Stitched Textiles: Seascapes

Introduction 6
Materials 8
Inspiration 14
Colours 38
Using stitch 46
The sea, the sky and the shore 56
Imagined Seascapes 66
Step-by-step project
Mood and atmosphere 74
Stormy Seas, Waves Crash 84
Step-by-step project
The shoreline 92
Elements of the Shore 102
Step-by-step project
Rhythms, patterns and structures 110
Sand Banks in the Estuary 120
Step-by-step project
Index 128

About Amanda Hislop

Amanda Hislop has a degree in woven textiles and painting, studying at West Surrey College of Art and Design from 198386. She began her career as a teacher in art and textiles but in 2007 she took the opportunity of redundancy to pursue an exciting creative pathway as a textile artist and tutor. In her work she combines drawing, painting and stitch, developing a process which allows freedom to integrate texture, line and colour into surfaces for stitch. Amanda is a member of Prism textile exhibiting group, Oxfordshire Craft Guild and the Embroiderers’ Guild.

International Journal of the Guild of Silk Painters

If you like to paint and stitch, which many Silk Painters do, this is the book for you. Not into sewing, then the interpretation will capture your imagination.

Amanda Hislop usese a restricted palette of blues, greys and ochres to create wonderful seascapes, working with sketchbooks from location visits. An extensive use of mark making, thumbnail sketches and moodboards leads to translating mark into stitch. This book is a lively interpretation of sea, shore, rocks and shells, taking note of mood and atmosphere.

I have looked at this book many times and each time find something new that triggers ideas for a new painting. The colour palette certainly ensures the mind will consider new colours.

Most of us love the sea, visiting it through another's eyes is exciting.

---

Customer review

A brilliant book for a stitcher who wants to learn using mixed media, excellent descriptions of the materials and their uses, with a good step by step guide in pictures to follow. Very informative on how to sketch your ideas when on location and how to transfer them into stitch and varied materials. 

---

Customer review

I loved this book, its fabulous! It has some amazing photographs that make the book interesting to look at and the paper is very good quality printing. One of my favourite parts is all of the ideas to use unusual materials that Ive taken inspiration from in helping students I work with in a secondary school and in my own crafts at home. I highly recommend this book and look forward to getting more of Amandas published works. The book has very easy to follow steps and information on how to develop each medium into your work effectively. 

---

Customer review

I'm one of those lucky people living by the sea and enjoy walking on the beach almost daily. I take thousands of photos on my walks, as the sea is never boring. This book is exactly what I was looking for to encourage me to venture into the world of textile art beyond just photography.

From opening the first pages I was gripped by this book. Of course the photographs are two dimensional but the photographs in this book are almost tactile and i just had to stroke them.

The use of acrylic paint on stitched fabric might be a total novelty to many stitches as it is to me so I'm looking forwards trying that technique soon. I've picked up lots of tips and I'm still on the first chapter! Never heard of CMC thickener and now I can't wait to try it.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting to start or improve their artistic stitching and explore outside one's comfort zone. Amanda's instructions are clear and encouraging exploration from simple mark making, creating personalised sketchbooks to various sources of inspiration. She explains the basic principles of composition, use of colour and stitches without being prescriptive. She gives plenty of examples and ideas for exploration.
And now for the exciting part of the book - the projects. There are four projects all explained step by step but leaving the reader with the freedom to create a very personal piece of textile art The possibilities are endless. Each project leads you through the stages of processes but gives you the freedom to explore and create an unique piece of work if one wishes so.

I found the chapter on creating dynamism very interesting. Amanda explains how to achieve a sense of movement and I feel empowered with knowledge to try her techniques and explore textile art even further than I ever dared. 

---

East Kent Embroiderers'

The latest in this excellent Stitched Textiles series is Amandas first book showcasing her love of the sea as inspiration and packed with examples of her work.  For anyone who loves the ever-changing moods of the sea and coastlines, then this is the book for you.  Amanda shows us how to use a wide range of materials, including paints and papers, fabrics and threads, demonstrating how colour and texture can produce the effect we might wish to portray. Amanda enjoys depicting not just the sea and sky but the flotsam and jetsam of the seashore, including shells, pebbles, rocks and fossils.   She guides us through the processes with four step-by-step projects, using a mixed-media approach, encouraging  the reader to create their own satisfying interpretation of a favourite coastal area.  Highly recommended.

---

Customer review

A beautiful textile art book, full of information from where the author finds inspiration, what tools to use and basic techniques to stage by stage photographic and written instructions to create stunning projects. Perfect as a gift, a resource or coffee table book.

