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Techniques, Projects & Pure Inspiration
Royal School of Needlework Series
Sarah Homfray
Search Press
17 June 2010/ ISBN 1844485854
How-To Books/Embroidery
Reviewed
by Rachel A Hyde
AMAZON
UK
Create lovely
masterpieces without a single paintbrush in sight with silk shading,
a type of embroidery that is often described as “painting
with a needle”. Dating back as far as Ancient Egypt, this
is a highly versatile and freestyle needlecraft that is surprisingly
easy to learn.
This is another good basic book on a topic not often covered from
the Royal School of Needlework. As with the others in the series
it is easy to work from as it has a spiral back and helpfully remains
flat while you are working from it. If the title puts you off and
you imagine spending out on high quality silks that not many stores
stock then don’t worry as this is a misnomer. You can use
silk or rayon for work with a sheen, but many people (myself for
example) prefer working with good old cotton floss. You don’t
need much to do this type of embroidery either, at least nothing
you won’t already own if you already do any other type of
fabric decoration involving needles. The book touches on topics
such as color, composition and planning your design, but if you
are hoping for an in-depth look at any of these aspects of embroidery
design you won’t find them here. Instead you will learn all
the important things you need to know in order to do some silk shading,
including transferring designs, framing up and the stitches themselves.
This series does this particularly well, mixing clear drawn steps
on how to physically work a stitch with photographs of the finished
stitch, a nice touch. The stitches are shown in a single example
and discussed as to the effect produced and why they have been chosen,
which is a good way to understand how they are used. There are a
few projects which demonstrate well how to work some samples, but
I don’t feel that they are for beginner embroiderers, rather
this is a book for those with intermediate skills (or higher) who
want to learn a new technique. Other topics mentioned include incorporating
painted backgrounds, how to work on different types of fabric, and
if it all goes wrong there is even a troubleshooting guide. All
in all, this is an excellent book on how to tackle this type of
work without too much extraneous detail and surprisingly easy to
learn from.
Reviews
of other titles in the Royal School of Needlework Series
Blackwork
Silk
Shading
Crewelwork
Stumpwork
Bead Embroidery
Appliqué
Raised
Embroidery
The
RSN Book of Embroidery
UK
Reviewer: Rachel Hyde's work can be found in The Bead
Magazine, Making Jewellery and www.craftsuprint.com/rachel-a-hyde/
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