Lavishly illustrated, this book presents comprehensive entries for each of the tapestries in the Burrell Collection New research by an international team of experts details how, where, when and why these tapestries were made.

While the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century diminished the role of the craftsperson in the manufacturing process, the digital revolution has had a less devastating effect. Today’s digital technologies have given rise to entirely new working methods, skill sets, and consumer products that don’t eliminate, but enrich traditional hand techniques.

The motifs produced during time-intensive dyeing processes – which uses indigo, urine, and extracts of natural waste materials – are neither conventional fabric nor lace patterns, and they have only a distant relationship to batik painting. Yet, they are simulations and portraits of both.