nets in eden NSW :: Australia

String bag book

Aboriginal String Bags, Nets and Cordage by Alan West (former Curator in Anthropology and now Research Associate in Museum Victoria’s Indigenous Cultures Department), published by Museum Victoria, 2006, is a useful source book for netters.

There are clear diagrams showing looping and knotting techniques. Gabriella and I bought our copies form the National Museum of Australia and they will order more copies if you ask.

DRAWING NETS

I am drawing imaginary nets to describe ideas about movement, change, between places, fluidity…and have enjoyed looking at Judy watson’s work in the book “Blood Language”.  Valerie

Judy Watson: Blood Language Book Description

Lavishly illustrated, this invaluable study examines the scope and depth of the work of leading contemporary Australian artist Judy Watson. Exploring the plight of the dispossessed, indigenous Australians with whom she shares a family history and heritage, Watson’s works are divided into the seven defining elements within her artistic themes. Each section serves as an extended picture-essay featuring commentary from the artist about her work and travels as well as objective perspectives by art critics. Imaginative and empathetic, Judy Watson’s work is a remarkable example of indigenous Australian art.

Publisher: Melbourne University

Author: Judy Watson, Louise Martin-Chew,

EAN: 9780522856583

Publish Date: 2009-11-30

Reading Material

Here is some reading material. The anthropology-archeology papers are a little old, but nonetheless interesting. The first can be found on this hyperlink: chromomanual craft this one takes a little time to download.

If you can’t access this please email me sharon.peoples@anu.edu.au I can email it as an attachment.

USEFUL DATABASES

Erosion control - Threadbo trail

Walking at Threadbo on the weekend I noticed a net used to control erosion. It was made of heavy duty plastic.

Some of the readings I have been looking at can be found in Google Scholar. In the last couple of years I have used this database to find many articles and books on various subjects. However, the problem is with books you cannot print entire slabs; but at least it is a starting point to then go to libraries.

There are many fascinating anthropological and archeological papers on net making. Some of the search words I have used are knotting, knitting, netmaking. Actually many patents come up and these are quite interesting on the application on netting in industrial and commercial situations.

If you have acces to ANU’s JSTOR database there is a font of reading there. Later today I will post some readings.