An all-in-one volume covering crewelwork, canvaswork, and six other types of hand embroidery, from the renowned school established in nineteenth-century England. This beautiful book is a rich source of embroidery techniques, stitches, and projects, covering eight key subjects in detail: crewelwork, bead embroidery, stumpwork, canvaswork, goldwork, whitework, blackwork, and silk shading. Collecting all the books in the trusted, bestselling Royal School of Needlework Essential Stitch Guide series, plus a new section on mounting your finished work, this fantastic book—heavily illustrated with photos—is a must-have for all embroiderers.
Goldwork must be the most dramatic of the embroidered arts. The smallest addition of metal thread to a piece of embroidery can lend immediate visual impact, and yet the technique can also be beautifully subtle. A design stitched in goldwork will be rich in texture, shine and sparkle, and metal threads can be combined beautifully with other techniques. Aimed at guiding you through each stitch and technique, and with tips for moving on to your own designs, this book is full of practical instruction. With its high level of detail and over 600 photographs, it will be a treasured companion, whether you are a novice or an experienced embroiderer.
Thread painting embroidery is one of the most beautiful embroidery techniques. Often mistaken for painted art, it shows off the true skill of an embroiderer. This book demystifies the technique and shows how easy it is to start embroidering your own stitched masterpieces. For the true beginner and the experienced stitcher alike it will be a treasured guide, explaining the techniques and providing the inspiration to master this exquisite form of embroidery. Over 600 colour photographs support twenty step-by-step projects that range from a simply shaded topiary tree to a three-dimensional hydrangea bouquet. Guide to getting started introduces equipment you may need, explains how to transfer designs to fabric and demonstrates the long stitch and short stitch. Advice on blending colours and stitching shades together to achieve depth and vitality. Provides inspiration and encourages experimentation to create your own designs. Illustrates historical examples and explains how to reproduce and learn from these pieces, while also showcasing contemporary techniques and ideas for finished embroidery. Over 600 colour photographs support twenty step-by-step projects that range from a simply shaded topiary tree to a three-dimensional hydrangea bouquet.
Learn the historical art of goldwork in this informative guide from the Royal School of Needlework. The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is recognized internationally as a centre of excellence for embroidery, and Goldwork is the fourth title in a series of books showcasing the RSN's techniques and contemporary flair. Author Emi Nimura is a Graduate Apprentice and expert teacher with the RSN, and provides the reader with a thorough grounding in goldwork stitches and techniques, three beautiful projects and numerous inspiring finished pieces. The book features an introduction to the RSN and its prestigious heritage. It reveals the history and context of goldwork, the materials and tools that are used, and clear, highly illustrated technical instruction that will allow the reader to achieve the technical expertise that goldwork demands. In addition, there are numerous examples of Emi's exquisite work throughout the book, together with a varied range of finished works by other embroiderers that showcase the diversity of goldwork design in both a traditional and a contemporary context.
Stumpwork is a highly decorative and imaginative embroidery technique, which typically uses raised and padded stitches that are rich in texture. This practical book explains how to create your own piece of stumpwork embroidery. Beginning with an introduction to the appropriate materials, equipment and tools, it instructs on a wide range of stitches and techniques, and illustrates them with ten delightful projects. It then explains how to design your own piece of stumpwork before advising on finishing, presenting and caring for you work. Written by a leading embroiderer, this beautiful book will inspire and encourage you to try this exciting technique and create your own exquisite designs. Contents include: Practical advice on working with threads, as well as how to stretch and prepare fabrics; Over 900 photographs to guide the reader through a wide range of decorative and raised stitches; Detailed instructions on combining stumpwork with a range of other techniques to create unique designs; Ten projects show how to use the stitches in designs, including stumpwork human figures. This practical guide will be of great interest to embroiderers, designers, theatre designers, interior designers and historians, and is beautifully illustrated with 983 colour photographs.
A new, larger format edition of the Royal School of Needlework's essential guide to goldwork, giving you all you need to create beautiful stitched work with metal thread. The Royal School of Needlework teaches hand embroidery to the highest standard and is well respected all over the world. It not only upholds the traditions of English embroidery that go back many hundreds of years but is constantly taking embroidery forward in new and innovative ways. Written by Helen McCook, RSN Graduate Apprentice, Tutor and renowned embroiderer, this book begins with: A historical account of goldwork, then moves on to the materials and equipment required Framing up, how to transfer a design on to fabric, and how to start and finish a thread. The main section of the book then covers all the essential stitches and techniques through clear, step-by-step diagrams and photographs, coupled with beautiful, close-up photographs showing how then can be used in a finished piece. All the key traditional techniques are included: couching, bricking, basketweave, cutwork, spangles, s-ing, pearl purl, plate, and kid. The book ends with beautiful and exquisitely worked examples of how the techniques can be combined in finished pieces. Part of the RSN Essential Guides series.
