Rachel E. Pollock's Blog: La Bricoleuse aggregate and more..., page 7

Book Review: Color Charts

 

Color Charts: A History by Anne Vanchon is a beautiful compendium of color charts across various disciplines in which color codification is a consideration--dyes/paints/pigments, yes, but also some surprising examples like a 16th century color chart of urine for diagnosing disease and other maladies.

This book is a lavishly produced hefty tome--10"x11.5", hardcover, over an inch thick with 280+ full-color satin-finish pages, replete with numerous examples some reproduced for the first time outside of the archives which contain them. The text is deeply researched, illuminative and interesting; this is as much a reference text as a lush "coffee table"-style art book.

Highly recommend!

Book Review: Vintage Feed Sacks

 

Not a bad book, but this is my least-recommended of the books I've read/reviewed recently on feed sacks and other printed dry-good fabric bags repurposed in the early/mid 20th century for garments, curtains, and quilts.

I have collectors' appraisal books of vintage hats and antique accessories (shoes, fans, etc) that are similar to this book, which seems to be basically an overview of a personal collection including price values--a valuable resource, but of most use to those who collect these textiles or are looking to appraise/sell a collection thereof.

Book Review: Cotton and Thrift

 

Another title on my deep-dive du jour, feed sack textiles: Cotton and Thrift: Feed Sacks and the Fabric of American Households, by Marian Ann J. Montgomery. This title accompanied and exhibit of the same name which ran at the Museum of Texas Tech University in 2019.

It's clear from this book that the Museum at TTU has an extensive and impressive collection of feed sack swatches, garments, artifacts, and ephemera, as well as secured the loan of some extraordinary relevant items. The catalogue has a more concise history and direction to its presentation of "the feed sack story" than the McCray text I also read/reviewed recently. I said in that review that if you could only get one book on feed sack textiles, that would be it, but I amend that statement--if you want a quicker look into the topic than a 500+ page book, this is a great introduction and comprehensive survey of the "feed sack phenomenon" in the realm of American midcentury domestic textiles.

And in fact, this larger-dimension book is easier to hold, peruse, and read than the smaller/thicker McCray text. Because it's an exhibit catalogue, it might actually be more challenging to find a copy though.

Filled with full color photos as well as an appendix of the TTU feed sack swatch collection and an excellent bibliography.

Book Review: Feed Sacks

 If you only read one book on feed sacks and their place in the history of American fashion, sustainability, the garment trade vs. domestic sewing, etc., this should be that book.

I'm in the midst of a deep dive into feed sack fabric (and particularly its place in quilting from a historical perspective) so I've been reading several books in this area and this title is exhaustively thorough. McCray delves into cotton sacks as packaging for various dry goods transformed into a reusable textile for thrift and how they leveraged that into a marketing strategy, how sacks were used in domestic sewing from garments to home goods to children's dolls and beyond.

The book is printed with full color photography throughout with hundreds of prints, labels/logos, and historical illustrations/photography from periodicals and flyers about reuse of the sacks in various applications.

Highly recommend!

Book Review: EVA Foam by Beverly Downen

 

The full title of this book is Cosplayer's Ultimate Guide to EVA Foam: Design Pattern Create: Level Up Your Costumes & Props by award-winning cosplayer Beverly Downen. As an educator who must work with a campus bookstore for course materials/texts, it's exciting that FanPowered Press, an imprint of C&T Publishing, is bringing out such high-quality titles from cosplayers through a traditional publishing avenue! (I reviewed a prior title of theirs on gloves/gauntlets/bracers here.) 

My perspective as a reviewer of this book is that of a professional costumer for entertainment--theatre, film, ballet, opera, and other performances. As such, I've kept informed in general of innovations that come out of the cosplay community [1]. Cosplayers have more control over the choice of projects they pursue and the timeline in which to finish them; entertainment costumers like myself often have minimal influence over the projects on which we work and even less control over the timeline to completion. 

In part because of this, innovation with newer materials and technologies comes more quickly from cosplay costumers. And I'm particularly appreciative of how forthcoming cosplayers are about the methods and techniques they develop, how generous they are with their expertise, and how dedicated they are about documenting their work. Cosplay is a different context and purpose for the costumes created, so it's helpful to keep that in mind when reading references written for a cosplayer readership.

