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Haptic & Hue

Haptic & Hue

Jo Andrews 75 Episodes Jul 2, 2026

Haptic & Hue's Tales of Textiles explores the way in which cloth speaks to us and the impact it has on our lives. It looks at the different light textiles cast on the story of humanity. It thinks about the skills that go into constructing it and what it means to the people who use it.

Episodes

The Return of Canada's Forgotten Wartime Quilts
The Return of Canada's Forgotten Wartime Quilts Jul 2, 2026 48:14 A number of very special quilts have been arriving in North America over the past few weeks. A collection of more than 40 are being returned to Canada, 85 years after they were made in communities all over the country.   Most of them are tattered and deeply worn but they have an extraordinary story to tell. They are the last evidence we have of an astonishing operation that saw Canadian women and
The Mysterious Origins of Knitting
The Mysterious Origins of Knitting Jun 4, 2026 42:45 This month's episode is a little different: as many of you know we run a second podcast for Friends of Haptic & Hue called Travels with Textiles, in which we explore all kinds of textile topics that crop up in the news or that we come across in our travels and that we don't get the chance to talk about in the main podcast. Once a year we give you a special taste of what Friends of Haptic & Hue so
Community Makes a Nation: America's Folly Cove Designers
Community Makes a Nation: America's Folly Cove Designers May 7, 2026 38:52 This summer marks the 250th anniversary of America's founding as nation, born in a successful rebellion from the British crown. Events and politics tell us one tale, but textiles always give us another view. Much of the textile history of America is deeply painful – a story of enslavement and hardship in Victorian mills and garment sweatshops. But there is another side to this, because creating te
Fashion and Pandora Dolls: How Style Travelled The World Before Printing and Cameras.
Fashion and Pandora Dolls: How Style Travelled The World Before Printing and Cameras. Apr 2, 2026 36:10 There is a little mannequin which has played a hidden role in history. We admire the portraits of the great men and women of the past dressed in the height of fashion. But how, in an age without cameras or magazines, did they know what was in style?    Step forward the Pandora doll, who may be as much as 3,500 years old. These miniature mannequins have played a role in communicating fashion dow
Finding A Foundling - Textiles of Identity
Finding A Foundling - Textiles of Identity Mar 5, 2026 40:53 In a small corner of London lies one of the most evocative collection of textiles anywhere in the world. The fabrics – which are quite ordinary - are in the so-called billet books which recorded the identity and clothing of every baby accepted at the Foundling Hospital from the mid 1700s onwards.   What makes these books so moving is that often the birth mother left a scrap of cloth or ribbon w
The Glorious Quilts of Gees Bend
The Glorious Quilts of Gees Bend Feb 5, 2026 34:47 An extraordinary new exhibition has just opened in the small Alabama township of Gees Bend, and it gives us some clues as to why this community of world-famous quilters became home to one of America's greatest creative legacies.   The quilts of Gees Bend were first exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, nearly 25 years ago and today their quilts hang in many global art galleries. Since t
Althea McNish - Queen of Colour
Althea McNish - Queen of Colour Jan 1, 2026 31:38 It's nearly five years since the Anglo Trinidadian textile designer, Althea McNish, died in near obscurity in London. In that time her reputation and her standing has grown dramatically and she is now recognized around the world as the one of the first black designers of international standing.  There has been a retrospective exhibition of her work, the Victoria & Albert Museum highlights her wor
The Dog Hair Blankets of the Coast Salish People
The Dog Hair Blankets of the Coast Salish People Dec 4, 2025 37:30 Textiles have a tremendous power to hold our culture and identity, more so than most understand. For thousands of years the Coast Salish people of the Pacific North West, which straddles the border between Canada and the United States, made unique ceremonial blankets and robes from dog hair. Their woolly dogs long pre-dated contact with European colonisers and were specially bred for their lustrou
Hooky Mats and Rag Rugs: How the Art of Necessity Helped Define a Nation
Hooky Mats and Rag Rugs: How the Art of Necessity Helped Define a Nation Nov 6, 2025 40:35   Hooked rugs are humble things made of recycled cloth and worn out textiles, originally born of need and lack: and yet they have come to mean much more to the communities that produced and enjoyed them. In America they have become an emblem of homespun pioneer thrift and self-reliance and an important element in the definition of a certain kind of national values.   Handmade hooked rugs are the s
The Intelligence of The Hands & The Creative Brain
The Intelligence of The Hands & The Creative Brain Oct 2, 2025 35:56 If you were asked to stitch a picture of your brain what would it look like? A project that looks at the connection between our hands and our brains asked people to do just that. It was aiming to measure creativity and to find out what impact skill and experience has on our actions? These are difficult questions to answer, but this episode of Haptic & Hue looks at what happens to us when we learn
The Mysteries of the Marshes: The Ancient Textile Secrets of Europe's Bog Bodies
The Mysteries of the Marshes: The Ancient Textile Secrets of Europe's Bog Bodies Sep 4, 2025 38:59 If we need proof that textiles can rewrite human history, then it lies with the bog bodies of northern Europe. Textile archaeologists are revealing a whole new past about people who, in some cases, are older than Tutankhamen, but much less celebrated. Across northern Europe there are hundreds of bog bodies, who long ago were buried in marshlands and were preserved down the centuries by acidic cond
Reviving Rocking Stitch and Saving Wholecloth Quilting
Reviving Rocking Stitch and Saving Wholecloth Quilting Jul 3, 2025 42:14 Here's a surprise! An extra episode of Haptic & Hue. We said we were taking a break for July and August and yes, we are. But we thought we would give you a taste of what Friends of Haptic & Hue sounds like and invite you to join the other podcast that we make every month.   So here is the episode of Travels with Textiles that was uploaded for Friends in May this year, just as UNESCO announced t

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