Learn how to transfer a design, prepare the fabric, frame up and then work silk shading. You are now ready to create four exquisite designs, featuring climbing leaves, tulips, a butterfly and dog roses. Both beginners and experienced embroiderers will be inspired by this beautiful guide to silk shading.
Clare trained for 3 years as an apprentice at the Royal School of Needlework. On completing her diploma she set up her own business, Vine Embroidery. She runs embroidery classes in her own studio and for the local education authority, as well as day classes for embroidery shops and guilds. Clare designs and stitches projects for several needlework magazines and has created her own range of kits. She also restores antique embroidery and designs and embroiders ecclesiastical pieces. She has exhibited at the Knitting and Stitching show, Stitch exhibition and various places around the South West of England.
I love needlework and embroidery books that are simple and clear,
have step-by-step illustrated instructions, and contain reasonable
projects for beginners and beyond. Beginner’s Guide to Silk
Shading is just such a book, and if you’re interested in
learning the art of silk shading, it’s a great place to start!
Written by Clare Hanham, graduate of the Royal School of
Needlework, and published by Search Press, this is an excellent
book for the beginner who wants to get into silk shading techniques
(also called “needle painting,” among other things). While it’s not
a huge, extensive book, within its pages you will find everything
you need to know about shading with long and short stitch. The
author also includes several simple patterns for the beginner and
takes you through them step-by-step, showing you what they should
look like as they progress. She includes also the useful
information for starting an embroidery project: what tools to use,
determining colors and such for your project (and where to put
them), transfering your pattern, setting up your hoop (or ring
frame, as she calls it), types of fabric (including how to mount
finer fabrics on cotton backing). Then she takes you from
start to finish through several projects, which include a couple
types of flowers (tulip, dog rose, and some little stylized
blossom-thing), leafy vines, and butterflies. All of them are
geared towards the beginner, and the results for the projects are
simply stunning. They’re nice! I especially like her
treatment of the long-and-short stitch. She tells the reader right
off the bat that, to achieve a natural look, you have to be relaxed
while you’re stitching, and a bit free in the placement of your
stitches. She doesn’t go with the “exact” alternating
long-and-short stitch lengths as some books do, but rather varies
the lengths of all the stitches. She even tells you that, when
working with one strand of floss, it doesn’t really matter if you
split the stitch when you come up through it. If your previous row
is worked closely together, then it will look fine whether you
split the stitch or not. I like her approach because it’s exactly
how I do it. It’s always nice to be assured from a professional
that the way you’re doing it is quite ok!
*Mary Corbet's Needle 'n' Thread*
July 2007 If you have ever admired the detail and pleasing sheen of
"thread painting" and thought it looked far too advanced, think
again. This helpful primer shows you that it is a lot easier than
it looks and is, I have found, also not too expensive and
remarkably addictive. Grab a hoop, some plain fabric and
floss, thread up a fine needle and off you go. It is good to see
that you do not need much to start stitching, and if you are an
existing embroiderer (or even a crafter of another kind) you will
have some of the items right away. Long and short stitch is the
main stitch you have to learn, and I loved the simple but
illustrative photos of how to perfect doing it straight and then in
petals. Add a couple of other stitches (all of them easy to do) and
find a source of inspiration for a simple outline drawing (again,
easier than it sounds) and you are ready to roll. It is the doing
of this type of embroidery that takes practice, and this is why
this is a comparatively slim book. There is not a lot to learn, and
this book wisely eschews mere plain practice for the actual shaping
of flowers, leaves, butterflies and shows you how to draw up the
patterns. I wish I had had this book when I started doing thread
painting years ago - it bursts the myth utterly that this is a
style of embroidery suitable for advanced stitchers only.
*Myshelf.com*
Oct/Nov 07 Silk shading can be used to give embroideries an almost
painterly effect. Although it's a relatively straightforward
technique, there's a world of difference between working it, and
working it well. Long and short stitch is the stitch used to work
the shading and step-by-step photographs illustrate the basic
method of working. Four projects show you how to create beautifully
shaded embroideries, taking you through the design process so that
you can use the techniques on your own designs; the clear photos
and instructions that follow will enable you to develop the skills
to reproduce the lovely delicate motifs.
*Stitch*
Winter 07 For anyone who wants to start silk shading, or who has
struggled with it, this is an ideal book. Written by Clare Hanham,
who trained at the Royal School of Needlework, her techniques and
stitches are explained with clear instructions and simple, step by
step illustrations, the stitches of the designs can be clearly seen
and the colours are particularly appealing. There are some
exquisite designs which will inspire beginners and experienced
embroiderers. Flowers, leaves and butterflies are featured as well
as ideas for projects. I have ordered the book, it's an
irresistible must have and very reasonable at £7.99 Jill Horsley,
Liskeard
*West Country Embroiderers*
No. 81, July 2007 Silk shading is a technique which a lot of
stitchers are frightened to try, even though it is simple to do
once you know how. This is where Clare Hanham comes in. This
inexpensive book explains the technique perfectly and shows the
stitcher in step-by-step detail how to blend and merge colours.
With this book you will learn how to transfer a design, prepare the
fabric, frame up and then work your stitching. The stages are all
shown in a step-by-step format with accompanying photography and
once you have learned the basics, you can work on one of the four
projects incorporating climbing leaves, tulips, a butterfly and dog
roses - themes you can return to again and again.
*Classic Stitches*
Oct 07 The aim of this book, as the author mentions, is to take you
through the basics of silk shading and on into a variety of
projects. Silk shading can be applied on so many things. From
cards, and wall decorations to pincushions, bags, bookmarks and so
on. This book will not only teach you the basics but will get you
full of energy to start with the book’s examples and by the end of
the book you’ll have more than enough inspiration to continue on
your own and explore the endless possibilities of this
luxury-looking and colourful craft. The materials you need
for silk shading aren’t that hard to find and not expensive either,
which is a definite plus! You need fabric (silk dupion or less
expensive mottled cotton), thread (silk thread or less expensive
cotton embroidery thread), needles (size 9), some dressmaker’s
pins, one or more wooden frames and of course beads for decoration
but only if wanted. These demands are not at all difficult to find.
The other materials are even more basic! Scissors, tweezers,
tracing paper, a screwdriver, an iron, tissue paper, a shower
cap,.. In the second chapter Clare Hanham will teach you all
the different methods the way the ‘professionals’ use them. Casting
on, split stitch, long and short stitch, stem stitch, chain stitch
and french knots. The next chapter will get you started on
your very first mini project. The author guides you through the
preparations of transferring the design, preparing the fabric and
framing up and then of course the actual ‘craft’: the silk shading
of the design. Each project that follows gets a little harder every
time and involves more and more the blending of colours to make
beautiful climbing leaves, a tulip, a butterfly and eventually the
hardest one, the dog rose that you can admire from the front cover
of the book. Along with every project are clear step by step
instructions but what I found most appealing about these projects
where the inclusion of pictures of the designs put on actual items.
(greeting cards, wall frames, bags, ..) This book, and the
craft on itself, was definitely worth to discover. The projects
were very inspiring and I can’t wait to try them all out!
*Euro-Reviews*
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