Category: Assiut/Assuit

Hello Gang!

When I started working intensively on “The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut,” I envisioned a 125-140 page book that reveled in the glory of this magnificent cloth.  Commonly called assiut (or one of its numerous alternative spellings including assuit, assiout, asyut, etc. etc.) but  known as tally, telli, or tilli in Egypt, throughout North Africa, and across the Middle East.  The book has grown – expanded to about 260 pages – thanks to the generosity of my backers over on Kickstarter!  They allowed me to purchase image rights and ephemera to illustrated the history chapter that blossomed from a mere 12 pages of text to a lavishly illustrated 60+ pages with historic images that tell the story of assiut cloth between 1900 and 1940.

I’m just a few images away from completing the layout of the book – and then I’m moving onto the painful process of placing the text and then making the final edits on the project.   We are now so close to publication, that I can taste it!   So I thought I would share a little taste with you.  I haven’t placed the words yet, but here are just a few of the spreads.  In these 10 pages, 5 spreads, you can get a sense of the layout, the quality of the images, and the general look.

Be sure to sign up for the mailing list.  When the book is completed, newsletter members will get a notification, and a discount code for purchasing the first 200 copies.

And now, I’m diving back into the layout process. Today it’s another 10 images of lovely dancers to crop, convert to black and white, adjust the contrast, and.. and.. and… With luck, the layout will be complete by this Friday!

I look forward to returning to blogging on a regular basis as soon as we hit send on the final version and it hits the presses!

I’ve been sooo busy working on my upcoming book, The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut that I’ve been let blogging slide for the moment.  However, I thought you might want to know how the book is progressing.  I recently posted a detailed breakdown of my current status over on the Kickstarter page – remember that campaign I ran last summer?  There was such an outpouring of support that I was able to invest the money in more research materials, ephemera, image rights, and sewing materials.  This has lead to a much more interesting and comprehensive book than I had initially described in my Kickstarter pitch video!

Read Kickstarter Update Here

My plan is to have the images and text laid into the master document by Mid-May, and final edits until done.   At this current production rate, I’ll be anticipate being finished by the end of June/early July.   I’m so committed to this timeline, that I’m scheduling a big book release party in August.    I look forward to resuming my regularly scheduled blogging activities in May when the book is in final edits!

I’ll be sending out my next newsletter end of April – so be sure to sign up for my mailing list!

Thank you for your continued interest and support!  ~ Dawn

I’ve been working on the book furiously over the past weeks! This week, I’m prepping a large batch of photos for the book.  Together with my principle photographer, Alisha Westerfeld, we’ve travelled throughout Northern California shooting dance events, performers, models, and collections.  But sometimes, the pictures need a little “help.”   So I thought I would share a before and after. This little shrug was designed and made by the noted costume designer Alnisa for dancer and assiut collector Sindaiya.  Alisha and I were fortunate enough to shoot her collection.  While this started as a really nice photo, I did a little photoshop magic to darken the background, remove the light stand leg, and adjust the contrast so the pattern pops just a wee bit more.   I’ve got another 300+ photos to massage in preparation for the book.   Photo editing is a delightful winter task!