It's also useful when reading this book to consider that its author is not only a renowned cosplayer, but also boasts a degree in industrial design. An industrial designer and a theatrical costume designer are related in that both are design specialties, but having worked as a fabricator for both, IME a costume designer can be more devoted to aesthetic whim than technical specifications. I'm getting pretty far into the weeds here though, so back to this fantastic book and why it belongs in the libraries of entertainment costume and propbuilding studios.

The book is packed with valuable information, and the author starts with the basics--how foam differs from fabric, and why a maker of foam costume pieces will likely need a body form as well as how to make one. Downer covers the materials, tools, and adhesives needed and how to safely use them. She also discusses topics like patternmaking for foam structures and how to create seamless joins and dimensional decor elements. She also reveals "hacks" for how film armor pieces disguise the closures and supports that allow actors (and cosplayers) to get in and out of EVA foam armor.

Examples of surface textures and finishes are shown, and charts on the properties of various media/products are found throughout the text, from comparisons of adhsives to primers to thermoplastics and much more. The section providing an overview of hardware types and uses in a costume armor context is fantastic, comprehensive, concise, and well-illustrated. In fact, full-color photographs clearly illustrate the materials, media, and processes described throughout.

At 240 pages, this is no thin pamphlet either--it's almost exhaustively thorough. I will definitely use this book as a reference in my class this spring semester! Highly, highly recommend.

[1] ...which overlaps with performance costume making--there are many artists active across both spheres...

Insider Tips for Stretching Shoes Like a Pro

Book Review: Dyeing for Entertainment by Erin Carignan

 I couldn't be more enthusiastic about the forthcoming new book with full-color photos/illustrations by Erin Carignan, Dyeing for Entertainment: Dyeing, Painting, Breakdown, & Special Effects for Costum es .

For all that Deb Dryden's brilliant seminal work, Fabric Painting and Dyeing for the Theatre, is a wonderful reference, it's also 30 years old at this point. The world has changed, OSHA regulations have changed, products have been discontinued and new ones introduced, not to mention the internet exists now and we can have a Pantone app on our mobile phone. Dryden has written the foreword to this new text, effectively passing the torch to costume dyers of the new millennium.

No lie tho, I've been finagling educational reprints of Dryden's OOP text because it remained the best (only) reference that specifically addressed the intersection of textile dyeing and costume production for entertainment. I have a whole library of books in my dye studio of newer, up-to-date references about different classes of dye for use on different fibers, mixing recipes, surface design techniques, etc. But none of those newer books approach dyeing through the lens of costume production, which brings its own set of constraints, requirements, and needs.

Right out of the gate, Carignan's got my attention with an opening chapter on dyeroom setup and my personal favorite topic, safe work practice. She covers color theory (how it applied to textile dyeing, but also how color behaves in the context of stage performance where lighting design can impact how the audience perceives color), fiber science, classes of dyestuffs, swatching, Testfabric guides, and color removal processes. She devotes an entire chapter to changing the color of leather with both dyes and paints. And honestly, with that, she's covered 90+% of what I've needed to know and do as a dyer for performance costumes.

But, that's only half the book. The remaining chapters cover surface design methods like screenprinting, stencils, painting with dye pastes, resists, devoré, and more. Plus there's a whole chapter on distresing/ageing/weathering/breakdown, and another on blood effects. (Excellent chapters on the kinds of fun projects that come along maybe once a season unless you run a theatrical dye/paint studio like Hochi Asiatico.) And the book might be worth the cost of purchase for the Appendices alone: a bibliography, a chart for stain removal, and 5 different printable swatch/recipe sheets from various dye studios. [1]

Foam-stadium-finger thumbs-up for this title! I'm thrilled it's out in plenty of time to adopt it as the new required text for my next dye class (Spring 2025). This title comes out December 19, 2023, after which pre-orders will ship directly from the publisher (Routledge). [2] Amazon pre-orders are apparently not shipping till the new year.

