Another Review at MyShelf.Com

The Embroidered Art of Chloe Giordano
BY Chloe Giordano

Search Press
1 October 2019/ ISBN 9781782215837
How-To Books / Needlework

Reviewed by Rachel Hyde

AMAZON || AMAZON UK

Welcome to the beautiful needle painted world of young artist Chloe Giordano. This book shows how she makes her stitched studies of woodland animals, taking an in-depth look at her working process and the inspiration behind each piece.

I enjoy doing needle painting myself and am always intrigued to see how other people work when doing something I enjoy. This is not a book of projects, although if you want to try this style of embroidery, it will certainly inspire you to have a go. If you are a beginner Search Press, publish books on how it is done, but this book shows what it can look like when done by somebody with real talent. Discover what tools and materials Ms Giordano uses, what inspires her, and how she gets the raw ideas down on paper first. There are chapters on how she makes multiple sketches to get the composition just right, and her use of color both for the animals and the hand dyed backgrounds to the work. This book is mostly going to be of interest to those who already embroider, so the practical parts on hoop preparation and transferring the design will be of interest, as will the staged photographs showing how she builds up a piece. I tend to use floss when doing this type of thing, but this artist uses ordinary sewing thread, which makes for a far more detailed image. Watching it build up from sketch to lifelike creature is fascinating, and each chapter after the basics is devoted to a particular piece of work. Most of the subjects are British animals such as deer, rabbits, hares, mice, and badgers. There is a wolf cub and Arctic fox too, plus a kingfisher, and they all come to vibrant life, usually taking about forty hours to complete each one. This is an illuminating guide to how to get the best results from thread painting, showing one possible way of working but also giving plenty of useful tips to anybody keen on learning more.

If you cannot find a good range of embroidery materials locally, try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.

UK Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in The Bead Magazine, Making Jewellery and www.craftsuprint.com/rachel-a-hyde/
Reviewed 2020
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