Hmong Reverse Applique

Narrower than Gerdner's story-cloth book and more technical. Reverse applique, in which layers of cloth are cut away rather than stitched on, is the signature technique of White Hmong and Striped Hmong needlework, and this traces where it came from and what the finished patterns are understood to mean. The distinction between subgroups is doing real work here: the two traditions are visually distinguishable, and the book treats that as information rather than decoration. For a catalog with a paj ntaub shelf, this is the volume that explains what the eye is actually looking at. Useful to makers as well as readers, though it is a study rather than an instruction manual. For textile artists, collectors, and readers who have already met the form and want to go further.