Posted by Agnes Iley , Monday, November 8, 2010 6:53 AM
Book reviews
Creative quilts
Inspiration, Texture & Stitch
Sandra Meech
The question about logs, blogs and sketchbooks kept lingering on my mind. So I decided to “Google” the subject and this book was frequently mentioned.
This book is all about how to develop your creative ideas.
It starts by looking at how to develop an idea you might have. Expand on your idea, by looking at it from different angles, which could give more depth and interest to your final design. One of the techniques used for this is mind mapping.
A technique I find one of the most annoying hypes of recent years in my workplace. But I could see how it could be useful in developing a design idea. Other techniques are geared to get the creative juices flowing when you haven’t decided on a subject matter yet. Amongst other things collage, painting papers, tearing and weaving are used for this.
Throughout the whole book the importance of sketch- and logbooks is emphasized. And helpful hints are given on how to work with them.
The book ends with chapters on how to create volume and relief (texture) and comes up with some interesting techniques on how to achieve this.
Examples are the use of wireform, hobby glue, folding, relief paste and stitching.
There are no projects in this book, instead it’s filled to the brim with ideas and techniques. Perfect for me, I buy books for the techniques and then hope to go my own way with the things I’ve learned.
On a personal note
The writing in this book in combination with the pictures, gave me a much clearer idea about how to use my log- and sketchbooks. I need to look at it differently. I am not jotting down my homework and I am not writing essays for my exams. These books are just there to help me in the design process, they are there to develop the ideas I have. It doesn’t matter if they are going to materialize into anything.
The new textiles
Trends and Traditions
Chloe Colchester
This book is divided in 3 parts; Textile design for fashion and home furnishings, Craft textiles and Textile art. For each of these subjects it provides an overview of the developments in (mostly) post war textile work up to the 1990’s.
These developments are illustrated by the work of many artists and crafters whose work is described and shown in numerous pictures.
I enjoyed reading the book and looking at the many wonderful pictures.
At the same time I got the feeling that the book was going through the various techniques and decades at too high a pace.
Possible I would have preferred less artists mentioned, but a more in depth view of their work?
The layout of the book didn’t help either. Each chapter started with pages of solid text, which were followed by many pages with pictures.
It would definitely have helped to have the text and corresponding pictures together.
Instead I found myself repeatedly flipping back to text, to find the artist’s information that matched the pictures.
The publishing date of “The new textiles” is 1990, since then amazing strides have been made with digital technology for example. An updated version of this book, with hopefully a slightly more user-friendly lay out, would rank high on my must read list.
This book has left me with a long list of artist names that need investigating.
So it could give me pleasure long after I returned it to the library!
Update
Searching the internet I discovered that the author has written another book “Textiles Today: A Global Survey of Trends and Traditions” published in 2007. Unfortunately it’s not available at our library, so it will have to go on my book-wish-list.
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