A glossary is useful when it changes what a reader can notice. Here, a term names a mechanism, material or garment decision before it becomes a style label.
Name the action
Bound, stitched, folded, clamped and pole-wrapped describe different ways cloth is manipulated before or during dyeing. The visible result can overlap, so the glossary keeps the action and the appearance in separate fields.
- Start with the manipulation
- Keep the material in view
- Mark an unresolved reading
Use a term with its boundary
Shibori is not a synonym for every blue-and-white cloth, and batik is not a generic word for painted decoration. A preferred term should travel with its cultural and catalogue context.
- Check the source record
- Preserve the community or place as catalogued
- Avoid using a technique as a mood board
