Needles Out!
BOHO Embroidery: Mixed Media Techniques
Nichole Vogelsinger
Lucky Spool publishing
Who is Nichole Vogelsinger?
She is art, she is pattern and yes, she is embroidery. Apparently she grew up with a mother who was a seamstress. She was not incline to learn, but adapted her textile was in the future via learning on her own terms, by herself - no course tried! Fibre arts was how she began, as it was simpler and more arty than technique based. She gained confidence and later began creating the body of work she is most known for - hoop embroidery. Now she has created and published this book all about this select area of textile art…
The book itself - the cover
I know this may sound negative, but the highlight for me was the book cover, I review so many books and most covers are so standard…softback, hardback, gloss or matt. That is about as exciting as it gets. I received this book in a plastic see-through wrapper, taking it off, I was treated with a surprise….the embroidery we view upon reading inside…has leaked to the outside…but in real feel value! So readers, when you get your copy..have a stroke!
What is it about?
All about the simple stitch types, all the hand embroidery stitches we see in any good embroidery book - yet set out in an arty pattern based manner. They are all separated, explained and illustrated in large images covering most pages. This is definitely a photo weighted book over as much text value - this gives it a universal simplicity.
Does it cover various techniques?
Yes. It is divided into chapters, they all explore a different taster of a practice, such as fabric painting in chapter five or needle felting in chapter six. This is no boring instruction manual on traditional embroidery stitches - they are all set out so artistically that it is just as much about the pattern they become as the stitch they may be made out of. This addition of other textile art techniques makes it extra edgy.
Final thoughts
This book has been written in a conversational manner by the artist themselves. I loved the title Needles Out! It is reminiscent of a famous film I loved recently….I will not retain its title here! But within the book itself, there and boxes titled Needles Down! - They give random information - tit bits of embroidery or not related bits and bobs. For example on page 111 we are greeted with a history of sequins, as the subsequent section fills us in on bead related ideas.
I loved the artists handwriting being published in real visual form throughout this book - I have found this a rare thing to behold - the embroidery stitch diagrams are also illustrated in hand drawn form; there are no computer based versions here. This gives the book a one off edge.
The finished embroidery hoops all have dedicated full length span images - the book is large in size anyway - so we will have no problem seeing each separate stitch and how it has been achieved.