Rating: WORTHY!
From an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.
It's been a while since I've reviewed a crafts book on my blog so this was not only an interesting one to look at, it's also long overdue that I look at one! Subtitled, "Sweet & Simple Sashiko Embroidery Designs & Projects" this books draws upon an ancient Japanese tradition, kogin-zashi (hard G, long I in the kogin, short I in the zashi), which was essentially mending fabrics that have begun to wear thin. During the Edo period, in the Tsugaru region, citizens were forbidden from wearing cotton (made form the cotton plant, of course) and forced to wear linen (made from the flax plant), which wore out more easily, necessitating repairs. These skills though, went a step further, and simple darning evolved into techniques of decorative art that adorned all kinds of creative items.
This book addresses that aspect of the art, listing well over 20 projects:
- Butterfly Brooches
- Square Brooches
- Scarf Pins
- Circle & Oval Brooches
- Geometric Pattern Barrettes
- Button Hair Ties
- Memento Box
- Kogin Hoop Art
- Coffee Bean Sampler
- Floral Sampler
- Holiday Ornaments
- Elegant Ornaments
- Snowflake Pin Cushion
- Argyle Pin Cushion
- House Coasters
- Indigo Pot Holder
- Square Coasters
- Diamond Placemat
- Beautiful Bookmarks
- Framed Brooches
- Classic Coin Purse
- Gusset Pouch
- Zippered Pouches
- Kogin Purse
Additionally, the book details techniques, equipment and materials, and offers many hints and tips. I confess I was not quite in agreement with the layout of the book, which listed all the projects with a photo up front, but then referred the reader to page x where the actual instructions were given for that particular project. It would have made more sense to me to include the instructions with the illustration.
But perhaps this is a book not intended as an ebook, but a print book, with the ebook merely distributed to reviewers like moi! The formatting of the ebooks was, as usual, largely mangled by Amazon Kindle's crappy conversion process, which does not handle well anything that's not plain vanilla text. That;s one reason I refuse to do business with Amazon, but the text was legible, so I hope this is intended to be a print book or at least that the ebook version will be revamped before publication. While there was a link from the content page to the relevant project, there was no link from that project to the indicated page, and no page numbering to find one's way there.
But these are minor considerations when compared with the beautiful end-results one can get, and so I commend this book as a worthy read.
