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by Julia Triston and Rachel Lombard

When I first read this title, “How to be Creative in Textile Art,” I sort of rolled my eyes.  Was a single book really going to cover that broad of a topic?  However, I then saw the book was published by Batsford, meaning excellent work coming out of England, and I gave it a try.  Wow, this book did not disappoint!

The first thing I noticed was the feel of the book. It’s cloth covered, but hard bound, and it is very nice on the fingers. Better still is the content. I love looking at sketchbooks, especially those that show the visual growth of ideas into their eventual fiber form, and this book is loaded with them.

The first main section of the book is called gathering. It covers ideas on how to use a sketchbook for selecting a theme and setting boundaries within that theme; and it continues on with collecting information, recording, evaluating, putting order to your project, sketching, stitching samples, and so on. You’re encouraged to gather and explore everything that you think may be relevant to your project.

The three other main parts of the book are exploration and development (which goes through design development); moving on to stitch (with more ideas, samples, and experiments); and making and evaluating (finalizing your design and creating you textile). There are also some health and safety info, a glossary, further reading, organizations, suppliers, and an index.

The sketchbook above, called the Lion Sketchbook by Rachel Lombard, contain textures that were created with plaster, threads, dripped candle wax, and plastics.  Wow!

Authors Julia Triston and Rachel Lombard, two artists and teachers, share several of their processes from ideas through finished work.  The result is a book that is more than just eye candy; it’s some serious food for creative thought. Highly recommended!

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 2:20 am and is filed under Book Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.