Have you ever
wanted to capture the beauty of a place in fabric and thread?
This book will tell you everything you need to know about
building up a picture using, as the subtitle states "hand
embroidery, layering and surface stitching" so you can
create a masterpiece.
This is a big book with sturdy board covers
and it gives a pretty exhaustive account of certainly everything
I can think of on the topic. It is the sort of book you need
to read through a bit at a time as you work, and is a most
impressive feat of writing. The author lives in Australia
and the pictures she works through depict this country in
all its beauty, although everything in here can be applied
to whatever landscape you want to show. Ms. Wilford takes
you from choosing materials and setting up a workspace to
drawing out your sketch, layering up fabric for the background
and deciding on stitches right through to mounting and framing.
This is not a book for beginners, more for the confident hand
embroiderer who wants a challenge and to go beyond commercial
patterns and kits to their own choice of picture. Helpful
drawn diagrams and staged photos are backed up with a lot
of print for some foolproof projects to work through, or read
through and create your own pictures. There are many pages
of surface elements, namely grasses, trees and other plants,
as well as tips for building up different landscapes. These
are of course mostly plants that are found in Australia, but
the simple rules for building up the shapes again apply to
any - a wise idea that gives this book a lot of international
appeal. This is not the only book on the market that deals
with this subject, but it is by far the most in-depth. One
for the keeper shelf. |