Color and Design for Embroidery [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Richard Box (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Brassey's Inc (June 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574882724
• ISBN-13: 978-1574882728
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,511,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open your embroidery to new dimensions, October 18, 2000

By 

Megan R McConnell (CHERMSIDE SOUTH, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color and Design for Embroidery (Hardcover)

I have been lucky enough to get a copy of this book to review for BellOnline Embroidery site.

What a deceptive book this is! It is beautifully presented and one tends to think that it is merely another coffee-table book that can be flipped through whilst watching TV.

Not so: this is a very in-depth look at how to design your own embroideries. So in depth, in fact, that I am actually sitting down just to study it, with no distractions!

Richard Box has written a very informative book that looks at all aspects in design of embroidery and needlework, with both practical and observing exercises in each section.

At the end of the book, you will be able to confidently sit down and design an embroidery by yourself, and may be hooked on doing so.

The author puts his aims best himself in the Introduction when he says"

"Your exclaimation `I feel happer with a needle in my hand' may become `I now feel happy with a pencil in my hand too'."

The book is full of pictures of embroidery, and other textile arts, with a technical look at the elements of the design that they have in them.

Well done Richard, I say.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very useful book for any embroiderer, May 27, 2002

By 

Bedorah "bedorah" (Suisun, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Color and Design for Embroidery (Hardcover)

The title of this book is rather deceptive in that you certainly don't need to be adventurous or daring to find this book helpful. I do sedate landscapes and found his book an excellent guide. Basically, if you do the least bit of original design in your work - altering an element or two, changing colors around - or if you do whole original works (but haven't actually gone to art school) this book is extremely useful. It covers the basics of design and color with a focus on the embroiderer or fiber artist. You can do all the suggested activities in the book in order as a complete design course, or pick and choose sections as needed. If you wonder why some of your works look great and others look, well, not as great, this book is for you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should be titled Color and Design 101, July 6, 2011

By 

Katie - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Color and Design for Embroidery (Hardcover)

I am an artist who likes to embroider, and I already design my own embroidery, but I purchased this book hoping to pick up a few tips on making my embroidery design more effective - varying stitches, shading, actual information about embroidery design. This is not only not that, it is completely useless. Think of this as a course syllabus (not a course, just an outline) on the basic principles of design like color, line, composition, tension, etc that has a few uninspired pictures of embroidery. There's nothing embroidery specific or about designing embroidery, or interesting and unexpected ways to use color in embroidery. Actually, there's no substance of any kind about either embroidery, color, or design, and there most definitely is not anything practical. From the color section: "Orange, like red[,] is generally warm, positive and exciting. It is thought to be a proud color..." It's a proud color is not a statement of any value, but that's more or less what you're going to get from this book.

If you're an embroiderer who is new to design, don't buy this book. Buy a book, any book, on the basic fundamentals of design. Buy a short book or a long book depending on how much information you want, but get a real design book. They might tell you something about color and design that is more helpful and substantive than the fact that blue and yellow make green, or that lines can be of varying thickness. I have lots of books that I buy just for the pictures, and I love close looks at embroidery and textiles, but not even the pictures are good. The embroideries featured are mostly outstandingly mediocre, and used as references for the concepts outlined in the book - but really inane references like, this embroidery has curved and straight lines. A child could tell you that for free.

Edited to add: I took one course on design fundamentals and color mixing in college, and that was mostly a studio course, not lecture, so it's not like I am any authority on design. I don't have much knowledge above a beginner level, and as an artist I am mostly self taught. The issue here isn't that I have an advanced knowledge of design and therefore did not find a beginner book useful, it's that the book offers no substance.