PieceWork July/August 2012

Blue jeans, blue moon, Rhapsody in Blue, Colorado sky blue, "Blue Suede Shoes," Texas bluebonnets, cerulean, the Caribbean Sea, lapis lazuli. Blue can be striking or soothing. Royalty and religions have used the color for millennia as a symbol of power. From ancient Egyptian socks to stitch-resist cloth in Mali, from "as true as Coventry blue" to Pueblo ceremonial leggings, the July/August issue of PieceWork is dedicated to the color blue. We examine its importance, how it has been used, and how some traditional methods of achieving the color are being preserved. It turns out that tie-dyeing cloth with indigo was introduced to the world long before the 1960s; Native American men knitted and wore ceremonial dark blue leggings; and Chinese embroiderers stitched symbols onto white cloth with blue cotton hand-dyed thread. Explore glorious blue in this issue of PieceWork!