The Art of Embroidered Flowers

Description

Explore nature through a combination of textiles and embroidery in this new, modernised edition of Gilda Baron's inspirational, innovative, step-by-step work. Using painted and dyed backgrounds, and hand and machine embroidery, this guide presents a wonderful variety of three dimensional landscape and flower embroideries. A number of techniques are employed when applying colour to the fabric including batik, salt discharge and brushing dye into a wet surface. Beautiful pictures are then stitched and built up over the background in easy stages. The feeling of perspective is enhanced by the clever use of scale and colour, and all the techniques are explained clearly and demonstrated in a series of stunning projects. This original book is packed with practical advice and information. Anyone interested in pattern, texture and colour will discover a wealth of inspiration when they work through the projects. These highly individual designs will encourage beginners and more experienced embroiderers to create their own embroidered flower designs.

Gilda Baron, who sadly passed away in 2015, had a wonderful career as a well-respected textile artist. Trained at the London College of Fashion, she not only became a lecturer in fashion and crafts, she was also a regular contributor to magazines and frequently exhibited at galleries, where she also sold her work. She held many workshops for embroiderers' groups and guilds over the years, demonstrating her love of fabric and embroidery and sharing her enthusiasm with people everywhere. She is survived by her husband, children and grandchildren; and her friendship and talent are deeply missed.

The content goes far beyond the title. Baron's book, first published in Great Britain in 2004, features flowers in embroidery, but also in painting, resist dyeing, collage, and other techniques. What she reveals is how to create elegant pictures that just happen to include thread. Her directions do occasionally meander, but at her work's center are three designs-Summer Meadow, Buttercup Field, and Flowers by the Fence-with step-by-step, color-photograph instructions for every part of the process, from dyeing the background to selecting a frame. She mixes techniques in with her designs, looking at machine embroidery, sponging and masking, and a variety of resists (bubble wrap, for one). It's a small tome, but one filled with big ideas and wall-to-wall examples of Baron's art, whether the process of hand dyeing or finished fields of blooms. -- Barbara Jacobs * Booklist * September 2017 If you're ready to take embroidery to the next level, pick up this book, which asks you to use it as a creative springboard for your own artwork. It provides you with all the techniques and knowledge you'll need, but what you produce will be all yours. * Sew * Search Press Classics is a series of their books which have stood the test of time and gone the whole nine yards in providing inspiration and instruction. Originally published in 2004 this book shows what can be done with a very basic sewing machine, scraps of cloth, a few simple stitches and some fabric paint. I have loved this book since it first came out, as it shows how you can do a lot with a little and have fun in the process. Recycle even tiny pieces of cloth and anything else you have to hand into some truly beautiful pictures. If you already do some type of sewing you will have nearly everything you need, as apart from the basics you only require fabric paint, plain fabric (I mostly use calico) and various threads. There are a few pages about using photographs or sketches for inspiration, and how to do the background painting. You can also space dye your own threads and learn a few simple hand embroidery stitches. The rest of the book contains projects and ideas to take the basic idea further and make greetings cards, decorative paper mounts and expand into panoramic scenes. This is not a book of flower portraits but glorious landscapes showing fields of poppies and buttercups, meadows, gardens and other colorful scenes. Learn how to use a sewing machine's most basic stitch and adorn the foreground with a mixture of hand embroidery and flowers made from tiny scraps of fabric. You can also embroider on paper or card, and to inspire you further there are examples of the author's other finished works. Simple and fun to do it shows you how you don't need to buy the craft shop in order to make something beautiful and is a great way of using up leftovers from larger projects * Myshelf.com * This is a re-issue of the late Gilda Baron's popular book, in the new Classics series. Using painted or dyed backgrounds with machine and hand embroidery and applique, and by following Gilda's meticulous instructions, colourful interpretations of landscapes and gardens can be created. Three step-by-step projects are included with many suggestions for taking the techniques further, and a gallery of Gilda's completed works provide further inspiration. This gloriously colourful book is a must-have for any embroiderer's bookshelf. * East Kent Embroiderers Guild *