Saturday, March 17, 2012

reading for inspiration

 Today we called in at the library:  this is a wonderful free service which I should use more often.

Anyway I came home with five books to enjoy.  

The first is called Textile Style, Decorating With Antique an Exotic Fabrics by Caroline Clifton-Mogg.  This book is filled with pages full of gorgeous fabrics, rugs, scarves, shawls and other textiles  used in interior design. 

The next book is a small book on sketching.  Collins 30 minute sketching by Alwyn Crawshaw.  I hope this will assist me in my efforts to translate the things I see into designs.




 The third book is called Sacred Doorways, a beginners guide to icons by Linette Martin.  It is a detailed account of the history and techniques used in creating the icons often seen in Orthodox Churches. 

I borrowed this just because it interests me:  one of my daughters belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church, as do her 3 children so it helps to understand a little of what we see when we go to a service.


The Way We Live By the Sea, Stafford Cliff & Gilles De Chabaneix contains 256 colour photographs relating to seaside living.  I could just pick this book up and spend hours browsing and drooling.  The colours, patterns, architecture and scenery are all so inspiring.

Of course there had to be one book that features techniques to instruct and trigger the imagination.
Felt to Stitch, Creative felting for Textile Artists by Sheila Smith starts with explaining the preparation of fibres for felting and then illustrates various ways of creating felt and then some simple projects.  This is a really comprehensive book which I think I might have to invest in sometime soon.

3 comments:

Radka said...

Great selection of books, Dian. I should be using our library a lot more often then I do :)

Jensters said...

Radka beat me to it....great choice Dianne xx

Gina E. said...

Libraries are such a great resource! There isn't much else around that is so useful as well as free of charge. I would love to see those books myself; if I make a note of them, I can go to our library's website and check in their online catalogue. Way to go!