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Design is the art of vision that becomes reality only through handwork, which is the highest form of art and thought when it is centered on nature. Ancient people were drawn to patterns that suggested the beauty of nature: textural visuality, ornamental motif, and flourishes of bright gold, burnt red, and dark blue. They wanted to create a wearable body that signaled the sacred and healing relationship of nature and design. Wool, cotton, and silk fibers were dyed in extracts of indigo, pomegranate, madder, walnut, and sumac, handspun into threads, and woven in tone-on-tone color layering, which ranged from the incongruous to harmonious, such as moss-green on autumn pink, or ruddy-red on violet. The vision of costume came to life in the beauty of nature and made a profound impact with color, texture, embellishments with shell sequins, coral éntincelles, gold and silver ribbons, and embroideries with glass beads, seed pearls, and crystals. They developed the skills to bring out the natural qualities of color, material, and pattern in tapestries, embroideries, kilims, carpets, sacred textiles, jewelry, carvings, gemstones, frescoes, stained glass, and ceramics. Bead cordage and its sequence of recurring-alternating shapes, textures, and colors, alluded to cycles of nature, and the way nature and design actually interact as one continuous strand of improvisation and expression. It was the art of vision, which made ancient design a beautiful necessity of life, and it is what gives contemporary wearable art its personal meaning: nature is still the pattern-maker of vision and reality, through the love of handwork.(Also see: The Bead of Design)
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