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My Favorite Galleries

My Favorite Articles

My favorite books

My Favorite Patterns

My Favorite Definitions


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    Origin: United States

    Redwork Design Redwork


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  •
    Origin: Indonesia

    Batik traditional heritage indonesia Batik

    The art of decorating fabric using wax and a dye. The applied wax resists dyes which allows to colour fabric selectively.
    This process of waxing and dyeing can be repeated to create more elaborate and colourful designs. After the final dyeing the wax is removed and the cloth is ready for wearing or showing.

    This technique originated from Java, Indonesia.
    The word batik originates from the Javanese tik and means to dot.

    Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a tjanting, or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a cap.

    The art of decorating cloth in this way, using wax and dye, has been practised for centuries. In Java, Indonesia, batik is part of an ancient tradition, and some of the finest batik cloth in the world is still made there.


  • Origin: Global

    King kroker the macramé frog Macramé

    Is a crafting technique that uses knots to create various textiles.


  • Origin: Japan

    Workshop gratuito de Amigurumi Ovelhinha Pipoca Amigurumi

    Is a popular type of crochet or knitting small, stuffed yarn creatures.
    The word is a portmanteau of two Japanese terms: ami, which means “crocheted or knitted” and nuigurumi, meaning “stuffed doll”.
    It often takes the form of an animal or fantastical creature with an aesthetic that’s best described as kawaii or cute.  Amigurumi vary in size and there are no restrictions about size or look


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  •
    Origin: India

    Mehndi bride 2 Mehndi

    Is a the ancient art of decorating the skin using henna paste made from the henna dry leaves, originating in ancient India.
    Mehndi is a ceremonial art, it is typically applied during weddings – for Muslim and Hindu brides.
    Henna is painted on the bride to symbolise joy, beauty, spiritual awakening and offering.


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  •
    Origin: India

    Bidriware hookah Bidriware

    The handicraft originates from Bidar district of Karnataka (India), which is still the chief centre for the manufacture of the unique metalware.

    The craft was developed in the 14th century C.E. during the rule of the Bahamani Sultans and is very famous for its amazing metalwork.

    Bidriware is made from a blackened alloy of zinc and copper with thin sheets of pure silver.
    It undergoes an eight-stage process and due to its striking inlay artwork, bidriware is an important export handicraft of India and is prized as a symbol of wealth.


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  •
    Origin: Ukraine

    Girl from Podolye by V.Tropinin (b. 1821, Kursk) Vyshyvanka

    Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian: “Вишива́нка” [ʋɪʃɪˈʋanka] or “Виши́ванка” [ʋɪˈʃɪʋanka]) is the Ukrainian traditional clothing which contains elements of Ukrainian ethnic embroidery. Usually, it was made of homemade linen which was produced by loom. Local features are usually represented in the shirt’s ornamental pattern.


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My Favorite Software


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    Pixel Stitch – Convert photos into cross stitch patterns for free
    Pixel Stitch Convert photos into cross stitch patterns for free

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    Pixel Stitch - Convert photos into cross stitch patterns for free

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Did you ever had a picture or photo in your hand and thought: it would be nice if I could transfer this into a cross stitch embroidery pattern. With a few clicks in your image editing programm you can easily pixelate images but you quickly come to your limit. For example when it comes to map the colors in the image in order to find the corresponding embroidery threads. And after that telling the printer that you want him to print out a handy, well-recognizable pattern …

    These problems belong to the past, because pixel stitch will assume these steps for you.

    Just upload your favorite picture, determine the number of stitches as well as the number of embroidery colors and let pixel stitch do the work for you. In no time the pattern in PDF format will be provided to you so you can easily download and print it. In the PDF you will find all the infos to get started with your project like informations to the different color numbers and the legend of the embroidery pattern.


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    Stitchboard
    Stitchboard

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    Stitchboard

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    You must be a member (free!) and be logged in to access all menu options.


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    MicroRevolt Knitpro
    microRevolt knitpro

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    MicroRevolt Knitpro

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    knitPro is a free web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns. Simply upload jpeg, gif or png images and knitPro will generate a graph sizable for any fiber project. knitPro digitally mimics the tradition of pre-industrial craft circles who freely shared patterns and passed them down from generation to generation.


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    Valentina – open source pattern drafting software
    Valentina open source pattern drafting software

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    Valentina - open source pattern drafting software

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Valentina is an open source pattern drafting software tool, designed to be the foundation of a new stack of open source tools to remake the garment industry.

    Small-batch and custom-sized clothing manufacturing is essential to create a sustainable future, preserve small- to medium-sized textile spinning and weaving manufacturers, enable independent and small designers and manufacturers to scale up to make a decent living, rebuild local garment districts, and reduce or eliminate slave labor.


