Pulling Strings Reference Library: Kate Jackson

Welcome to the second installment in our series of mini "reviews" of textile books from the collections of some of our favourite textile heroes, this time featuring two offerings from fragile embroidery artist Kate Jackson.  Enjoy, and keep on the look out for more posts like this one over the next few weeks leading up to our April event in connection with the Pulling Strings Reference Library!

A Handbook of Lettering for Stitchers

Elsie Svennas

Van Nostrand Reinhold Company
1973 (original copyright 1966)

The first book is small but full of amazingness... I found this book in a great used bookstore that lives inside a fantastic bed and breakfast in Durham, Ontario.   The book is full of photos of different letters of the alphabet done in a variety of stitches.  There are also some charted alphabets but the best part of the book are the last pages with each page devoted to one letter drawn in amazing fonts.  I would say it is THE go-to book for anyone wanting to stitch monograms.

 

Sassy Magazine

 

I had a subscription to the magazine as a kid...from grade 6 onwards I think...  and I recently found a box of the magazines in my moms attic.  I was super inspired by them when I was younger.  They influenced my fashion style, I learned what DIY meant and made a shirt/dress out of a pillow case as one issue suggested.  My friends and I made zines all the time I crushed over a pair of Fluvvogs pictured in the magazine for years before getting my own pair. The artsy cool independent girl vibe in this magazine is for sure somehow responsible for me wanting to be artsy cool and independent!  I remember being thankful for Sassy when I was a kid and I remember bringing it into school and showing my friends who were all reading YM and knowing that MY Sassy magazine was different and ALTERNATIVE! and waaaaaaay cooler!   Finding that box last summer and rereading them does not disappoint.  

Kate Jackson
Textile Artist
Toronto, ON
http://katejacksonart.blogspot.ca/

Introducing the Pulling Strings Reference Library!

Introducing the Pulling Strings Library - where you are invited to discover something new about and through textiles.

In scheming programming for Pulling Strings, we often refer back to books, zines, and other textile related publications and ephemera that live on our bookshelves or bedside tables.  It occurred to us that we could pool our collections and share them with the Hamilton community, hopefully inspiring some folks with new ideas and imagery in the process. Needlework (174 James Street North, Hamilton), a gathering space for textile fans, seemed a natural fit to house the library, and thankfully Kate and Liz were excited about the project as well.  We set up shop in the Needlework window just in time for the March Art Crawl, and that's where a selection of our collections are currently, available for anyone to drop in and peruse! We will be announcing a Show and Tell event involving some of our favourite area textile folks shortly.

In the long term, the library will move out of the window and in to the shop, and we look forward to presenting an evolving collection of books, magazines, journals, pamphlets, zines, artist multiples, manuals, vintage patterns, etc. 

Inspired by the Pulling Strings Library Project, we will be running book reviews by our textile heros right here on our blog, so stay tuned for those in the coming weeks.

We are also happy to accept donations of anything wonderful/weird and textile-related to include in the collection.  Please contact us at pullingstringshamilton@gmail.com to discuss!

Pulling Strings Reference Library: Robyn Love and Grant Heaps

Welcome to the first installment in our series of mini "reviews" of textile books from the collections of some of our favourite textile heros. First up are artists Robyn Love and Grant Heaps, who share a passion for quirky retro craft books.  Enjoy, and keep on the look out for more posts like this one over the next few weeks leading up to our Pulling Strings Reference Library event in April!

A New Look at Crochet: Using Basic Stitches to Create Modern Designs

Elyse and Mike Sommer

New York: Crown Publishers, 1st Edition 

(1975)

When I think of publications that I reach for when I am looking to be inspired, I want to say that my first impulse is to immerse myself in the writing of Louise Bourgeois or Anni Albers.  I want to say that because I do reach for my books about those great artists - and other great artists.  I want to say that but it isn't completely true.  My first impulse is to reach for A New Look for Crochet by Elyse and Mike Sommers.  It is part history of crochet, part pattern book and part showcase of what was happening in the world of crochet c.1975.  To me the book is pure inspirational gold.  It is the perfect combination of sincerity, absurdity and genuine artistry.  There is nothing flashy or even well designed about it, but it is its very earnest tone that makes it so compelling.  It never fails me.

Robyn Love

Interdisciplinary Artist

Queens, NY/Gilliams, NFLD

http://www.robynlove.com

Floral Potpourri
Juliano's Hang It All 
Pineapples on Parade

I love how-to books on textile crafts. I have been collecting these books since I was a child and fell in love with trying to copy the ideas put in front of me on their pages. I love them because they offer such great hope. With limited supplies and tools you can reproduce the wonderful things they offer up as lessons. As a child, I would try and copy and follow the instructions but I always struggled with my results-- those in the photos on the pages before me were so much better than mine. Today I find constant inspiration in these publications and use their patterns and instructions to create things in ways they were never meant to. Floral Potpourri is filled with graphed flower patterns ready to be made much bigger using scrap textiles. Juliano's Hang It All is filled with macrame directions that I want to manipulate into organza lampshades. And Pineapples On Parade is crochet pattern after crochet pattern ready to be pillaged for a mural of a roller coaster being consumed by a garden.

Grant Heaps
Textile Artist
Toronto, ON