Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread

Brown Paper Bag blogger Barnes (Embroidered Life) serves up an unusually reflective guide to embroidery that’s distinguished by its open-ended projects and thorough profiles of fabric artists. Highlighting embroiderers who incorporate found items into their work, Barnes discusses how Hillary Waters Fayle’s love of the outdoors inspired the geometric designs she embroiders onto leaves. Other artists make an art form of mending clothes, with Arounna Khounnoraj describing her sophisticated needlework as a means of “celebrating the things that we already own.” A third category of profiles showcase artists who work in daily installments, such as Amy Jones, who in 2020 made a visual “lockdown diary” by stitching one small image per day onto a piece of fabric (standouts include a bottle of cleaner and a coronavirus particle). Though the profiles and generous photos of the embroiderers’ impressive work are the main draws, Barnes also includes three “projects” that eschew step-by-step directions in favor of conceptual guidance on devising original pieces. For instance, one project offers tips for creating thread art based around a found item, encouraging readers to contemplate designs by studying the visual qualities of their item and then sketching out potential compositions before setting needle to fabric. Crafters who feel restricted by the rigid instructions of other how-to manuals will relish this invitation to let their creativity run wild. (Apr.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misidentified the creator of the Covid-19 lockdown diary.