From Art to Stitch (Textile Artist) Paperback – November 10, 2015

I didn't think I'd like this book as much as I did. Edmonds has that wonderful British training in fiber art and she uses it to make delightful work that is full of life.

Very nice book. I am so glad to have it. I haven't yet spent time with it that I want to, but it has already inspired me.

This book is a showcase for the techniquesand talents of innovative textile artists.It takes you through the process of findingan inspiration to making the amazingpieces of art.The beginning of the book takes you throughthe amazing array of materials that canbe used to create amazing pieces of art.Each section is dedicated to a differentartist and the amazing way they usedifferent materials and methods tocreate their art.The break down of how the artist uses inspirationand makes them into their pieces.Each of the artists use the most amazingpieces of inspiration to break it downand make it into their own interpretation.It can be anything from another pieces of artto a photo to an everyday object.They either replicate it as they see it,using stitches and colouror they take the design and make it intoa unique piece of art.I love the fact that not only are stitches usedthey also use other too items to make the items sing.This book is a real inspiration.If you want to take your art to a new levelthen you'll be very interested in this book.You can also use this book as a brilliantread that explains the artist and their methods to you.Each artist is so unique.Each piece takes its own personality on.I received this book to review.However all opinions expressed are my own.No monies were exchanged.

ordered the series - great info

Well thought out and written a pleasure to read and work from.

The work is beautiful and shown to great advantage with good photography and excellent printing. The problem is, the author describes her process, but fails to make a connection with the reader. The writing sounds like her working notes or journal entries. In other words, she does not write to her audience. An editor should have worked with her to address this problem.

This is a wonderful book for Textile Artists. It's not a how-to but a how-to-think and see art based on some simple to understand theories and examples. Wow!

Very useful exercises, useful for many art applications

I find it quite difficult deciding whether or not to buy a book online because often they don't actually provide the information I need to decide whether it's worth it or not. For this one, having previously been a student of Janet's on a City & Guilds (not that I finished, despite me taking twice as long as it should have - heath issues, what can I say, they're tricky!), and having some of her other books, and liking the way she teaches, I took a punt. And I'm SO GLAD that I did. I've not been able to do any creative embroidery for years, and I want to ease myself back into it, but being unwell can't stick to the schedules required for online courses. So I thought, try books that you can do at your own pace. This one hits the spot. Having looked through it a few times at the images, then reading the text, I do feel hugely excited and inspired to try doing some of the ideas in the book and maybe then develop my own ideas.The images are a good size and super clear, so along with the text, it is entirely possible to use the book and follow along with what Janet has done as projects yourself at home. Alternatively, if you're more confident, you can use the book as a springboard to developing your own ideas. Janet suggests further ways to explore or develop ideas for design and sewing for several of the artist sections.However, what this book does NOT do is tell you how to say do monoprinting or a particular stitch. It's not a 'do this then that then this and you will get this result' book. I don't see that as much of an issue as Janet clearly uses the right 'names' for the techniques that if you search online there's a wealth of information on blogs with tutorials or youtube or pinterest or the like freely available. It probably would help if you had a basic hand stitches traditional book but you can look the stitches up individually on the web. Personally I'd say if you have say a Mary Thomas stitches book and then something like Constance Howard or Jan Beaney's New Approaches type book which shows how traditional stitches can be manipulated to be shorter or longer or thicker or thinner etc, then it would help you understand what stitches she uses where and how if you for example have really only ever used kits or charts for stitching, though you can see from the samples she does in the book how she's manipulated the traditional stitches to explore different effects. I see Janet's done a book on Printing, I imagine the techniques one needs would be in there but I don't own it.So, instead of being a step by step tutorial type book, what the book does is expects you to either already know or go off and learn the very basic way of how to do a technique in a traditional way, then explains how you can play around with that basic knowledge to create more complex, layered and composed results with it, then combine it with others to get to a finished piece where everything flows together.And I think this is the key strength of the book, and is exactly the way Janet teaches - in a class whether it's design or stitch, she tells you the basic materials you need, she shows you how to do the very basic technique, then suggests ways to play around and develop it and lets you get on with it, whilst also having examples and samples she's made herself which spark off your own ideas. This way of teaching is pretty much how City & Guilds courses work, which aim to provide a gold standard/ industry benchmark of knowledge and quality of ideas that can be used in a variety of disciplines that culminates in a high quality, well thought out and 'suitable for it's function' final result. This book covers the design principles of colour, form, line, shape and dimensionality and how to use them with the inspiration and by following Janet's progression one can see how the explorations lead to a resolved final 'thing'. I particularly appreciate the many different ways the design and stitch samples are put together so that they are a specific resource in themselves that can be used to develop further work - the days of window mounting on the flat or sticking them in a box all muddled up are over!Overall I think it's a really strong book that I can use to get myself excited about designing and stitching my own work again.So. That's what I think the book gives. What's actually inside?Pages 1 -19 - Introduction about why Janet chose the artists she did and what inspired her, and expanations of the type of art and sewing materials that may be required to either follow her ideas, or create your own. Really high quality and delicious images all through the book. Yes, the materials list won't have many surprises for an experienced embroiderer but will help give an inexperienced one who wants to see if they can do creative embroidery (say if they've previously followed charts or tutorials only) confidence that magical stuff can be done with materials they're familiar with.Pages 20 - 37 - Artist 1 - Chuck Close. Never heard of him? Me either! I googled and also looked on Pinterest. This was the point at which I realised, having already flicked through the book several times, that NO actual reproductions of the artists work are incuded. Everything is Janet's work inspired by the artist. Which I found interesting because being familiar with the other artists' work, I had found each section instantly recognisable as being their 'style'. Anyway, Chuck Close, used to do enormous scale super realistic portraits, then later in life he has moved to using a grid of little squares of circles of colour to make the portraits, pixellated fashion.The 'design' part involves pencil drawings and paint, collage, playing with scale and using a family photo.The 'sewing' part involves hand sewing from family of straight stitches, the samples are collated into a concertina book and the final outcome is a Portrait, a panel and a brooch.Pages 38 - 55 - Artist 2 - Van Gogh. Nineteenth Century artist known for his swirling textured colourful paintings.Design - Collage and mark making in complementary colours (ie red & green, also shades of colour ie yellow orange and brown).Sewing - Manipulating fabric, beads, making fringing and straight stitches. Samples in bookmark shape. Finished pieces two bags and a brooch.Pages 56 - 70 Artist 3 - Kandinsky. Twentieth Century artist known for colourful abstract floating shapes.Design - Line drawings including some charmingly weird crazy creatures that she then makes in 3D from found objects (loved the kookiness of this interpretation), exploring negative and positive space.Sewing - Samples sewing on cloth and applying to card or onto the card to make floating shapes, with tassels, couching and found objects. Finished pieces a 3D structure in a box frame and a brooch.Pages 70 - 91 - Artist 4 - Hundertwasser - Twentieth century artist known for linear eccentric forms in bright colours.Design - Paper and card collage with raised up areas.Sewing - couching, darning, padded, line & fill stitches, cords: by hand and machine. Samples presented on luggage tags in a book with pockets. Finished pieces 2 boxes and brooches.Pages 92 - 109 - Artist 5 - Morandi - Twentieth century artist known for still lifes with a neutral colour palatte.Design - casting small vessels/jars using modroc & paper pulp. Also markel stick rubbings and colour & texture studies.Sewing - stumpwork (loved this idea) also darning and straight stitches hand & machine. Samples in bas relief in a frame book with slipcase. Finished pieces a still life in bas relief.Pages 110 - 127 - Artist 6 - John Piper - Twentieth century artist known for atmospheric architecture paintings.Design - charcoal drawing, monoprints layered over each other. Samples in a folded book.Sewing - free machining to make 'lacey fabric' with dissovable, and using a frame. Hand straight stitches and detached chain. Finished Piece an architectural panel.Pages 128 - 143 - Artist 7 - Matisse - Twentieth century artist known for pattern and showing fabric and interiors.Design - collage using painted papers, composition experiments.Sewing - composite stitch family (lock stitch, wave stitch etc). Final piece two wallhangings using hand and machine stitch and ditigal printed fabric.Page 144 - Index.Finally, this year Janet has won both the medal from City & Guilds for being an outstanding tutor and also the Broderers Prize.

