Embroidering the Everyday

Book excerpt: Inspiration and practical tips on incorporating the everyday into textile art. In Embroidering the Everyday, acclaimed textile artist Cas Holmes explores the 'everyday' and the 'domestic', generating a wealth of inspiration and raw material to create textile work that resonates with time and place. Cas invites us to re-examine the world and use the limitations sometimes imposed by geographic area or individual circumstances as a rich resource to develop ideas for mixed media textiles in a more thoughtful way. With techniques and projects throughout, the book explores: How to be more resourceful with what we have to hand, including working with vintage scraps, homemade dyes and papers, and even teabags and biscuits. Rediscovering family history and how photographs and objects can provide inspiration, including Cas's own exploration of her Romani heritage. Drawing inspiration from our local landscape and how it changes through the seasons. How to transform materials with mark-making, printing, image transfer, collage and stitch. Packed with inspirational work from the author, and other leading practitioners who place the everyday at the heart of their work, this treasure trove of ideas, techniques and practical projects is an essential guide for our times.