Art Makers: Empowered Embroidery

Illustrator Frazer brings a feminist flair to embroidery in her winning debut that “honors the lifetime and work” of such feminist trailblazers as Eleanor Roosevelt, Frida Kahlo, and Harriet Tubman. Frazer starts with the basics, instructing on fabric, threads, embroidery needles, and tool kit must-haves. The author then guides the reader through the process of drawing a portrait suitable for embroidery, beginning with a creative sketch, and transferring it to a clean line drawing. In capturing each woman, Frazer encourages readers to dig into biographies and quotations to “feed your brainstorm and sketching.” Each project offers a pattern if readers don’t want to draw their own: a colorful Kahlo embroidery is broken down into steps for her hair, eyes, mouth, and floral crown; and a portrait of Maya Angelou offers tips for finishing a project and how to keep the backside of a project neat. Frazer focuses on individual artistry: “capturing someone’s exact likeness isn’t necessarily the goal here. The objective is to capture what these women mean to you.” Embroiderers looking to push their creativity will be rewarded by these projects. (Mar.)