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    Wild Ginger Software – Fashion Design and Sewing Pattern Software
    Wild Ginger Software

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    Wild Ginger Software

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Drafting for Hats, Bags, Footwear, and Accessories
    Embroidery Planning Tools
    Complete Program Help and Sewing Instructions

    All of the patterns in Wild Things print to the dimensions you specify. It even has embroidery design planning tools to aid you in creating unique accessories for yourself and others. You can specify the dimensions for each item to draft accessories for your needs.

    Wild Things! comes complete with a Help file to aid you in using the new tools as well as sewing instructions for each and every style that drafts drafts.


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    Stitchboard – Free Pattern Wizard
    Free Pattern Wizard

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    Free Pattern Wizard

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Free Online Pattern Wizard For Beading, Crochet, Cross Stitch, Knitting.


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    Bead program for patterns
    Bead program for patterns

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    Bead program for patterns

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    “Home of the best little free bead program for patterns on the net!”


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    JBead – bead rope crochet design tool
    JBead bead rope crochet design tool

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    JBead - bead rope crochet design tool

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    The JBead software is a bead rope crochet design tool. It can be freely downloaded and used. It is open source sofware, licensed under the GPLv3 license.


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    Bead Pattern Maker
    Bead Pattern Maker

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    Bead Pattern Maker

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Bead Pattern Maker is a free beading tool used to create bead patterns easily and intuitively. It’s a simple and powerful web tool to bring your imagination into life.

    Youtube instructions on how to use aplication: youtube


  •

    Seamless Pattern Maker
    Seamless Pattern Maker

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    Seamless Pattern Maker

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Create unlimited seamless patterns for free


  •

    Tartan Designer/Maker
    Tartan Designer (Maker)

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    Tartan Designer/Maker

    Price: Free

    Software description:

    Generates seamless tartan patterns!

My Favorite Places


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    Czech Republic , Prague - Josefov

    Illusion Art Museum Prague
    (IAM Prague)
    Illusion Art Museum Prague

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    Illusion Art Museum Prague

    Admission fee: Paid

    Illusion Art Museum Prague (IAM Prague) is the Czech Republic’s first museum dedicated to illusions and trick art. Visitors play with interactive 3D installations and 2D trick art as they discover how perspective can open up new worlds, while creating fun photos to share with family and friends. Situated in a historic 15th century building on Old Town Square, opposite the Astronomical Clock (Orloj).


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    United Kingdom , London

    Horniman Museum and Gardens
    Horniman Museum and Gardens

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    Horniman Museum and Gardens

    Admission fee: Free

    The Horniman connects us all with global cultures and the natural environment, encouraging us to shape a positive future for the world we all share.

     It has displays of anthropology, natural history and musical instruments, and is known for its large collection of taxidermied animals.


  •
    Norway , Oslo

    Norwegian Folk Museum
    (Norsk)
    Norwegian Folk Museum

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    Norwegian Folk Museum

    Admission fee: Paid

    Norsk Folkemuseum shows how people lived in Norway from 1500 to the present through its collections from around the country,.

    Norsk Folkemuseum is Norway’s largest museum of cultural history. The160 buildings in the Open-Air Museum represent different regions in Norway, different time periods, as well as differences between town and country, and social classes. The Gol Stave Church dating from 1200 is one of five medieval buildings at the museum. The contemporary history is presented through exhibitions and documentation projects. Permanent indoor exhibitions include folk art, folk costumes, toys and Sami culture. There is also a variety of temporary exhibitions and audience programs all year round.


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    Norway , Ål Kulturhus

    Hallingrosa – Norwegian Cultural Heritage
    Hallingrosa

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    Hallingrosa is permanent exhibition of rosemaling

    Admission fee: Free

    Hallingrosa is the name of a permanent exhibition which displays world-class floral painting – “rosemåling” – with emphasis on the development of the Hallingdal tradition – “hallingrosa”. In Hallingdal there have been several great floral painters during the later centuries. This exhibition contains, among others, works of Herbrand Sata and his sons Nils Bæra and Embrik Bæra, all of them from Ål. The art history of floral painting from the end of the 18th Century is the basis of the exhibition.


  •
    United States , Decorah, IA

    Vesterheim – the national Norwegian-American museum and heritage center
    Vesterheim

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    Vesterheim

    Admission fee: Paid

    Vesterheim is the national Norwegian-American museum and heritage center, with over 33,000 artifacts, 12 historic buildings, a Folk Art School, and a library and archives. This treasure showcases the most extensive collection of Norwegian-American artifacts in the world.

    Vesterheim’s exhibitions explore the diversity of American immigration through the lens of the Norwegian-American experience and highlight the best in historic and contemporary Norwegian folk and fine arts. Vesterheim was named one of “15 Best Small-Town Museums in the U.S.” by the world-respected travel guide, Fodor’s, and USA Today named Vesterheim one of “ten great places in the nation to admire American folk art.”


  •
    Australia , South Brisbane

    Queensland Museum
    Queensland Museum

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    Queensland Museum

    Admission fee: Free

    Queensland Museum is a museum of natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement that tells the changing story of Queensland.


