"This stunning book offers a unique perspective on textile designs... a beautiful document of the partnership between artists and manufacturers. Those interested in textiles as well as students of design will find it refreshing and inspirational." Librar

It's a question asked by many budding textile artists: how can I be more creative? You've got a few ideas and know some techniques, but you're not sure how to get started or make your work hang together. This book shows you how. It explains the creative process from the very beginning: where to find inspiration and how to harness those ideas; how to gather source material; how to pull together what you have. The authors then take you on a journey to develop a design. Learn how to put elements together to make a cohesive whole and develop a theme, learning established design rules along the way. Part Three, Moving into Stitch, gives you a range of techniques and easy experiments with which to turn your design into stitched-textile work. From choosing what fabrics to use, to layering, creating texture and adding embellishment, it covers the key techniques to try. This is a terrific book for those starting out in textiles who really do want to be as creative as they can possibly be.

What happens when you focus on Resilience, Relationships and Results as an artist? You thrive. What is holding you back? Why do you stuff your artistic pursuits at the bottom of your agenda? Why have your dreams and artistic visions been shoved into a proverbial shoe box under your bed? How can you prioritize your art? How can you channel the magic that others see in you? How can you make consistent, sustainable revenue from your artistic pursuits? What types of shifts are necessary to allow financial success to be yours? Who are the people holding you back? What are the habits you need to kick right now in order to get there? This is a bold and honest account of one womanʼs journey from "starving artist" to entrepreneur. Filled with anecdotes and advice about how to make it in the world as a creative person. Whether youʼre a painter, a musician, a writer, a chef, a dancer or a stay at home mom who yearns to leap into a new career, this book is for you. Being a starving artist is a choice just as much as becoming a thriving artist is a choice. This is the swift kick in the ass you needed to get working on turning your dreams a reality.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition by the same name to be held at Musaee Matisse, Le Cateau-Cambraesis, Oct. 23, 2004-January 25 2005, Royal Academy of Arts, London, March 5-May 30 2005, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 23-September 25, 2005.

A practical and inspirational guide to help embroiderers and textile artists make the most of sketchbooks to inform their creative work. The artist’s sketchbook offers an exciting platform to explore a host of mixed media techniques. Using a combination of paper, textiles, found objects, pencil, ink and paint, Shelley Rhodes shows how a sketchbook can act as an illustrated diary, a visual catalogue of a journey or experience or as a starting point for more developed work. Whether out on location or in the studio, Rhodes explores every stage of the creative process, from initial inspiration to overcoming the fear of a blank page, manipulating paper and images and incorporating ‘found’ objects to build a sketchbook that is both beautiful and inspiring. Sketchbook Explorations is the ideal companion for everyone from the beginner to the more experienced artist looking for exciting techniques to expand their repertoire in mixed media. The book explores: Why work in sketchbooks? The importance and joy of working in a sketchbook. Ways of recording and investigating ideas that inspire. Techniques in mixed media from found objects and layers to three-dimensional sketching. Creating on location. Using electronic devices to develop ideas.

A global survey of more than 100 artists, chosen by art-world professionals for their work with threads, stitching, and textiles Celebrating tapestry, embroidery, stitching, textiles, knitting, and knotting as used by visual artists worldwide, Vitamin T is the latest in the celebrated series in which leading curators, critics, and art professionals nominate living artists for inclusion. As boundaries between art and craft have blurred, artists have increasingly embraced these materials and methods, with the resulting works being coveted by collectors and exhibited in museums worldwide. Vitamin T is a vibrant and incredibly timely survey – the first of its kind.

An evocative exploration of how travel - local and far away - can inform, inspire and enhance textile art. Travel has always featured heavily in textile art, from artists’ ‘travelling sketchbooks’ to large-scale installations mapping coastal erosion or the effects of climate change. In this book, renowned textile artist Anne Kelly shows how to capture your travels, past and present, in stitch, with practical techniques sitting alongside inspiring images. She begins the book by discussing maps in textile art, including their iconography as well as incorporating actual maps into textile work. She then goes on to explore the influence of different cultures from across the globe on textile art. From India and Peru to Scotland and Scandinavia, the book shows how to harness traditional techniques, fabrics, motifs and colours for use in your own work. The chapter ‘Stopping Places’ captures the moments in time on a journey that can be distilled, remembered and documented to create stitched postcards, sketchbooks and other pieces. The final chapter, ‘Space and the Imagination’, explores the possibilities of space travel as a source of inspiration, and covers inner space too, with artists mapping their own emotional journeys. Including a wealth of practical tricks and techniques as well as exquisite photography of both Anne’s own work and that of other leading textile artists, this fascinating book will inspire all textile artists, embroiderers and makers to use past travels to influence their work.