The Intentional Thread: A Guide to Drawing, Gesture, and Color in Stitch

This book is exactly what I wanted. I am e joying reading it.

As told in the preface, the author is an academically trained textile artist who after 35 years of teaching wrote the comprehensive book she wished her students could have had, intertwining “art (expressive), craft (handling materials with care, deftness, skill, and mastery), and design (structure and intent, thought and planning)”. Everything about this book is high quality and sophisticated: the binding, the paper, the fonts, the beautiful photos and layout. The text too is comprehensible and every word counts. I am a painter, not a fiber artist, and fell immediately in love with this book. It’s hard to imagine anyone, from whatever interest brings them to this book, could be disappointed.

An essential book in my maker's library. Extremely thorough techniques and materials needed. Gives a sort of 'curriculum' to get started. After all, stitch art/work starts in the brain. And so many people think 'where do I start??' This book starts with small sample making to get used to the needle and thread in hand, then progresses to more involved works. It all starts directing your brain. Over time, as you practice technique, you start to discover your voice in your art. This is probably the most important book in my library when i comes to stitch art. This is NOT an 'embroidery book', fyi, so, if you are looking to enhance your skills in traditional embroidery, look elsewhere. This is for the stitch artist inside of you who wants to play with stitch in the creation of art, rather than follow embroidery patterns of birds and flowers and butterflies. All that is fine, just not the book for you if that's what you want.

This book has nice thick pages and great print quality. Its filled with crisp color photos and great instruction.Its best suited to those with some basic art education in their background.It doesnt have embroidery patterns. Its intended to help artists create their work from their own sketches

As an artist working primarily in textiles, I *thought* I understood the vast potential of stitches...until I opened this book. I didn't fully realize before how limited my scope had truly been. The Intentional Thread is absolutely encyclopedic in its analysis of thread, stitching, color, and design. It is so far beyond a how-to book (though it does include a very understandable appendix of basic stitches at the end). It goes in depth into the expressive potential of stitches and shows seemingly endless variations on particular themes . It also demonstrates the relationship between hand-stitching and hand-drawing. The book could easily be used as a self-directed workshop, with "Try this!" pages at the end of each chapter, with suggestions for applying the content to personal work samples. The best thing about the book, though, is the images. Absolutely every page has full-color photographs illustrating the ideas described in the chapter. Just flipping through the pages is inspiring. This book really is a gift to artists, with the idea of expressive mark-making being applicable not just to textile artists but to all artists.

There's no need for me to repeat what others have already said about how wonderful and useful this book is, so let me just say that if you are hesitant about whether it is worth the money- absolutely! I purchased a copy for my guild, then one for myself. It is an essential reference for anyone who is interested in stitch as an artistic medium, and is guaranteed to be well used. There are endless stitch encyclopedias (here, older books are still valuable as stitches haven't really changed), and even the wide range of creative stitch books by reknowned Brits (Beaney and Littlejohn, Campbell-Harding, etc.). I have many such books already, but this book is radically different in that it allows one to solve artistic problems through stitch; literally, it bridges the gap between drawing and painting in traditional mediums and fiber for me. Thank you Susan Brandeis!

very inspiring and informative

A major strength of this book is well organized into sections related to design principles rather than materials or specific stitches. The focus is on translating marks and textures of images and drawings with stitch.Thankfully, the details of how to do stitches and achieve effects is at the back of the book. Photos of examples are excellent ( good detail and color) and proposed exercises at the end of each chapter are interesting and clearly described. It would be interesting to see a gallery of some students work from the author's classes, but this doesn't detract from the book's usefulness as a study guide and inspiration. Because I use this book frequently, I would prefer a spiral binding; the binding on my copy is already coming unglued at the spine.

Gostei muito deste livro. Esta foi a chamada "compra no escuro" pois um livro caro que vc não pode folhear, é arriscado! Mas foi a melhor aquisição dos últimos tempos. Recomendo.

Dictionary for stitches. Clear and understandable examples.

El libro es un libro para experimentar y aprender a expresarte usando el bordado, de manera similar al dibujo sin que esto necesariamente sea como hacer bordado híper realista. Está dividido en elementos que conforman una imagen, tal como línea, textura, color. No tiene proyectos sino ejercicios para cada tema. Propone hacer muestrarios.Algo que es muy importante, es que la autora fue catedrática de arte textil, así que es como asistir a una de sus clases.La edición del libro es cuidadosa, bien hecha. Contiene muchas fotos todas a color.Pienso que es un buen libro si lo que quieres es aprender a usar el bordado como un medio de expresión y encontrar tu propia voz en el arte textil.El único punto que a mí no me gusta mucho, es que muchos de los ejercicios o aplicaciones están hechos con máquinas de coser. No es que no venga la explicación del bordado a mano, pero los ejemplos son menos.

So glad I purchased this book. Was on my wish list because I really do have a LOT of books pertaining to stitch and embroidery. This book takes me to a new level of looking at the way I present my work. Sometimes we get stuck in rigid traditional "ways" of doing things and going through this book sort of gave me permission to break out of that box! Whoohoo! I have incorporated a few of the many styles and ideas this book presents and it will continue to titillate the senses for a long time to come.

Great for anyone interested in stitching as a language in Textile Art. Years of teaching exercises packed into the book.