Customer Reviews

Nature's Studio: A Quilter's Guide to Playing with Fabrics & Techniques

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Joan Colvin acts as a gentle yet strong guide for anyone who wishes to find their style and understand elements of the design process in making a quilt. She generously offers some of her techniques and methods which work for her (and maybe you) and gives you great insight in how to express yourself creatively through fabric. However, as any good creative teacher will tell you, this is only the beginning of your personal creative process, and this book is not a project based one but instead will jump start you in other ways as you feast your eyes over her quilts (with details of some shown also). I just wish she included photos showing some alternative choices and decisions she inevitably had to make whilst she was making the quilts to illustrate this further because she does mention the value of photographing your options- but maybe I just can't get enough of her unique work.

This a must-have for folks who make or want to make landscape/art quilts. Joan Colvin is one of the best at this, and is able to really get her techniques across to her readers. I've been waiting for another book from her.

I love books and tend to buy a lot on whatever subject I am interested in. This has to be my favorite pick of the fiber art books I have read. My dream is to someday take a class from Joan Colvin. She is an incredible artist and her book has just the right balance of technique and inspiration. She is truly gifted, as is any artist and or quilter who is lucky enough to own this book.

If you like and want to know how to constuct the kind of quilt pictures on the front cover, then this book will show you how, and give you lots of ideas. Joan gives an overview of style, fabric selection, fabric manipulation and construction methods. The major chunk of the book deals with various tree forms and, later, birds and nests. Towards the end there are few examples of Joan's gothic, pre-raphaelite women, and some ideas for finishing. The particular strength of the book is the layering, combination of manipulated and raw edge fabrics, and use of commercial tree fabric and hand-dyes and stamping to create semi-realistic trees. Joan talks us through her process, but she does not teach us how to LOOK at nature. The colour photographs and line illustrations are excellent.

It's great to have in your library, if you have already done some pictorial quilts. It is not really suited to a beginner.

If you are looking for inspiration on 'how to' this is the book for you. Very generous with personal techniques develpoed.

Although this is a fabulous book, it is not for everyone. It is not, for instance, for the novice or for someone who wants to copy ideas. I think of it as a picture book to get my own juices flowing: it is an extraordinary reference, but it is mostly for quilters who are already gifted and confident in their own abilities.

Colvin is very clear in the beginning that she is NOT intending to give readers step-by-step instructions, but to give them a window into her own creative process...and that is exactly what she does. The instructions are minimal in the extreme.

Don't get me wrong: the book is truly inspirational. But a reader should not expect to be able to recreate these effects easily. It will be mostly trial and error...and it wouldn't hurt to have a degree in art and a decade or two of experience! Colvin's renderings of birds and human beings are not something that most of us will ever be able to attain in a lifetime.

However, if you would like to "listen in" to how a true (and passionate) artist works and to receive her blessing on your own work, you will find this a useful and gorgeous addition to your library.

sigh....I would like to have known Joan Colvin and taken a class with her. I am late to the art quilting scene; finding this book a year ago was like a light-bulb coming on for me. I now have many quilting books, but this one, along with The Painted Quilt and the Art of Anna Meinkemein are my go-to books. I like the way Joan writes - like she's just sitting there talking frankly with you about how she creates, and what might or might not work for you. She makes it seem like anything is possible.

I was looking for something that would help me expand my creativity along the lines of being 'artistic'. Being of limited talent and budget in the area I needed help! Her techniques and ideas send you in creative directions it might have taken you 20 years to reinvent by yourself. Worth the $. I ended up with a variety of interesting experiments that looked amazingly good when put on the wall. Buy it an go off to 'play' for a while.

A must for any Art Quilter, that dabbles with composition of human form in landscape quilting. I love the author's colour compositions, her form of portraying nature, the way she builds and art quilt.

Would strongly recommend to any upstarting landscape quilter.

This is a fantastic book. If you are starting out in Art Quilting, this book is a must.

Very clear instructions and photo's.

A great book that builds your confidence and still allows you to be creative.