Reviews for Cloth Stories – Capturing domestic life in textile art
Reviews
Review by Deena Beverley – Leading UK textile artist, author, stylist & writer.
“Hearth and home are timeless sources of inspiration for textiles artists. In ‘Cloth Stories: Capturing domestic life in textile art’, Ali Ferguson brings her popular Instagram’Purple Thread Shed’ to life across a beautifully illustrated title, full of her own work, alongside artists carefully selected for work informed by the familiar and humble. In theses talented hands, simple methods turn materials found close at hand, such as old garments, brown paper and beeswax, into timeless artworks, full of held narrative. Refreshingly, plenty of space is allocated to Ali’s thought process in developing ideas, appealing to anyone who enjoys the privilege of leafing through an artist’s sketchbook, that most intimate repository of concepts and emotions. Full of handwritten notes and sketches the ‘Scullery Threads of Thought’ pages alone warrant buying this book.
Often, makers in textile media consider the work of professional artists outside their own sphere of possibility, in terms of taking their own practice seriously and in having confidence to develop their own ideas into finished work. In decades of seeking out textile talent to profile in magazines and books, it constantly surprises me how many skilled, imaginative people don’t feel they deserve the title ‘textile artist’. In these pages , the author debunks that self-limiting myth. Leading by accessible example, she encourages readers to ‘mind-map’ their way to new work. Lightly, quickly, casually – on the back of a shopping list – would be my take home recommendation from this book. This initially comfortingly familiar title is deceptive in the best possible way. ‘Cloth Stories’ is actually a high-concept textile art book wrapped up in the cosy fug of a cottage kitchen on baking day.
It might be as prosaic as a clothes peg wrapped in scraps of rag, secured with simple hand stitches, or a large scale commissioned piece, it’s all textile art. In ‘Cloth Stories’ Ali encourages readers to explore their immediate surroundings and transform the mundane into the magical, with results transcending both the origins of the materials and the boundaries of what’s considered textile and textile art.
Deena Beverley
Review by Katy Jones – Editor of The Quilter
‘This is the first book from textile artist Ali Ferguson, and it’s going to be tough to follow up should she decide to write a second book. It’s one of those books that fully draws you in and gets your creative juices flowing, whether you’ve ever considered mixed media art or embroidery before or not. Ali takes you through the process from creating mind maps with ‘threads of thought’ stemming from tiny details within rooms in your home – which will lead you far beyond the most obvious ideas, uncovering underlying emotions and creating deeper, individual works.
The second chapter explains how to turn these seeds of ideas into stitched work, and how to select the perfect materials
for each project. The book takes you through different rooms in a typical house, mapping out examples and ideas for each room, each illustrated with photographs of Ali’s own textile work as well as the work of other artists. It is not a how-to step by step project book – there are no patterns to recreate. Instead you are given the tools to create your own, truly personal and individual projects. It’s a beautiful book to look at, the photography is exquisite, but it goes far beyond being just that and is a thought-provoking read as well, which will inspire you, make you think about how you can incorporate the techniques learned into your next project, and possibly introduce you to some new artists as well.’
Katy Jones
Review by Cas Holmes – leading UK textile artist
‘I was delighted to be invited to review Ali Ferguson’s nostalgic reflection through contemporary interpretation on home and family life in ‘Cloth Stories’ the latest in a series of books by Batsford which asks the reader to take a more considered and thoughtful approach to using resources and materials. From the very beginning, Ali talks about following a ‘thread of thought’, a concept that runs through the pages as she encourages you to seek the potential to be found in domestic references and ideas of home as stimulus to create your own stories in textile art.
Divided into clear chapters Ali starts with boldly sharing her visual thinking processes using ‘mind maps’ and clearly demonstrates how writing down her thoughts and ideas have helped her to make connections between the meaning behind her work and the techniques she uses to make these ideas visible. This process of enquiry runs through her work and punctuates each chapter in the book.
In the first chapter Visual Thinking, Ali discusses how ‘Meaningful Materials’ from cloth and paper to words and motifs, have the power to turn your thoughts into stitch projects. Favourite materials and suggesting themes are explored that give the materials, the work developing, a ‘voice’.
Subsequent chapters look at the associations we make to various rooms in our homes from the kitchen to the nursery. I was particularly drawn to ‘Stories form the Scullery, not because of personal association with a similar space, my home is too small to have one, but more because of its association with the drudgery of daily chores. Beautifully stitched paper and cloth fragments are framed with a vintage washboard in ‘Laundry Tales’ which honours the work entailed by ‘domestic care’.
Glimpses into family life and the things we may all have memories experiencing are shared in the stories we tell each other. Works are mounted on wood fragments, incorporated into baby shoes, and in everyday ‘chance finds’ re-imagined in the artists hands because of their association with the domestic.
Ali’s working processes are beautifully photographed by Michael Wicks and sits well alongside work by carefully chosen artists which include Caren Garfen, Maria Thomas, Mandy Pattullo and Haf Weighton who share a passion for the domestic and telling of stories.
This is a title which will sit very appropriately with my collection of reuse, re-purpose and revalue reference books that I can ‘rejoice’ in having on my bookshelf.’
Cas Holmes
Cloth Stories is published by Batsford and is available to order from leading as well as local independent booksellers.