Featured
Do not be daunted. That is my first suggestion before you begin to read this title and think…this is too much. Let me lead you through my thoughts.
About the writer and artist who is Caroline Ross
A life in the arts, a life in nature. The two run through Ross like a stream, never-ending or separating. In my eyes, she is a key example of someone who lives a life this way, it is no office career, left on a Friday returned to on a Monday, This is an artist who needs to be one, no choice in the matter. Some of us find our place and it looks like she has.
For most of us, we take for granted the copious amount of embroidery guides, all focused at what could be seen as the ‘normal’ stitcher - right handed is a given, not a question we ever ask. But what about those who do not fit? Should the 15% of the population who are yes, left handed (okay not all into stitching but you get the point) Be just overlooked as too little a number to be bothered by? Cowan and Schiffer publishing certainly don’t hold this opinion.
Introduction
Glancing at this book’s title, I noted the word foraged. Immediately my mind conjured up a mid-forest scene, maybe a truffle hunter or a wood cutter from a long forgotten tale. In other words, I had a definite description and a vision of what foraging was - is. Turing to the inner page, I am wrong. Let me tell you more.
Natural Yarn Dyes
25 vibrant and sustainable recipes
Anna Bauer and Eva Zethraeus
Search Press
What is the idea of the book?
We are often concerned about the environment and what we put into it as well as our own health. Thus the need to look to plants rather than strong chemicals. This is especially of interest when we are working with our hands using such mediums as dye. So that is where this book comes in - providing us with the knowledge to make our own natural plant based dyes.
This book is ideal for those of us who struggle with conceptualising ideas ourself and need a back up plan - a way of creating beautiful embroidery with a little inspiration and a pathway to follow.
First thoughts? I felt out of my depth, the front cover shows a sample of perfectly placed, shaded stitches, forming a few nature posed motifs. I am an embroiderer, however I enjoy creating my ‘version’ of events. This seemed in binary opposition to my own practice….how could I aspire to this neat world? Yet I looked within, and now deem this to be more than a traditional fixed title, let me explain.
For those of us who shudder at perfectionism - maybe we are scared by it - this book may at first yes, frighten you. But hold on - it gets interesting.
Art is a gift, just as life is a gift. We can choose to notice it, or keep our head down - survive. We are not all going to be famous artists - we do not need to be, but we do however need to see. See what? Let Hessel guide you.
May I begin this review my making sure you are aware that this is a reprint of a book, initially published back in 2015. You might ask a few questions, given a decade has gone by. Namely, is it still relevant for us today? Was it a moment in art time, something past not present? I will explore my own highlights of this book within my review and show why this book is not a time related title.
What’s your Crochet memory? Most of us will have had one. As a child, my grandmother's closest friend was a keen house decorator - of the crochet kind. Filled with cushions, waistcoats, tea cosy, those old fashioned armchair protectors…oh and the ahem toilet seat cover (warm eh). Then there was my own mother. I am still awaiting my blanket…..one day…..
As I am writing my review isn the autumn, this book sits will all around me in a marriage of the pumpkin spice, red golden fallen leaves vibe. It is 168 pages long and has a consistent colour palette, of pastel and apricot and all things in this wheel. Think of all the beauty of the season from September - that is this book.
My introductory thoughts
Life matters, yet it is so easy to let the rush in and the rest out. Through this title, Ford endeavours to suggest ways we can let the natural surroundings - our environment which has been there all along, into our lives.
Quilting can be seen as so many things, it is the chameleon of the textile world.
Only twenty two when there are so many flowers out there….I said to myself quietly. Wouldn’t it have been nicer to have a bigger more page ridden bible of a book, filled with all the flowers one can imagine?
My own thoughts and notes
A fellow artist, Helen Adams has long since been sitting well and truly on the edge of the arts. Her website, her name Textile Curator, so simple and obvious, and so memorable
In a society where we obsess over recycling, get fined if we get it wrong - paper, plastic….goodness depending on your catchment area, you will be led down a different law path. Let me ask - do you get great joy from separating the lids from the bottles, the papers from the non recyclable plastic ready meal dishes….do you meditate while doing it thinking, wow, I am saving the earth, what beautiful materials?
Dynamic. That is the word that stood out to me in this most recent tile, by Irene Roderick. It suggests fresh, new, enthusiastic, full of life. How does this relate to making quilts? It is a traditional craft, one which could have been done by Prairie women and modern artist alike. However it depends on the style. It is, as I seem an exciting genre.
Basic idea behind this book
This is a real get into it book - it is in my opinion, not a “read and leave it on the page” - the whole point is to use its education to provide you with the ability to surface design yourself. It is a book with a direct intent, a purpose. If you are not wanting to use it, do not bother to buy it.
Unfolding Cloth
Inspiration From Historical Textiles
Hannah Lamb
Batsford
Inital insights
Hannah Lamb has long since been a vocal shout to the fragile, broken and beautiful cloth and fibre family, which may reside in our own homes, in our own drawers - you know the ones - filled with grandmothers white tablecloth and napkins, the ones which only see shades of light on holidays or Sundays.
Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work
Tien Chiu
Schiffer Craft
As an artist myself, I know I have worked out my practice, I know who I want to be…but do I know how to successfully promote this to an audience? Do I understand how to make money from what I do? Or do I know how to sell my work? I may struggle to balance these areas, but for those of which art is a career, the way we, you both make sense of the world and manage to have enough financially to remain in it - this is vital.
So in comes this title and maybe, just maybe this will be the tool, the chip to elongate for career in a practice you love.
The Red Dress Conversations In Stitch
Kirstie Maclead and voices from the embroidery project
Quickthorn
What is the red dress about?
This is a project, directed and brought into fruition by Kirstie Maclead, which offered a vocal visual pathway for women to be able to speak their truth through embroidery.
The project involved the cross land pulling of fifty one countries and three hundred embroiderers, all with one fabric - the red dress itself.
I would like to begin by revealing to you my first noted thoughts…..
Resistance. Itchy. Universal language of stitch can convey message of weight more than its fibrous cloth.
First thoughts?
I meet many students who find the idea of creating something which does not look like a likeness difficult - no matter what technology has come into fruition there is always the narrative in the background of making what we see, what we know. But how risky would it be, if one day we came out from under that protection - the known and walk into some excitement? Because that is how I see Anne Kellys new publication.