[1] For real, I've collected copies of the swatch record sheets at every shop I've worked at that had a dye studio. They're all slightly different and it's a good idea to create your own to be what you ultimately need it to be given the type of dye studio you're running. And, this appendix makes it convenient to see how several different places format them and what info they track!

[2] Full disclosure: I'm an author of a Routledge book, A History of the Theatre Costume Business: Creators of Character. This review was not solicited--I'm just super-excited this book exists.

StoryGraph book giveaway!

 

My co-authors and I are so excited to be part of the giveaway beta-testing on The StoryGraph reading/books app!

Learn about the app and if you decide you want to give it a go, enter our giveaway here!

Three copies available, only to US residents for now.

Book Review: Unraveled

 

Maxine Bedat's Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment is another must-read for every clothes-wearing human, particularly in America, the UK, and Germany (apparently the 3 largest textile-waste-producing nations.

 The author traces the "lifecycle" of a pair of jeans, from the farming of the cotton fiber to its processing/spinning into yarns, to where those yarns are woven into denim fabric to where the fabric is cut and sewn into jeans, even across where the jeans are sold to the consumer to where they enter the secondhand garment trade to where they finally end up either recycled or put into a landfill.

 It's truly a global journey, and readers may be surprised to see how contemporary fashion production encircles the planet from beginning to end. The author dispels misconceptions about "organic fiber" and "sustainable production," and this book is another sobering call-to-action in the same vein as another recently-reviewed/-released title, Alden Wicker's To Dye For.

Bedat doesn't leave us buried in despair and textile waste though--she enumerates suggestions for how we can reform the fashion industry both as consumers (through well-considered purchasing choices) and as citizens (by advocating for policy change). 

She ends the book with a vision for the future of what our closets and wardrobes could look like in 2030 that is truly inspiring. Like Wicker's book, Unraveled could have been dense and difficult to get through but her engaging writing and ability to focus on the individuals working at each stage of the process (from a cotton farmer in Texas to a Bangladeshi factory worker to a Staten Island garbage truck driver) makes it an engrossing read. 

Highly recommend, particularly for costume designers, fashion enthusiasts, and style influencers.

Book Review: Theatre Masks - Out Side In

 

In the interest of not burying the lede, Theatre Masks Out Side In : Perspectives on Mask History, Design, Construction, and Performance by Wendy J. Meaden and Michael A. Brown is currently on sale from the publisher at 25% off.

I've been hoping a book like this would come out, so I could finally use an in-print up-to-date textbook in the maskmaking class I teach. For the past 18 years I've had to make do with a cobbled-together list of recommended yet out-of-print titles full of great ethnographic information and technical construction details, peppered with horrifying  OSHA violations like maskmakers smoking cigarettes in their workspace while using open containers of acetone.

These co-authors cover a vast range of topics pertaining to masked performance and theatrical tradition, from how actors and directors approach masked performance to traditional and modern media and methods for making masks. They touch on all the things I try to convey to my students about the contexts in which masks are used, in performance and in cultural/ritual/spiritual celebration. They consider the history of masks in the theatre (ancient Greece, Commedia dell'Arte, etc.), but also how masks are used in various cultures, as PPE, and as elements of disguise, and how those might appear in staged performance.

The book includes several appendices with a variety of useful content--project worksheets (a number of projects are suggested throughout the text), a spreadsheet for tracking/budgeting masks for a production, lists of mask collections in museums and plays which feature masks, etc.

My one negative thought about this book: Superficially, I dislike the cover design. As a fellow Focal Press author [1], I presume their experience was much like ours--minimal input on the cover. It feels very textbooky, not eyecatching, which I don't suppose textbooks need to be since they aren't competing for attention on bookstore endcaps or whatever. Meh.

Disclosure: when this book was being compiled, one of the authors contacted me about using images of my and my students' work. Those are included in the text, in the chapter on maskmaking techniques/methods. We received no compensation for those contributions, nor do I feel obligated to write/publish a "puff" review praising the book. It genuinely is a fantastic new resource and I will be using it as a textbook in my class the next time I teach it.

[1] I should mention that my book is also 25% off right now, here.