Then I stumbled upon her again in this post of Lark Crafts blog. It turns out she is one of 30 featured artists in the book PUSH Paper: 30 Artists Explore the Boundaries of Paper Art which is one of the first two books published in the new gallery series PUSH from Lark Crafts. This video gives a good idea of her work, but it is worth looking at her website to see the static images too.

The second book in the new series is PUSH Stichery is curated by Jamie Chalmers – aka Mr. X Stitch. My niece introduced me to his blog Mr X Stitch earlier this year. This post on the Lark Crafts blog gives you a good taste of the goodies each book offers. Two books worth putting on your wish list. I’m adding them to mine!

Well today I received an email to tell me that I’ve made it into the second round of judging for inclusion into the gallery section of the book. Apparently there was such a huge response that a second round became necessary. Now I have to wait until early 2012 to hear whether Dad’s portrait makes it into the book or not. I also have to get through the vetting process to ensure that the images satisfy the technical specifications. I don’t expect that to be a problem because Sqeze took great care to follow the letter of the law on that account – that was one of the reasons for photographing outside in the rain – to get the best light possible as no manipulation of the images was allowed.

To keep the creative juices flowing I’ve bought 2 books recently. The first one I ordered after seeing an advert in Quilting Arts for the latest book by Yoshiko Jinzenji. In the end after reading various reviews I decided to buy her earlier book Quilt Artistry.

In this book Yoshiko Jinzenji tells in her own words her thirty year quilting journey from discovering handmade quilts amidst commercial fluffy bedspreads in a store in Toronto in 1970 to mastering the art of natural white dyeing using bamboo. The book has many photographs of her beautiful quilts and even directions as to how to make some of them. The quilts are serene, but have a strong visual presence. I read the book in one evening – I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

The second purchase was following a recommendation by Elizabeth Barton in her class Working in Series that I am currently taking at QU. It is about Notan – a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark next to one another in art and imagery.

It is a great introduction into the concepts of figure and ground and the importance of positive and negative space in visual arts. Originally published in 1968 it has been reprinted by Dover Publications in 1991. There are six exercises of increasing difficulty that will really help to fully understand the concepts of using light and dark values. This book is certainly a great addition to my library of art books – and at the price of 7€ an amazing bargain.

It took me a little longer to read this book although it had fewer pages, but there is so much useful information on each page that you just have to take the time to read it carefully.

In this chapter, the general format is to list the design references, the observations made, the drawing approaches and the stitch techniques used.

This is what makes this book a real joy to use. It is the longest chapter and contains many examples of work from different artists. For each piece you get an insight into the design process from inspiration to final product. The final chapter covers using stitch to indicate texture and surface.

What struck me most was that nearly all the stitching is using very simple stitches either by hand or machine. No complicated stitches and yet the variety of the finished pieces is quite astounding. I have been wanting to include more stitch in my textile work for some time, but I was at a loss as to how to do so without it appearing contrived. This book provides plenty of ideas as to how to include stitch as an integral part of the design. Most of the design inspiration comes from observations of the environment be it rural or urban. The finished pieces are almost all abstract pieces composed from details of the original source. A strong recommendation for anyone interested in using line/stitch better in their textile art.

The second book is Experimental Textiles by Kim Thittichai. What attracted my attention to this book was that the book was named after a 30-week course the author wrote and taught for seven years.

Experimental Textiles was originally written as a one-year course but my students just would not leave and so eventually it developed into a four year course

I presumed that I was getting a condensed version of the course. Condensed is the operative word here. I was disappointed with the book on the first reading. The suggested exercises are rather sketchily explained and often one is directed to another source (book) to gain more detailed knowledge. In second longer part of the book (70 pages rather than 36) there are quite a large number of pieces of textile work by various artists and past students. These are roughly gathered together under themes: choosing your subject, interpretation, 3D, and scale. Each piece is illustrated with mostly only one image, sometimes with a detail. I felt that the descriptions were lacking in depth – it read more like an exhibition catalogue than a book that was really going to give any hands on information on techniques or processes.

I’ve since reread the book a second time and have found some ideas to try that has tempered my disappointment somewhat. But it is not a book I would strongly recommend to anyone. I’m not sure how long it will remain on my bookshelves.

Sqeze is currently taking an online course on digital photography. He ordered the book The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman at the same time as I ordered Experimental Textiles. He got the better deal.

