The coast is a
special place for many people, evoking memories of childhood
vacations or time spent admiring its beauty. This latest entry
in Search Press’ Stitched Textiles series explores one
artist’s love affair with the seaside and how she creates
pictures that express it in paint and thread.
I always enjoy the books in this series, as
I love the way that each book not only shows how to do it
but gives an insight into an artist’s vision and methods
of working. Everybody’s style is different, and a good
primer will give the tools and understanding to do it yourself,
but also see how the author does it. This is not a book about
wearable, washable textiles but the sort of art you can hang
on the wall, so the list of materials includes things like
different types of paper, many with a good wet strength. Reading
through the lists of items Ms Hislop uses was fascinating,
as it includes various types of wax, gauze, and many other
unusual things. Seeing them put through their paces to create
art was quite an education, as was seeing the sketchbooks
the artist makes of marks and patterns and having a go at
some of the exercises. There are chapters on her use of color,
composition rules, how she uses a sewing machine to free motion
stitch, and how to turn those sketch book marks into stitches.
Other chapters look at dividing a page into sea, sky, and
shore and creating a series of pictures, working with texture
and making the horizon your focal point. After all this learning,
it is time to have a go at some projects, and there are four
of these, interspersed with a look at how to get certain effects
right. These include atmosphere, creating a sense of movement,
and items found on the shoreline. Each section has plenty
of examples, and the projects have the type of staged photographs
Search Press do so well, and which give even a beginner a
chance at making a decent fist of it. This is a very inspiring
book that will give anybody many ideas to explore.
If
you cannot find a good range of embroidery and needlecraft
materials locally, try www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.
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