---

Customer review

The book is beautifully presented with very clear instructions for different techniques. The illustrations are clear and useful for practical tasks. The book is inspirational to embroiders like myself or other kinds of textile artists. 

---

Customer review

This book more than lived up to the promise of the cover. Every image conjures up the taste of salt, the dampness of foam and the colours of the sea. This is a book for beginner and expert alike. She offers, not just a list of tools and materials needed to create such images, but the reasons for using each in differing circumstances. Many examples use found or recycled materials, extending the experience beyond the craft place.

She shares the stages of her work from the sketch books she uses in the field to the building up of layers. With this multi-media approach, Amanda uses a mix of exercises and mark making to encourage experimenting with materials. There are projects described step by step, but Amanda also points out that working from your own experience, your own sketches or photographs, will produce more personal pieces with a greater sense of involvement. I cant wait to put some of her ideas into practice and I am sure that I will refer to this book time and again.
Amanda Hislop writes that she sets out to create an atmospheric sense of place in her artwork. She does not disappoint.

---

Customer review

This is an outstanding book. Covers techniques and excellent instructions. Beautiful examples of sketchbooks and ideas. 

---

myshelf.com

The coast is a special place for many people, evoking memories of childhood vacations or time spent admiring its beauty.  This latest entry in Search Press Stitched Textiles series explores one artists love affair with the seaside and how she creates pictures that express it in paint and thread.

I always enjoy the books in this series, as I love the way that each book not only shows how to do it but gives an insight into an artists vision and methods of working.  Everybodys style is different, and a good primer will give the tools and understanding to do it yourself, but also see how the author does it.  This is not a book about wearable, washable textiles but the sort of art you can hang on the wall so the list of materials includes things like different types of paper, many with a good wet strength.  Reading through the lists of items Ms Hislop uses was fascinating, as it includes various types of wax, gauze and many other unusual things.  Seeing them put through their paces to create art was quite an education, as was seeing the sketchbooks the artist makes of marks and patterns, and having a go at some of the exercises.  There are chapters on her use of colour, composition rules, how she uses a sewing machine to free motion stitch and how to turn those sketch book marks into stitches.  Other chapters look at dividing a page into sea, sky and shore and creating a series of pictures, working with texture and making the horizon your focal point.  After all this learning it is time to have a go at some projects and there are four of these, interspersed with a look at how to get certain effects right.  These include atmosphere, creating a sense of movement and items found on the shoreline.  Each section has plenty of examples and the projects have the type of staged photographs Search Press do so well, and which give even a beginner a chance at making a decent fist of it.  This is a very inspiring book that will give anybody many ideas to explore.

If you cannot find a good range of embroidery and needlecraft materials locally try http://www.searchpress.com for a list of suppliers.

---

Julie Briggs - Sewing Directory

Who doesn't love the sea? And the possibilities to create textile work from this natural wonder are endless. Amanda Hislop shares her wonderful techniques and inspiration in this latest Stitched Textiles publication from Search Press.

Amanda uses a wide range of materials to create her seascape pieces and there is a comprehensive discussion about which base fabrics, threads, paints etc. and found materials to use in your work.

Amanda's approach uses exercises to build up marks in a sketchbook and there are a few exercises to get you looking and starting to build up a set of references to use in your textile work. She guides you, even if you're not comfortable with drawing, and this section is a great help for loosening up!

Composition is discussed in quite some detail to make you think about the balance between sea and sky, how much detail you want to show and takes you through basic principles to achieve a balanced picture.

The book then goes on to talk about colour and how to approach the changes of light in a seascape.

Developing the mark-making theme, Amanda guides us through doodling with your sewing machine to add line and texture to a textile piece. Again, there are exercises to walk you through the processes.

As with the other books in this series, this book offers you the chance to follow four step-by-step projects to develop your skills before embarking on your own seascapes. Amanda covers the shoreline, man-made forms, textures and patterns to help your textile piece develop into an accomplished piece of work.

Once again, this series of book have become 'must-reads' for those of us wishing to explore how to develop and improve techniques for textile art. Amanda's book covers a huge amount of ground and is accessible for those who don't feel particularly artistic! The step-by-step projects give you the confidence to have a go and really just relax and play! Highly recommended.

---

karenplatt.co.uk

An exciting addition to this wonderful series that explores textile techniques and design. Step inside the wonderful world of seascapes with artist Amanda Hislop. Find original projects, step-by-step demonstrations, clear photographs and instructions and inspiration through design exercises. Discover how to capture the magic of the seaside, the shore and sea in stitch. Many wonderful samples of finished work and of how the artist works. Looks at inspiration, sketchbooks, drawing and mark making as well as methods. A delight for anyone who loves the sea and stitch.