Fragile Forms and Colors: Arts and Crafts Era Textiles Providers
by Kate Nixon
While the popular online course “Living the Simple Life: The Arts and Crafts Movement at Home” turns its focus to Arts and Crafts era textiles and accessories this weekend, we’d like to remind collectors of the different businesses that collect and sell textiles, both antique and contemporary.
These business owners have collected and in some cases created their own Arts and Crafts inspired textiles for decades and bring that experience and knowledge to helping customers pick the best designs for them. In a field known for its delicate nature in form, the textile helped to bring bright colors and designs and a sense of expression to spaces that were otherwise marked by dark wooden or neutral tones. The Craftsman even noted of the Arts and Crafts textile: “the new feeling for form and color” that tied together and completed the home.
Below we have listed some of the exhibitors and advertisers at the National Arts and Crafts Conference and Shows and we encourage you not only to contact them and visit their online salesroom, but to establish a relationship with them, which will carry over into next year’s National Arts and Crafts Shows at the Grove Park Inn.
Antique Textiles
Redinger Antiques
Business: Redinger Antiques
Owner: Karen Redinger
Karen Redinger works hard at finding textiles and even though it may seem they are easy to find, they are not. Karen purchases items in good condition to sell as well as saves damaged pieces to have them repurposed one day. She has been collecting textiles for 40 years and has always gravitated to beautifully hand embroidered pieces.
If you’d like to contact Karen, please email Karen at [email protected].
Textile Artifacts
Business: Textile Artifacts
Owners: Paul Freeman
Paul Freeman is a 30-year collector of Arts and Crafts textiles and has traveled all over the country and overseas, collecting and adding to his inventory of European and American cloth, fabric, embroideries, woven and printed. Brimfield was his first show in 1989 and has been selling in shows ever since, including 32 years at the National Arts and Crafts Conference at the Grove Park Inn. In addition to traveling the world for unique Arts and Crafts era textiles, Paul has placed textiles in 100 different movie sets and costume departments, including Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, The Color Purple, and Saving Mr. Banks.
“With lots of side trips to linen, curtain panels, laces, clothing and documents, the real story is that once you do all of this, you begin to have favorites. It could be periods or manufacturers or cherubs for that matter. The important point is that you begin to recognize and love a special collection.”
If you’d like to contact Paul Freeman, please email him at [email protected].
Contemporary Textiles
Paint-by-Threads
Business: Paint-by-Threads
Owner: Natalie Richards
Paint By Threads is pleased to offer a large selection of Arts & Crafts period inspired textiles. Designer Natalie Richards creates original hand embroidered textiles inspired by the Arts & Crafts Movement for use within Craftsman, Bungalow, Mission and Prairie style homes. By employing design principles from the Arts & Crafts Movement, and using period-appropriate embroidery stitches, hand stenciling, appliqué, and high quality materials (100% linen, pearl cotton and hand-dyed silk threads), Paint By Threads creates quality, hand embroidered pillows, table linens, curtains, room divider drapes, coverlets, and bedspreads. “I embroidered and paint on only quality European linens and offer the same fabrics by the yard for your creations. I enjoy designing custom textiles and working one on one to create textile treasure just for you. I look forward to providing all of your textile needs.”
If you’d like to contact Natalie, visit her website at https://paint-by-threads.com/
Arts and Crafts Period Textiles
Business: Arts and Crafts Period Textiles
Owner(s): Dianne Ayres and Tim Hansen
Arts and Crafts Period Textiles offers contemporary production of textiles inspired by Arts & Crafts design. They work with collectors and enthusiasts wishing to decorate in the style as well as others who appreciate the designs and the art of handcrafts. Additionally, they create textiles in techniques as used at the turn-of-the-century; applique, hand embroidery, and hand stencilling. Embroideries are available completed or as kits.
If you’d like to contact Arts and Crafts Period Textiles, please visit their website at http://www.textilestudio.com/
Archive Edition
Business: Archive Edition
Owners: Paul Freeman and Karl Eulberg
In America, the Craftsman style was further advanced by Gustav Stickley, the Roycrofters, Frank Lloyd Wright, Greene & Greene and others who contributed their own unique interpretations. With so many different facets to the Arts and Crafts Style, the goal at Archive Edition Textiles is to develop and provide fabrics that truly cover the full artistic scope of the era. Archive Edition sells Arts and Crafts Era textiles, provides samples and sells home furnishings like table runners, pillows, bedspreads, and drapery.
If you’d like to contact Archive Edition, please visit their website at https://www.archiveedition.com/
If you know of additional businesses in the field of Arts and Crafts textiles, please let us know so we can post them here!