Narrative Textiles

Bring your personal story to life in colourful, vibrant textile art.

Ailish Henderson is an exciting young textile artist whose work is fun, quirky, tells interesting stories and uses a diverse range of media, though always grounded in cloth. In this gorgeous book, she explains her working methods and how you can harness them in your own work to create unique, deeply personal textile art pieces. She encourages you to draw on your own personal memorabilia to create work that is meaningful to you – the intention is to capture a moment in time, a memory to treasure, a look on a face, a glance of love from a pet.

Along with work from the author, the book also showcases work from textile artists such as Aran Illingworth, Jenni Dutton, Woo Jin Joo and Jordan Cunliffe. It includes:

• Materials: where to source cloth, using found and recycled materials, curating vintage fabric, incorporating precious family pieces in your work.

• Processes: finding inspiration, creating mood boards, keeping sketchbooks, developing work from drawings, capturing character.

• Techniques: Screenprinting, hand and machine stitching, appliqué, mixed-media collage.

• Subject matter: the narrative line, self-portraits, family snapshots, history, identity, travel, favourite animals, even famous faces.

Throughout the book the author encourages you to work with freedom, instinct and honesty, bringing in a wealth of different techniques to create authentic stories in cloth, and most importantly, enjoy yourself along the way.