Product Description

This book presents designs for special type of embroidery.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #375354 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

A beautiful technical source book
Stumpwork Dragonflies by Jane Nicholas

This is the third book on stumpwork by Jane Nicholas. Prompted by the idea of a fellow stitcher Jane embarked on creating a specimen box. She says in her introduction that "what started as a collection of insects in one specimen box, rapidly expanded into a collection of specific insects grouped according to order and suborder, in a series of boxes!". The first specimen box to be completed was the dragonfly box and so the book was born. The book begins with Natural History and this chapter charts a brief history of the dragonfly and details information on their anatomy and their natural habitat and the differences between dragonflies and damselflies. This chapter is followed by one about how these insects have been used through the ages in embroidery, this also includes 8 samples of dragonflies in different embroidery styles, complete with traceable patterns and a list of the stitches used. Next is a section with further design sources for dragonflies with a few project ideas. After all this background information comes the specimen box of 9 dragonflies, each has a page to itself which lists the Latin name, information particular to that insect and its habitat etc, plus a list of the bits and pieces needed to create it in stumpwork. A detailed section follows this on how to embroider the dragonflies. Then there are three project ideas for your finished insects. From start to finish this book is clearly laid out with detailed instructions for each section. An interesting book to read even if you don't think you could stitch any of these intricate little creatures. My only suggestion would be that a couple more project ideas would be nice for stitchers who may not have the confidence to design their own. Initially I thought the price was a bit high for a fairly slim volume compared to her previous books, but reading through you can see the immense amount of work and Jane's attention to detail make it well worth it.