An Artisan's Guide to Crafts and Places (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783775761987)

A guide book to traditional and "dying" craft techniques across regions, exploring their cultural histories and featuring an index with tips on local markets

As an art historian, stylist and dealer of textiles, costumes and ceramics, author Katharina Koppenwallner is well positioned to explore the rapidly changing material culture around folk art and traditional crafts across the globe. This book traces her many travel routes, roughly following the Silk Road and the old hippie trails from Europe eastward to Southeast Asia and on to Latin America. She introduces the areas she has traveled to and their historical contexts, expertly describes dying craft techniques as well as "fakelore" trends, and tells enchanting stories about the most remote regions and their people. Richly illustrated and featuring an index and helpful tips on the best local markets, An Artisan's Guide to Crafts and Places is the ultimate travel book for anyone who is passionate about the aesthetics and quality of traditional crafts and the places where they are kept alive.