Essential Stitch Guides
Royal School of Needlework Series
Becky Hogg
Search Press
October 2010/ ISBN 9781844485512
How-To Books/Embroidery
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
AMAZON
UK
Blackwork
is associated with the 16th century and examples of it can be seen
in many stately homes and museums, often as part of clothing. This
useful little book introduces this lovely and often neglected embroidery
style and forms part of a series of spiral-bound books created by
the famous Royal School of Needlework.
I love the way this book (and all the others in the series) opens
out flat and stays flat, so helpful when working from its many diagrams.
There are other books on this subject of course, but I was impressed
by the way this one shows not only great examples of the past, but
also how blackwork can be used by contemporary needleworkers to
create modern works. It also gives you all the tools you need to
begin, from what you need to buy and how to use the tools and materials,
to working the various stitches. With blackwork you do not need
to learn many stitches and none are difficult to master (if you
are reading this review you are sure to know most of them already);
it is the patterns and how to use them that has often stumped me
when looking at other books. Here there are many patterns given,
each showing a squared grid marking the stitches and a worked example.
There is information, too, on how to achieve the shading effect,
and lots of examples of modern work including a wonderful tiger’s
head, portraits, abstracts and even work not done exclusively in
black, or not even in black at all. This might sound surprising
but “blackwork” was not always worked in black in historical
times, and there are some fine examples of what it can look like
in full or partial color. I’ve got more than one book on this
subject on my shelves, but this is definitely the best one so far.
If you want to learn blackwork and get under the skin of how to
design your own patterns and pictures, then this is an excellent
place to do so.
Reviews of other titles in the Royal School of Needlework
Series
Blackwork
Silk
Shading
Crewelwork
Stumpwork
Bead Embroidery
Appliqué
Raised
Embroidery
The
RSN Book of Embroidery
UK
Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in The Bead
Magazine, Making Jewellery and www.craftsuprint.com/rachel-a-hyde/
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