Never too many (textile) books
As an artist I am looking for inspirations all the time, often unconscious. There is for sure the internet with millions of websites and images and I can spend hours searching and getting lost before I realise that is has already gone dark outside.
But I also like to read (and own) real books, books that I can touch and feel the pages between my fingers. Books I have owned for years and never got bored with. Sometimes I just run my fingers across the book backs, randomly picking one and be surprised to find new inspirations, more bits of information, that sparks ideas even though I have flicked through them hundreds of times… well maybe not quite hundreds.
These are some of my favourite textile books (till the next one) I would like you to know about.
The Worldwide Colours of felt is a relatively new one, from Ellen Bakker and a collection of felt creations from around the world. It has hundreds of beautiful images and is written in Dutch, English and German. It gives me great inspirations and joy as it is colourful and light (images only).
Shibori is more than an introduction to this ancient resist dye technique, with lots of history around the art and beautiful images of different dye patterns. I in particular like the illustrations showing the individual shibori techniques. It also describes some natural dye recipes.
Eco Colour from India Flint is my natural dye bible, the book is beautifully made, covers a variety of natural dye techniques information about mordents, preparations of fibres and even a list of dye plants. Although I had some difficulties to understand certain aspects in this book (I am an artist not a scientist) the more I learn on my natural dye journey the clearer become some of the explanations.
Last but not least I purchased the book Natural Processes in Textile Art from Alice Fox last year and again it is beautifully made with easy step by step instructions to get started. It also introduces some established fibre artist working with using nature as inspiration and source for their work.