About Us

Before oil was oil, the Silk Road was oil.

Although the term Silk Road wasn’t coined until the late 19th century, the history of textile trade routes is quite literally the history of humanity, if we count Adam and Eve’s unfortunate fruit incident where they ended up covering themselves in leaves.

This history is preserved in paintings (actual and on items like pottery), myths, fairy tales, novels (particularly in early Gothics, often known as penny dreadfuls or pot-boilers), broadsheets, pamphlets, songs, and, of course, textiles themselves.

The lore is rife with scandal, piracy, espionage, and witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft. As in Good Witch, Bad Witch like Wizard of Oz. (The bad witches are mostly just criminals though. You’ll see.)

This blog will share relatively common textile history as well as lore that mustn’t be lost. You’ll also find book, video, and product recommendations as well as my own projects.

“The Story” as my Grandmother termed it, isn’t remotely linear. Rather it’s more like the Disney feature “Mr Toad’s Wild Ride.” Just when you think you know where a thread is leading you get whipped around in a different direction. We will probably never collect all of the puzzle pieces. But we can try!