Stitched Textiles: Nature

An inspiring step-by-step guide to creating contemporary textile artworks themed on nature.

Stitched Textiles: The Natural World is the fourth title in this successful theme-based series. It contains an extensive section on techniques, featuring step-by-step guides to machine- and hand-stitching, attaching embellishments and found objects to your work; painting and printing on fabrics including cotton, silk and Khadi paper; and using objects found in nature, such as leaves, to make unique and iconic prints.

The book includes four inspirational projects based on different facets of the natural world: Ocean, Rainforest, Botany, Birds and Animals. Stitched Textiles: The Natural World also features examples of the author, Steph Redfern's own intricate and detailed works based on nature, exploring the means by which the pieces have been created, and the wonderful stories behind Steph's journey as an artist.

The wealth of information and visual stimuli in Stitched Textiles: The Natural World is intended to inspire the reader to create their own works inspired by nature, beginning by exploring the use of sketchbooks and study pages, progressing to picking out iconic elements from sketches and photographs, and eventually assembling a stunning, personal piece of stitched textile work on fabric or on cotton-blend Khadi paper, applying handstitch in metallic threads, or machine stitch in whimsical and beautiful patterns, and embellishing with natural beads or found objects.

A ceramist for twenty years, Stephanie Redfern began working in textiles and mixed media in 2003. She now concentrates entirely upon these media, enjoying the immediate sensations of colour, design, line and shape using drawing, print, textiles and text. Her work consists of artists’ books, large wall hangings, and smaller pieces of textile work, which may be free hanging, framed or on canvas. It has been extensively exhibited and purchased and resides in many parts of the world.

Stephanie taught children, adults and special needs students for thirty years, and has been artist-in-residence at many schools, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, and several times at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. She has also curated a number of exhibitions, both in textiles and ceramics. She has written a wide variety of magazine articles, and has been lucky to win a number of prizes for her textile work. Stephanie has published four books, Into the Cacao Grove, The Stone Bird, and Shadow and Light, which are facsimiles of her mixed media artists’ books, and Thoughts, an illustrated collection of her writing.

Stephanie Redfern is a member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and Art Textiles: Made in Britain.