Textures from Nature in Textile Art: Natural inspiration for mixed-media and textile artists
Written by Marian Jazmik
Published by Batsford
This is her first published title. As an artist her focus seems to be on incorporating mixed media with her embroidery offerings. To briefly overview - within this title, we come across such methods as using heat distressing to develop highly fruitful textures, how to focus on details from nature to inspire our art, heat guns, soldering irons, dyeing….but what makes this book special? It is this artists love of the intricate, the precise the specific…lets learn more.
I made some extra research via her website, where she herself discloses her love of walking in the natural world and the environment which surrounds her. She combined this with her embroidered artworks.
Often we ourselves may be used to taking quick snaps on our phones of walks etc, but do we really stop and focus on certain aspects on their own? Visually and within the text in this title, Jazmik encourages us to use the tools we already have with just simply more thought and planning. Say for example the moss on a stone, instead of just a ‘pretty stone’ which we leave to lie and forget about on our return to home. Reminiscent of my own art collage days, where I remember lessons where a view finder became the eyes tool to see - blocking out parts of the world to consider just that measured space. What do we see if we really look, if we allow ourselves to become the curious child again?
Lets get our heads down to the separate items we may find just within our footsteps. Instead of taking in the view as it were, look down….do you see Fungi? Dead flowers with interesting seed heads? What about the change of seasons? What more can be found on a autumnal walk instead of a spring one?
There are whole sections which dissect Foliage, Tree Bark and even Lichen. They may seem very niche, however the suggestions are eye-opening and visually vocalise the possibilities developed from somewhat humble origins.
Abstract results are bandied about and showcased, so this title is so much more than a landscape. You will never now leave your mind at home on any trail, the what if factor, what could I do will be percolating and it will not stop until you act on it.