Teaching Creative Workshops In Person And Online

Teaching Creative Workshops In Person And Online

Patricia van den Akker

Herbert Press

For those of us who teach on a regular basis, the time around the lockdowns saw a change - suddenly everything moved online. I personally had no experience of teaching without the usual in-person setting until this time. It was new, yet I adapted like so many do. But time goes on and we can get rusty, or actually have never really taken the time to really polish skills.

This guide, written by Patricia van den Akker, a creative business advisor, supports us to train ourselves to become better teachers for our students.

This book is for those who really are serious about teaching, I see it as an intensive course, one which you will actually be trained by. Not bad for a book of around 250 pages right?

Impossible to go into every corner of this book, marketing, target audiences, the decision to teach online or in person…..oh it is soo much but it is so good. The author also finishes with encouragement, as to how to get onto that next level of teaching.

There are first had teacher boxes, with interviews, where we learn not only key skills but how these teachers work in their lives; what they do to nourish themselves. Those who do work in education will be aware that there is a need to feed oneself first, before giving out to others. You have to be in a place where you can give and that takes time, thought, planning, self education, learning skills, learning teaching skills….it is not a case of rocking up in a classroom and expecting outcomes.

So all you educators out there, go grab your copy today.

Bojagi

Bojagi

The Art Of Korean Textiles

Youngmin Lee

Herbert Press

I had to look for a definition to learn what this book was going to be about, it is a technique which had been out of my sight. The cover made me think of patchwork, so I wrongly taken its content to be about this subject. This book is totally a cultural love nest celebrating the true context of Korean textiles.

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In My Nature

In My Nature

Sustainable Art and Autism

James Owen Thomas

Herbert Press

The worth of this book

Monty Don, a well known writer, gardener and - I hate the title but ‘personality’ in his own right (admittedly one of my own loves) had chosen to write the forward to this title.

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Paper Flowers

Paper Flowers

15 Stylish Projects to Make Your Own

Almeja Space

Sine and Sara Finne Frandsen

Quadrille Publishing Ltd

As a child, I learned how to make paper flowers with my mother. Simple twists, in crepe paper (hard to come by back then for some reason) and those bendy sticks with wire in them - the name lost to the age. It was enjoyable, but not furthered, developed into an artisan skill. I always thought it a method of art for children, not adults.

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RSN Stitch Bank: 200 Essential Embroidery Stitches

RSN Stitch Bank: 200 Essential Embroidery Stitches

The Royal School of Needlework

Search Press

Is this title simply another stitch dictionary? No, it is most certainly not. Sitting rather large and thick in size (336 pages in all) it is not the size which here counts. No, it is the reason this book has been curated and throughtfully been brought together by The Royal School of Needlework. It is all about conservation, holding onto this heirloom in our midst which is Embroidery.

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Connecting Threads Tactile Social History

Textiles for practicality, for projects, for cold hearted technique. What is your understanding of what Textiles should and actually is - if we make it so? Setterington here by leads us through evidence to solidify that actually, Textiles matters. Rather than a icy device, Textiles can be your, my, our vice. It can take us by the hand to mend more than a moth eaten jumper - wellness for soul.

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Wild yarn

Wild Yarn

Creating hand-spun yarn from ethnical fibres

Imogen Bright Moon

Looking at the cover of Wild Yarn, I felt underwhelmed, it seemed so alien from my own art practice. On reading though, it is the sense and the meaning behind Imogen’s practice which makes you really want to read further, no matter what your own favoured textile art method is.

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The Art of Pressed Leaves

The Art of Pressed Leaves

New Ideas in Pressed Leaves and Flowers

Jennie Ashmore

As a child, I was taught to document the passing of time, through foraging for items found on walks within our locality - namely leaves. I fondly remember hand in hand with my mother, coming home to open books to store these treasures.

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Improv Quilts

Improve Quilts

Building Confidence In Color and Technique

Laura Loewen

Search Press

Some of us work well by rules, the rest of us love to rebel. I at heart, hate straight lines, I do not enjoy measuring and calculating. That is why I write about Textiles rather than be a tailor. So the title of this book have my curious nature a nudge

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Textile Travels Paris

Textile Travels Paris

Rebecca Devaney & Jo Andrews

As we sit in the dark patchy space between winter and spring, we nest, yet feel comfort derived from a dual sense of a plan - a future adventure, something to “look forward” to. If you are of the arty type as I am, you will feel a need to include this within your list when choosing where you go. Devaney and Andrews have used their own experiences traveling such cities as Paris, New York, London…

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Seasons Around The Table

Imagine fairytale weddings, instagram worthy floral displays and food to make you want to cook - all the simplistic pleasures in life, which we may sacrifice due to professed need - i.e. other things get in the way and suddenly we lack ourselves joy, be being allowed to be happy. Personally I see this book as a visual and textural life lesson.

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Styling Beyond Instagram

Styling Beyond Instagram

Take your Prop styling skills from the Square to the Street

Robin Zachary

Schiffer Publishing

As an artist, I seem to battle so many forks. Those who follow this path with me, know that yes a 9-5 career would have been so much more restful - but fulfilling? No. We cannot hope to be good at everything - we have to be our business start ups, funding, artist, writer, promoter…..do we teach within the arts? Do we write? Something is bound to be neglected.

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Marking Time with Fabric and Thread

Marking Time with Fabric and Thread: Calendars, Diaries And Journals Within You Fiber Art

Tommye McClure Scanlin

I opened this book, expecting it to be an easy scan and review - you see, I have a pile of jobs to do and although I love a cover to cover submergence into the finer detail of the text, aesthetics and placement - I just havent the time. Well, I said. That was the plan.

I realise that on doing so, I would actually be being disrespectful to the author and publishing house. Naturally some art books are easier read than others. There are those where we get the expected, yet there will also always be the displacement from this rule. I am please to tell you that this book hits that nail.

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Whitework Embroidery with Colour

Whitework Embroidery with Colour: Ten stunning projects with reusable iron-on transfers

Trish Burr

Search Press

This paperback guide, uses the traditional method of Whitework in a compemporary way.

The usual method of Whitework is of course, seen in white, usually with a coloured background so the thread and pattern stitched takes key view. But this can seem boring, a look best left for the historical or familial samplers of a bye-gone age. Burr here pledges to bring this method up to date.

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Sew Your Own Nursery Rhyme Old MacDonald

Sew Your Own Nursery Rhyme Old MacDonald

SARAH SIMI

Search Press

I am always honest within my reviews, yet I hope this never presses on too negative a thought. I said yes to my lovely contact at Search Press to review this title; however inside I had pre-judged it. Already it was twee, stupid and for those who were more “tacky”. I silently apologise to anyone this ever in my mind resembled, because I have well and truly been bitten by the farm bug, one which was inside of me in truth all along.

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