The book is an inspirational read. It does cover basic materials, tools and media needed, although it lacks details on methods.However, I feel this book is an excellent tutorial on designing from inspirational artists or in fact whatever source you have chosen.Janet goes through sketching from source material. development of ideas and onto implementation of final ideas. Clearly written and explained.I have read over this book several times and find something new and interesting every time.I believe this book is useful to all levels of textile workers...from beginner to experienced....who are looking to create their own textile pieces.

This book comes in three parts. The first deals with equipment then design development (about 1/3 of book total); and truthfully was a bit disappointing as I didn't feel it told me anything new or anything that I haven't seen before at least a couple of times in other books - so I did struggle with the rating. However, this is made up for by the 2nd, much more interesting section that takes well known artists' work and shows development through sketches and textile work to finished products, lots of it in 3D. A really useful visual journey. The last section also deals with design development, through drawing and stitch, with a gallery of processes and finished work. Recommended if you don't already have this sort of thing covered already.

A Brilliant Book!This book arrived literally 20 minutes ago and I am absolutely delighted with it. It's cram bag full of beautiful, colourful images and there are so many tips, how to's and ideas that it's sure to keep me busy for months! I have a large collection of textile books but this one is definitely up there with my top ten favourites and I haven't even got started on it yet! It's a brilliant addition to any mixed media or textile artists library, so whether your a novice or a seasoned textile art junkie I recommend this book - you wont be disappointed.

What an amazing treasure trove of ideas and, and more pertinently, ways to extend those ideas, as well as 'permission' to develope the work of other artists you admire into your own. The last three sections: Hunderwasser, Morandi (whose Museum I passed several times in Bologna and didn't appreciate until now!! Thanks, Janet) and John Piper, appealed to me especially. No need to feel blocked in your ideas...with this book as a guide, your can respond to your favourite artists and follow your emotional reactions into realms which will give you wonderfully shocked (and I suspect) delighted surprises. DO dip your toe in!!