Customer Reviews

Royal School of Needlework (H)

5 star:		(6)
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2 star:		(1)
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Having recently taken a workshop in Or Nué from the Principal of the RSN (who has penned the foreward to this book), I eagerly anticipated the release of this book. Established in 1872, RSN is the needlework school that has made the coronation robes for British Royalty, repaired and conserved historical textiles, and whose mission is to teach others to carry on the beautiful skills of needlework.

Exquisite close-up details of historical needlework and the teaching examples could only be improved by holding them in your hand. Chapters cover silk shading, crewel work, blackwork, and goldwork, and include examples of stumpwork and felt padding instructions. Stitch-by-stitch techniques are fully illustrated in photographs with detail like looking through your magnifying lamp. Needle artists of all skill levels who would like to design their own are shown how sketches in black pencil or colored pencil can be interpreted in stitches, especially effective in the blackwork shading sections.

Renaissance era historical re-enactors should make this a must-buy. From Elizabethan and Jacobean to Art Nouveau and contemporary, follow their patterns and charts or create your own. This book is worth owning if only as a "coffee table art book". If you have been jaded by poor quality craft kits, bored by cross stitch, and snooze through embroidery guild meetings, Royal School of Needlework's Embroider Techniques will tantalize your eyes and have your fingers itching for those needles.

This book should be in every needleworker's library! It uses a unique method to teach all types of embroidery. By taking a picture of an Iris flower and showing, in gorgeous color, the same flower using each technique, it allows the reader to compare and evaluate the different types of embroidery. Even advanced stitchers will get itchy fingers and will want to try all the techniques shown. I have an extensive needlework library and this is truly a great book!

I have coveted this book for some time and have now got a copy of it!

I must admit that I am absolutely awe-inspired by it - and it has re-awakened an impulse to go beyond my skills. It also inspires envy in me for those lucky enough to be apprenticed at the School.

The book is beautifully laid out and the project/exercises are easy to follow.

With the projects, the tips and the detail included, this book is a must for all embroiderers.

This is a wonderful book. I can't believe how much technique they packed into so few pages. This is not a '70's artsycrafty "You Too Can Do This Useless Little Project" book. This shows how the various techniques are done and shows one particular design done in all the different ways. You really get an idea of the contrast of the different effects. Then the creative part is up to you. You find a design you like or design something of your very own and then pick the technique you want to use to show it off to best advantage. Creative beginners can use this book. There are no yarn pictures of Sun Bonnet Sue in this book, it is beautiful embroidery and how to do it, then it let's you be creative!!!

An excellent book of both basic and advance techniques. Recommended reading by embriodery guilds. One of the few books that shows long and short stitch correctly. Colour photos of works in progress to help illustrate the instuctions.Topics covered are silk shading, crewel, blackwork and goldwork. The Iris projects are gorgeous so is the labrador.

The possibilities of needlework in many forms are beautifully illustrated in this book. It inspires and fires the imagination, and made me want to travel to England to take classes at this wonderful institution.

I got this book used for well under the retail price. Now I feel guilty after reading all those glowing reviews. I don't deserve this book! What can I say? I don't like it. Mainly it's that I don't find the projects very inspiring. My use of embroidery tends toward embellishing clothing and linens. This book is for someone who wants to paint a picture with embroidery, or do a whole pillow or footstool. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just not what I had in mind. I like a book more like Mary Thomas's, where you get inspired to use the designs for your own purposes.