This gorgeous embroidery book features more than 100 original designs inspired by a colorful folk art aesthetic and infused with metaphysical meaning. How-to instructions allow readers to combine and stitch each symbol to create unique embroidered objects of personal significance. Hand embroidery can be a joyous respite from busy daily life. It is an exploration of material, an invitation to slow down, and it allows time for contemplation. Mystical Stitches combines this beloved and accessible craft with a spiritual element, introducing more than 100 different symbols readers can use to create personal icons to wear or embellish items in the home. Christi Johnson offers patterns inspired by botanicals, animals, numbers, the cosmos, earth elements, and mythological icons for novice or well-practiced crafters to combine into talismans with personal meaning. Johnson's folk art style is vibrant and unintimidating and provides a framework for bringing spiritual elements into physical form. In addition to basic techniques, an overview of material options, and an illustrated encyclopedia of stitches, the extensive treasury of symbols is lavishly photographed in hand-stitched, full-colour spreads that will inspire readers to create personalised designs to stitch on clothes, hang on the wall, place on an altar, carry with them, or display in a place of prominence. AUTHOR: Christi Johnson creates mystical garments that blend elements of botanical dyes with handcrafted stitches. The resulting textile talismans honor the body, its boundaries, its extensions, and its relations to the world and cosmos around us. She works from the belief that through self-expression, we discover our power to transform our worlds. Raised in tropical Florida, Johnson studied Fashion Design at Otis College of Art and Design. She worked in the fashion industry in Los Angeles for nearly a decade, most notably designing "cosmically crafted" limited-edition embroideries for boutique brand Coast-Wide's denim workwear, and now lives in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York. As a teacher, Johnson also offers workshops in natural dyeing and embroidery and has created kits and booklets for students and DIYers. Her garments, booklets, kits, and embroidered artwork have sold at maker studios and boutiques across the nation.
Mystical Stitches is a tutorial and style guide for embroidery by Christi Johnson. Due out 22 June 2021 from Storey, it's 208 pages and will be available in hardcover and ebook formats.
It seems that surface embroidery is enjoying something of a renaissance lately; I've reviewed several new and upcoming releases this year on the subject. This one, in addition to being a very good basic tutorial instruction guide on the stitches and designs, also has the added attraction of explaining the symbolism and meanings behind the included designs, most of which have some mystical or philosophical significance.
The author has included not only the expected astrological symbols, but also a wealth of other pagan, Egyptian, nature/wiccan, geometric forms and shapes, numbers, planets, and others, certainly enough to keep readers busy and exploring for ages. In addition to the instructions and stitch diagrams, she also writes well and engagingly about intention and ritual, use of color, and materials.
The book does include a number of step by step tutorials for surface embroidery embellished clothing, ritual cloths, amulets, and others. All of the projects can be adapted for other uses. Stitch diagram recommendations are specific enough to follow and general enough to be easily changed to suit the reader's needs. Materials listed in the tutorials are easy to source and inexpensive. In fact many of the clothing tutorials will be a super opportunity to re-purpose and upcycle found materials.
The book has an abbreviated bibliography and links list as well as a cross-referenced index. This would be a good choice for readers who are interested in more esoteric embellishments for clothing and ritual cloths. This would be a four-star read evaluated only on the merits of the embroidery instruction, but the author's voice adds a great deal of value. She's calm, reasonable, engaging, knowledgeable, and there's a very kind and encouraging vibe throughout the book. Very well done.
Five stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
