How ‘The Art of Embroidery Design’ Will Help You Hone Your Creative Voice

Excerpt­ed from The Art of Embroi­dery Design © by Christi John­son. Used with per­mis­sion from Storey Publishing

Pssst! This writing first appeared in my weekly newsletter, Orts! If you’re a fan of textile art and crafts, check out my past newsletters and subscribe here.

How do you cre­ate art­work that’s authen­tic to you? It takes time, play, and observation—among oth­er things. (It’s hard work!) Find­ing your visu­al lan­guage does not hap­pen overnight. That’s why hav­ing a guide towards doing so is invalu­able. And it’s pre­cise­ly why I was excit­ed to check out fiber artist Christi Johnson’s newest book, The Art of Embroi­dery Design.

Who is this book for? I’d say this book is for every­one! If you’re yearn­ing for a way to express your­self through embroidery—even if you say “I can’t draw,” Christi is here to guide you through it.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by © Her­she Pho­to, Inc. Excerpt­ed from The Art of Embroi­dery Design © by Christi John­son. Used with per­mis­sion from Storey Publishing

Learn how to create your own embroidery art with the help of The Art of Embroidery Design by Christi Johnson.

From the jump, Christi sets up what the book is all about. “This is not a book of pat­terns to be repli­cat­ed,” she writes. “This is a book that invites you to be part of the process of image cre­ation.” There are projects and prompts through­out The Art of Embroi­dery Design for you to try.

Divid­ed into five chap­ters, each chap­ter builds on one anoth­er. This eas­es you into the cre­ative process, no mat­ter how unsure you feel.

Christi delves into her cre­ative process through­out the book, start­ing in the first chap­ter. She uses a phys­i­cal sketch­book to cre­ate a “depos­i­to­ry of imagery,” and then refers to her sketch­book when cre­at­ing a design. (It’s very dif­fer­ent from me!)

The next chap­ter is about observ­ing inspi­ra­tion. After all, we don’t oper­ate in a vac­u­um. How does tra­di­tion­al embroi­dery look in cul­tures through­out the world? Pieces from artists in Mex­i­co, Guatemala, Pana­ma, Thai­land, Chi­na, and beyond are featured.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by © Her­she Pho­to, Inc. Excerpt­ed from The Art of Embroi­dery Design © by Christi John­son. Used with per­mis­sion from Storey Publishing

Then, there are lessons in the prin­ci­ples of art: col­or, tex­ture, line, and com­po­si­tion. Each ele­ment is illus­trat­ed through embroi­der­ers like Sarah K. Ben­ning, Lizeanne, Eliz­a­beth Pawle, and Tes­sa Per­low. The artists share, in their own words, how these prin­ci­ples show up in their work.

The final chap­ters chal­lenge you to put it all togeth­er. Here, Christi looks at her work and walks you through the con­cept, sup­port­ing images, col­ors, and stitch­es that brought the piece to life. She details the deci­sions made. I love this peek into her artis­tic mind; this is eas­i­ly my favorite aspect of the book.

The Art of Embroi­dery Design​ by Christi John­son is now avail­able. Find your copy on Bookshop.org.

Pho­tog­ra­phy by © Storey Pub­lish­ing. Excerpt­ed from The Art of Embroi­dery Design © by Christi John­son. Used with per­mis­sion from Storey Publishing