This book is about composition and design for better digital photos, but there is a wealth of information in it that is equally pertinent to any other graphic art form. As examples Chapter 2 is titled Design Basics and covers such topics as contrast, balance, rhythm, figure and ground. Chapter 3 covers graphic and photographic elements including points, lines, curves, triangles. Each of the topics is illustrated with photographs showing good and the best examples. Often there are a range of images taken of the same subject and the author explains the final choice. Obviously not all the information in the book is relevant to textile art, but I personally enjoy reading about these topics in the context of another medium. It is good to see composition and principles of design from another perspective.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a beautifully illustrated and clearly written text on composition and design.

Finally a book which has nothing to do with art per se. It is actually a business book. I’m talking about Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson.

I really read it with my day time hat on – that of Test Manager and software tester, but I found some interesting ideas that can be applied to any business. Anyone toying with the idea of taking a hobby a step further and maybe earning some money with their textile art will find topics of interest in this book. The book is organised around various chapter headings that gather short texts together. These texts read like blog entries, I’m guessing they originally were. Under the heading Go there are topics such as “Start making something”, “You need less than you think”.
This is a book you can dip into and find something of interest to read if you only have a few minutes. It is refreshingly down to earth and avoids any kind of hype.

This book isn’t based on academic theories. It’s based on our experience. Along the way, we’ve seen two recessions, one burst bubble, business-model shifts, and doom-and-gloom predictions come and go – and we’ve remained profitable through it all.

What worked for them could work for you too.

So today I hopped into bed again with some fine felt tip pens and a small sketch book and started drawing cats. A couple of days ago I did spend some time looking at photos of cats on the internet. (I don’t have one of my own yet …) It is amazing how many horrible photographs of cats there are out there on the web. Poor cats draped in scarves, wearing silly hats, adorned with bit of orange peel – where do people get their ideas from? Well anyway my research was a bit fraught, but the results are ok. Some sketches are a bit off – my mandarin chinese cat was supposed to be a cross and spitting cat, but there you go. Not every one is a winner!

Here are my five pages of cats in chronological order:

And here are two cats that I feel are quite good sketches:

I couldn’t make up my mind whether to go for a realistic sketch of a cat or a more comic approach. Apart from some painting exercises on my C&G course I’ve not done any drawing since I left school and I was never one of the star pupils in the art classes. For a first attempt I think the results are nothing to be ashamed of. Follow me on my journey of 52 weeks of fun with drawing.

Although I’ve done quite a bit of dyeing now, including some shibori dyeing, I still found new information in those chapters that I hadn’t though of until now. I’ve only read three chapters so far, but it was enough to know that I shall benefit and learn more from reading the remaining chapters, and enough to know that I should be recommending it here.

As one of the reviewers, Catherine Bargar, said on amazon

If you were faced with the dreaded “only one” question for a comprehensive book on mastering the processes of making complex cloth, this would be IT.

Mrs Henderson last saw the 6ft by 3ft patchwork coverlet more than 65 years ago. But yesterday, now aged 78 and a widow, she was reunited with it at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where it takes pride of place at the heart of a new exhibition.

Today, when we have access to so many products to use for quilting and quilting has become a huge industry pandering to our wishes for more, more, more, it is sobering to read such stories. We should probably all think twice before we spend ever more money on ever more stuff. Many times I have found the same thing cheaper at a non-quilting supplier. I also try to use what I have before buying new. With a bit of imagination things can be transformed and utilised.

If, like me, you are probably not going to make it to the exhibition the catalogue would seem to be the next best thing. This review on Whipup makes a convincing case for buying it, should you need one:

Every now again a book comes past my desk that just makes me want to sing its praises to the world

Sneaky Amazon of course recommended more books to buy and I couldn’t resist this one by Claire Schaeffer. When I’ve finished by C&G course I am hoping to find time to do some more dressmaking. I’ve taken 2 tailoring classes in the past so not all of the techniques in this book are new to me, but it is an excellent guide to couture sewing techniques and there are plenty of new tips and techniques to justify the purchase. You also get an interesting glimpse into the workings of the ateliers of the Haute Couture.

And finally if Haute Couture and tailoring interest you, you might like to take a look at the English Cut blog by bespoke savile row tailor Thomas Mahon. Not one of my regular reads, but one I return to at infrequent intervals.