" because a friend was reading it because "the NYT mentioned it and i want to know what they think about polyamory" and it was, respectfully, dumb as hell. brave and a journey of growth but dumb as hell. whyyyy are you surprised men you meet on Ashley Madison are emotionally withholding. anyway that's what the NYT thinks about polyamory!

[aperiodofhistory]

20 books in 2024

Another year, another year of a TBR pile. I'm really satisfied with my reading in the year 2023. I read some books I wanted to read for a long time. But still, I left some for the year 2024. So I'm transferring the remaining ones into this year, and adding a few more. I'm happy about the upcoming year, as I want to read a lot of fantasy.

The library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges

Babel by Rebecca F. Kuang

Legends & Lattes by Baldree Travis

Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World by Victoria Finlay

The Island of missing trees by Elif Shafak

Ways of being by James Bridle

The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by various authors

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet

The return of the king by Tolkien

A game of thrones by Martin

Shakespearean: On Life & Language in Times of Disruption by Robert McCrum

A court of thorns and roses by Sarah J. Mass

Femina by Ramírez Janina

Anything by Ava Reid

The road by Cormac McCarthy

Red rising by Pierce Brown

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Spinning silver by Naomi Novik

Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

I'm tagging @artmill-danaan for its book list for the year 2024.

[lavenderfables]

1, 3 and 12 for the book ask prompt!

1. How many books did you read this year?

At present, 232.

3. What were your top five books of the year?

In no particular order because I simply refuse to:

The Changeling Sea by Patricia A. McKillip (Fiction, fantasy)

Fabric by Victoria Finlay (Non-fiction, history)

The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley (Fiction, fantasy)

The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger (Non-fiction, nature)

The Way Home by Peter S. Beagle (Fiction, fantasy)

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Release The Wolves by Stefan Bachmann.

I was really looking forward to this book after loving Cinders & Sparrows, plus the cover for Release The Wolves is absolutely gorgeous.

However, I just didn't click with it. I can't articulate why; maybe I was just in a mood when I read it. The characters were interesting. The plot was a little loose, but that usually doesn't bother me. I don't know.

Maybe I'll reread it (I'm always up for giving a previously 3 star book at second chance) and love it. Maybe I'll reread it and it's just Not For Me. And that's okay.

Sad, though. The cover really is gorgeous.

Send me an end-of-year book ask