  •
    United Kingdom , Derby, England

    Derby Museum & Art Gallery
    Ed Burkes. Derby Museum and Art Gallery

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    Derby Museum & Art Gallery

    Admission fee: Free

    Derby Museum and Art Gallery is a museum and art gallery based in Derby, England. It was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. Wikipedia


  •
    United States , Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
    Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

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    Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

    Admission fee: Paid

    The Peabody is well known for its significant collections of archaeological and ethnographic materials from around the world, many of which were acquired during the era of European and American expansion, exploration, and colonization.


  •
    United States , Manhattan, New York City

    The Metropolitan Museum of Arts – The Met Cloisters
    (The Met Cloisters)
    The Metropolitan Museum of Arts The Met Cloisters

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    The Metropolitan Museum of Arts - The Met Cloisters

    Admission fee: Paid

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

    Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.


  •
    United States , New York City

    The Metropolitan Museum of Arts – The Met Fifth Avenue
    (The Met)
    The Met Fifth Avenue

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    The Met Fifth Avenue

    Admission fee: Paid

    The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

    Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum’s galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.


  •
    Canada , Toronto, Ontario

    The Royal Ontario Museum
    (ROM)
    The Royal Ontario Museum

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    The Royal Ontario Museum

    Admission fee: Paid

    The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is a museum of art, world culture and natural history in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the largest museums in North America and the largest in Canada.
    With more than 6,000,000 items and 40 galleries, the museum’s diverse collections of world culture and natural history contribute to its international reputation. The museum contains a collection of dinosaurs, minerals and meteorites; Canadian, and European historical artifacts; as well as African, Near Eastern, and East Asian art. It houses the world’s largest collection of fossils from the Burgess Shale with more than 150,000 specimens. The museum also contains an extensive collection of design and fine art, including clothing, interior, and product design, especially Art Deco.
    Source: Wikipedia


  •
    Ukraine , Kyiv

    Ivan Honchar Museum
    Ivan Honchar Museum

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    Ivan Honchar Museum

    Admission fee: Paid

    Ivan Honchar Museum (National Centre of Folk Culture) is a museum in Kiev, Ukraine showcasing the culture of Ukraine and preserving Ukrainian folk art.


  •
    Azerbaijan , Baku

    The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan
    The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan

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    The National Museum of History of Azerbaijan

    Admission fee: Paid

    The museum expositions and exhibitions reflecting all period of Azerbaijan history. In the library of the museum are more than 80. 000 books, as well as rare journals and newspapers printed in the early of 19th -20th centuries.The museum building is one of the beautiful architectural monuments of Baku. It was built on the basis of chief architect Josef Goslavsky’s project. The mansion was the residence of famous entrepreneur and philanthropist of Hadji Zeynalabdin Tagiyev and since 1920 the building began its activity as a museum.

    The museum has more than 2000 exhibits and includes the following departments:[4]

    Modern history department, Ethnography department, Department of ancient and medieval history of Azerbaijan, Scientific excursion department, Laboratory for restoration of museum exhibits
    Fund of Numismatics: Including the collection of Yevgeni Pakhomov, Art design group, Library
    Source: Wikipedia


  •
    Uzbekistan , Bukhara

    Sitora i Mohi Khosa – The Bukhara State Museum
    Sitora i Mohi Khosa Bukhara museum

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    Museum of Decorative Applied Arts in Bukhara (Sitora-i Mohi Khosa)

    Admission fee: Paid

    The museum has the collections of:

    archaeology, umismatics, decorative – applied art, household items and ethnography, rare books and documents, paintings, graphics, sculpture, photographs and photo negatives, miscellaneous items.


  •
    United States , Honolulu, Hawaii

    The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art
    (DDFIA)
    The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art

    Click link to view:

    The Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art

    Admission fee: Paid

    The Shangri La Museum for Islamic Art, Design & Culture displays a wide-ranging collection of art, furnishings, and built-in architectural elements from Iran, Morocco, Turkey, Spain, Syria, Egypt, and India – among others. Gilt and painted ceilings from Morocco, vivid ceramics from Iran (including the only complete lusterware Ilkhanid mihrab in North America), painted wooden interiors from Syria, pierced metalwork and vibrant textiles from Spain to India (including a magnificent pair of shaped carpets, made for the Mughal emperor) are among the many highlights. Its multiple buildings on the campus also include The Playhouse (a reduced-scale version of the 17th century Chehel Sotoun in Esfahan, Iran, now used for public programs and artist residencies).

    The outdoor landscaping has a number of gardens, including a formal Mughal garden inspired by the Shalimar Gardens, as well as terraced water features, a Hawaiian fishpond, tropical gardens and a waterfall, and fabulous vistas of the Pacific Ocean.

    The museum also hosts two visual artists per year for onsite exhibitions, workshops, and/or lectures. Recently-featured artists have included Hayv Kahraman, Faig Ahmed, Bahia Shehab, and Reem Bassous.
    Source: Wikipedia