On the same shiny, glitzy front as last week’s review, we have Bead and Sequin Embroidery Stitches by Stanley Levy. If you ever think you might want to bead your own cabaret bellydance costume, or just add a bit of shiny glitz to an embroidery project or crazy quilt, this book will teach you how to do it.
Mr. Levy has been doing beadwork since World War II, and has become highly respected in the field, beading many of the costumes for British figure skaters — and later teaching beadwork for the City & Guilds program. It is this teaching background that is wonderfully evident in the book.
One of the first things Mr. Levy tells you is something he tells his students — “do it my way and then go on to do it your way.”Once the basics are known, experimentaiton is what develops good design and new technique.
What I like most about this book is is carefully designed excercises for learning how the materials work with the stitches he teaches. I highly recommend getting sequins and beads specifically to play with and create a sampler of these excercises. The rest of the book contains a chapter of designs you can use to embellish clothing or costumes, or just to practice and frame. The book wraps up with eye candy and inspirational pieces from Mr. Levy and his students.
Very very pretty, and a book I go back to repeatedly when I’m working on a beaded costume.
This book was my holiday present to myself. I love bead and sequin embroidery – it’s the glitz factor that also keeps me in cabaret bellydance instead of tribal…. ooo! Shiny!
There are many artists out there doing bead embroidery in heavy collars and bracelets. The two authors of this book (Heidi Kummli & Sherry Serafini) are two of the best.
I didn’t actually buy this book for technique information, as I already have my own methods for the work I do. But just leafing through it has given me some new ideas (and so will their websites). Unlike so many art and craft technique books on the market today (that seem to want to hide parts of the technique the artist used so you really can’t reproduce their designs, these two women have shared many little details such as finishing techniques and their favorite adhesives and stitches, that will allow you to truly create something lovely.
The designs start with an easy belt buckle, with each step illustrated with a clear colored photo from glue to stitching, and progress up to a huge beaded collar, all with the same standards of instruction. While I haven’t tried any of the techniques yet, I’m impressed with the reading of them.
And the inspiration is wonderful! This was the real reason I bought this book, and it hasn’t disappointed me. The photos are clear and luscious and the depth of color and texture these women use in their work is amazing.
If you are at all interested in decadently embellished all-bead encrusted embroidery, I have no problem recommending this book.
I have a bit of an addiction. If it’s a stitch dictionary, if I don’t already own it I am probably standing there considering buying it. Recently I have become more adept at turning myself down when that inner child starts begging, “but MOMMY, it’s a stitch dictionary! I WANT it!!!”
A-Z of Embroidery Stitches: v. 2
Until this one. Now, you have to understand – I don’t own the first volume. Not because I don’t want to – if I find it reasonably priced I’ll probably buy it, too. (I also hate incomplete sets, even if you don’t need all the volumes!)
I bought this volume because it came highly recommended for crazy quilters. I’m always looking for new stitches and combinations of stitches, even though I don’t often do crazy quilting.
Because this is a companion volume, it is missing the very basic stitches that you find in most stitch dictionaries. For me, with all those dictionaries on my shelf, this is itself an advantage. There is an introductory section on how your choice of thread – twist direction, tightness, ribbon, etc, may effect the look of a stitch, how to keep work clean in a hoop, and how to choose the right needle. The tips provided may even prove useful for the experienced embroiderer — I know I found ideas I hadn’t thought of or ever been taught.
The stitches themselves are illustrated with step by step photographs that make it very easy to reproduce them on your own fabric. And the entire book is filled with spot illustrations of vintage tools, and also of completed projects from various Country Bumpkin publications. All in all, a pretty book that I look forward to using until beyond the point it wears out!
It really isn’t her embroidery technique that makes Helen Steven’s work so wonderful. It’s her eye, which she turns to the countryside around her cottage, history, and to myth, that is inspiring.
She has a long list of books to her name, many of which are out of print at the moment, I especially love Myth and Magic of Embroidery, which includes her mythological work as well as her nature studies. Very pretty, and the words that go with the pictures are carefully chosen to pull you deep into the moods of the pieces she showcases.
Her newer books have taken the quick technique overview from the back of her coffee table books and brought it front and center as master classes. Working the projects in these books will give you an understanding of silk shading that is unparalleled. And the designs are her usual gorgeousness (all right, so maybe it isn’t a word, but it ought to be!)
She has masterclass books on animals, butterflies, landscapes, gardens, and flowers and I cherish each one I own. They are as beautiful and almost as lush to read as her overview books. Read just to lose yourself in the English countryside for a while!
This is a new feature for my blog. I’ll tell you right now, I’m only going to review books I like and/or use. The world is just too full of insults and injury for me to want to add to it. I’m adding an Amazon affiliate link for these as well. Don’t feel obligated to buy a copy through me, I highly recommend supporting your local bookseller or needlework shop. But it’s there if you just can’t wait!
When I first saw this book online, I passed it over — I expected it to be something superficial, maybe even glib. With Ricë Freeman-Zachery as the author, I should have known better – I’ve loved her articles in Belle Armoire and Somerset Studio. I actually bought this book at a local craft store after I found myself standing at the rack engrossed for 20 minutes when I really needed to go back to work at my day job.
The book is filled with gorgeous, lush photos of the work of the fifteen included artists’ work, their studios, and quotes from them. But it isn’t a book of profiles, or the kind of studio analysis that makes me jealous. It’s organized around the analyzing what, exactly, creativity IS anyway, how you go about living a creative life, and what defines such a life for each of the artists individually. The “profiles” are mixed in with the theses of each chapter, and each time I turned a page I got drawn in deeper. And in among all of this wonderful discussion there are creativity tips, unique perspective sidebars, and things for you to try to bring some of the ideas into your own work.
And the artists aren’t all the same, either. There are bookbinders, textile artists, jewelry artists, and even a puppet-maker in the mix.
All in all, the book is a deep pool that I wanted to wallow in for hours – and over and over again. It’s not a book I just put on my shelf to look pretty. It is truly inspirational for me.
