Book Review - Slow Stitch
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It’s been a while since I’d done a book review. I’ve also acquired a number of textile books since then (and there were a few I already had that needed to be reviewed) - so let me get back to sharing the fiber/textile art books that I’ve fallen in love with.
Today’s book is Slow Stitch, by Claire Wellesley-Smith, who also has a blog to add to your list of awesome blogs to follow. Side note, it’s another Batsford book, one of my favorite publishers of art & craft type books - all the ones I own are hardback and covered in this soft, velvety material that makes reading them a bit of a sensory experience as well, but I digress.
Why am I starting with this book?
I’ve had a growing interest in the slow movement as a whole for a few years now, with it really picking up in the past year. The only one I’m not a fan of is slow cooking, unless it involves a slow cooker, but that’s because I’d much rather be slow stitching. So I’m choosing to balance that out with the instant pot - but I digress.
Also, with #slowtober coming up (it’s the month of October) - that would give you plenty of time to obtain, read, digest and get started on your own slow stitching practice.
If you’re really curious to learn about the slow movement, there’s another book I’ve also been reading, and which the artist/author references in the book, titled In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré. If you want the TL;DR version (for those of you unfamiliar with internet acronyms, that means “too long, didn’t read,” which is admittedly a bit ironic in a post about slow - but hey, the idea here is to help you get jump-started on slow living, and then you can get to reading all the books once you’re hooked), he also has a TED talk on the topic. And a few other videos if you can’t get enough. He’s of course far from the only person who writes or speaks on the topic - there are additional books and blogs dedicated to talking about it too, like this one, or this one.
So, once you start to understand the concept of slow living, which doesn’t mean completely slow everything down, the concept of slow stitching will make sense.
Slow stitch isn’t a particular type of stitch. It’s any stitching practice that helps you get into a flow state (here’s a TED talk on the topic of flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, whose book on creativity I had to read in my Creativity 101 course is where I first learned about it), and helps you lose track of time. Technically, needle felting can get you into that state too - it does for me.
But there’s a bit more to the slow movement than simply a meditative practice or entering flow. That’s certainly a big part of it, and comes with a proper slow practice - but I believe that if you look at it very closely, it’s connected to a much bigger collective movement. If you pay close enough attention, you’ll see the interconnectedness between the slow movement, the right-to-repair movement (here’s a great YouTube channel by Louis Rossmann that really gets into the topic of right to repair, and who encourages citizens to fight in local legislatures for right-to-repair laws), the built-to-last movement, and the rebirth of homesteading and environmentalism as a whole. For some it may be part of their spiritual practice as well (what I’ve noticed in some of the books I’ve read), but it doesn’t need to be, although to me it seems to borrow a lot from Zen Buddhism. In fact, the whole thing to me resembles daily mindfulness practice like Thich Nhat Hanh´s Gathas. I see slow-living and simple-living as very introverted-feeling, at first, but it still has a ripple effect similar to the others. I also think over time, as people have been in a slow-living mindset and see these ripple effects, they might care about these other things as well. It’s not so much anti-consumerist or anti-capitalist (it’s far to simple to call it that), because all the movements combined are fully aware of our need to consume (not desire, but need). There are certainly people who go full homestead and try to make everything they need from scratch, but that is fairly extreme and incredibly difficult to get everyone on board. We do need to buy food, buy clothes, buy certain appliances, computers, phones, etc. - it’s incredibly difficult to get buy without some things. Anyway, back to the book…
Slow Stitch may be just another addition to your already existing slow-living practice (which you may or may not be doing out of choice or necessity), or it might be the paradigm shift you needed that opens your eyes to the rest of your lifestyle. It may or may not be the only thing you choose to practice out of the whole.
Which brings me to the next point about this book - it’s really more of a guide on incorporating the slow-movement into your crafting process than a project book. What I mean by project book, I mean ones with patterns or projects that may or may not be one-time use, depending on how you choose to craft. By using examples of projects that incorporated slow-stitch, Claire gives you ideas of how you may start incorporating it into your own practice, but it’s not a rulebook. That being said, there are a few projects, as well as guides on long-term practice that you may or may not want to bring into your repertoire.
The book itself is split up into several sections, discussing the concept behind the Slow movement, how to source materials (you can do what you need, but this isn’t a matter of going to your local fabric store and picking out fabrics), various tools and techniques, traditions across cultures in mending and upcycling fabric, and the mindfulness practice of slow stitching.
One thing specifically that I would like to bring up in the section about cultural mending, is that she does mention Sashiko and Boro in her book. They’ve certainly become a growing trend in the stitching communities from what I’ve noticed. I personally felt that her mention of specific cultural practices, including this one, was respectfully done, but I’m just going based off what I’ve learned since I am not from those cultures (if someone wrote about my heritage in the manner she did, I would be okay with it). I did want to point it out here though, because there are plenty of people who do artful stitching/mending calling it Sashiko or Boro, and some who go too far by damaging fabric for the purpose of “creating Boro,” which is wrong. Call it stitching, call it mending, call it artful layering of fabrics - I think it’s something that, as a community, we really need to be careful and considerate of both the deep history and cultural and spiritual significance of these practices. There’s a much deeper layer of meaning behind it than most people realize, and to see it as nothing more than a stitch waters down the practice, to put it nicely. Some people get really ticked off when cultural appropriation is mentioned - but honestly, nobody’s telling anyone not stitch/mend the way they choose. The problem here is why do they need to use those specific terms - do they need to call it Sashiko or Boro? Just find another thing to call it. If you’re really interested in learning more about these practices, I highly recommend following Keiko & Atsushi Futatsuya on Instagram, on their website/blog, and/or support them on Patreon and by buying supplies from their shop. Part of the practice of slow-living involves mindful consumerism, and we can do that by choosing to support artists/artisans with similar values.
I love how she shares projects from other artists, giving me other people to follow. Don’t get me wrong, I love books that just feature the artist’s work themselves, but when artists are willing to give other artists a boost by amplifying their work, it really helps to emphasize how we are all part of a greater, creative community. I know some artists can get really selfish, but if there’s anything I’ve found is a common theme in fiber arts, is how we generally try to uplift each other and share each other’s work. Also, more inspiration never hurts.
As I mentioned earlier, the book doesn’t exactly have projects; however, there are definitely some wonderful techniques and practices shared in here that would definitely be fun to explore by anyone interested in either pursuing or deepening their already-existing hand stitching practice. These include methods on slow-dyeing (solar) your own threads using plant dyes or even coffee/teas, stitching exercises, kantha stitches (another personal love of mine, and the kantha blanket I own is much loved as the perfect, lightweight covering on hot days), log cabin patchwork, and how to start your own stitch journal practice.
Claire finishes off the book discussing mindfulness in practice, her own intentions with this book, as well as a few resources for purchasing supplies for those based in the UK. There’s also a section on further reading, if this book has inspired an interest in hand stitching and mindfulness practice.
My personal thoughts: this is one of the few books I read cover to cover within days of receiving it. I do read/refer to all my books, and some I have are more like long-term personal coursework (one of which I will be reviewing here once I have worked partially through it). If slow-living and hand stitching are something you’re interested in, this is definitely at minimum a must-read.