This practical step-by-step guide to haute couture embroidery covers everything from machine and hand stitching, to tambour beading, goldwork and monogramming. Whether you are interested in adding monogrammed initials to your favourite bathrobe, stitching a flower on your favourite jacket, adding sparkling beads to a new dress or creating a goldwork embellishment, Fashion Embroidery teaches you how to add a unique touch to your clothes. In this beautifully illustrated book, Jessica Pile, the Production Director at Hand & Lock embroidery, explores the intricate techniques used in fashion embroidery. With hand-drawn designs, catwalk photographs and step-by-step guides, this book is perfect for beginners looking to personalise their own clothes, as well as more experienced embroiderers who want to apply new techniques to different fabrics. Beginning with an inspirational overview of the fashion industry, Jessica looks at examples of embroideries and embellishments by a variety of couturiers, including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Hardy Amies and Burberry. The book then demonstrates the basics of three main techniques – goldwork, tambour beading and embroidery stitches including silk shading, satin and stem stitch. In do-it-yourself projects, Jessica first helpfully explains the basics of materials; she teaches you how to pick the right fabric, what tools to use, where to source materials, what types of wire or beads to use and terminology. Taking influences from existing couture designs, she then shows you how to execute these learned techniques onto your own clothes. This book is perfect for fashion students, textile artists, and those who want a more unique look to their clothes.
An introduction to the most popular hand embroidery techniques. Provides information on setting up pieces of embroidery, such as selecting the design, fabric and threads. Features 16 projects with step-by-step instructions which provide a range of designs from contemporary to historical. Each project is illustrated.
This latest title in the highly successful Ancient Textiles series is the first substantial monograph-length historiography of early medieval embroideries and their context within the British Isles. The book brings together and analyses for the first time all 43 embroideries believed to have been made in the British Isles and Ireland in the early medieval period. New research carried out on those embroideries that are accessible today, involving the collection of technical data, stitch analysis, observations of condition and wear-marks and microscopic photography supplements a survey of existing published and archival sources. The research has been used to write, for the first time, the ‘story’ of embroidery, including what we can learn of its producers, their techniques, and the material functions and metaphorical meanings of embroidery within early medieval Anglo-Saxon society. The author presents embroideries as evidence for the evolution of embroidery production in Anglo-Saxon society, from a community-based activity based on the extended family, to organized workshops in urban settings employing standardized skill levels and as evidence of changing material use: from small amounts of fibers produced locally for specific projects to large batches brought in from a distance and stored until needed. She demonstrate that embroideries were not simply used decoratively but to incorporate and enact different meanings within different parts of society: for example, the newly arrived Germanic settlers of the fifth century used embroidery to maintain links with their homelands and to create tribal ties and obligations. As such, the results inform discussion of embroidery contexts, use and deposition, and the significance of this form of material culture within society as well as an evaluation of the status of embroiderers within early medieval society. The results contribute significantly to our understanding of production systems in Anglo-Saxon England and Ireland.
A new, larger format edition of the Royal School of Needlework's essential guide to silk shading, giving you all you need to create thread-painted embroideries. Graduate Apprentice, Sarah Homfray throws light onto the beautiful craft of silk shading, also known as painting with a needle, long and short stitch embroidery or thread painting. Sarah: • Reveals the history of the craft. then moves on to the materials and equipment required. • Covers design and using color; simplifying and demystifying this oft-neglected area of embroidery. • Covers all (main section) of the essential stitches and techniques through clear, step-by-step diagrams and photographs, coupled with beautiful, close-up photographs showing how they can be used in a finished piece. • Includes key traditional techniques: the fundamental stab, split and long and short stitches, along with couching, padding, adding beads and sequins, and knots. • Ends with beautiful and exquisitely-worked examples of how the techniques can be combined in finished pieces, and covering working with different fabrics, threads and incorporating painted backgrounds. The RSN teaches hand embroidery to the highest standard and is well respected all over the world. It not only upholds the traditions of English embroidery that go back many hundreds of years, but is constantly taking embroidery forward in new and innovative ways.
