Customer Reviews

Embroidered Textiles: A World Guide to Traditional Patterns

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Anyone who loves to do hand embroidery will love this book. It is a feast of form and colour, using the most simple stitches. In fact, the one thing which characterises this kind of embroidery is that it shows what can be done with a very limited range of stitches, yet produce something stunning. It's the way the shapes and colours work that makes it so striking and is a lesson to those of us who like to get complicated just for fun.

The book itself is wonderful. The illustrations and text are excellent. My copy has dozens of sticky notes all over it to draw my attention back to a particular picture of piece of text that took my fancy - you know how it is. I have a wall of books on hand embroidery, traditional costumes and patterns, and this one at the moment is my favourite.

Whether you are an embroiderer or not, the book is a treat just to read and look at.

I agree with all the first reviewer said. I'll add that each culture/religion/region is briefly commented on with special
attention to symbols and colors important to individual areas
and groups.

I enjoy the photos of people who own/wear the costumes...puts
the designs in context of where they live. I will also keep this
current favorite book near to hand by my work table for inspiration.

I recently started doing hand embroidery and bought this book to learn more about the history of this art form. I don't necessarily think this book has influenced my own style that much, but it is an absolutely fascinating read - I love to just flip to a random page and start reading about the cultural significance of various designs.

A very pretty book--perhaps inspiring if you need inspiration for your own embroidery--but not to be taken seriously as an ethnographic survey. The illustrations are not dated so there's no way to know if the "girls of Dobra Niva in Slovakia" were photographed recently or 100 years ago; some of the captions are ill-informed (stating that Serbia was under Soviet rule, for instance), and others are just plain silly ("The linen of western Europe is marked in red cross stitch, reflecting primitive man's marking of objects in blood." Eh, what about the artist's vision??) The author has apparently spent decades attempting to connect traditional patterns around the globe with examples of cultic and religious symbols, without taking into account time periods or local materials and preferences. It all comes off as slightly patronizing (and made me want to return the book immediately).

EMBROIDERED TEXTILES is a wonderful and vivid book, featuring examples of textiles from around the world. This includes Central America, Latvia and other European nations, in addition to Central Asia. I enjoy replicating imagery, when I do my art, and this book inspires me to experiment with different styles. It is great to see how diverse patterns are featured in decoration, as well as clothing.

Excellent showing of embroidery of various countries. The symbolism of clothing with embroidery; why, what, and where for each country. Excellent pictures. Lots of creative inspiration for your own projects.

I bought this book based on the positive reviews. Sure it covers world wide embroidery types from different lands and cultures but it hardly shows you how these embroidery patterns are done. It can only be a reference book and not a how to book!