A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design
The Basics and Beyond
A detailed and somewhat daunting exploration of color and design for fiber artists.
Aimed mostly at quilters, A Fiber Artist’s Guide to Color & Design: The Basics & Beyond, by Heather Thomas, is a thorough, encouraging, and nuanced guide to color and design principles that would be useful to other crafters as well. The book is full of detailed information about color theory, how colors work together, design concepts, and hands-on lessons, all illustrated by large, clear photos of quilts, fabric swatches, and occasionally other finished objects.
Some lessons may be intimidating to those who are new to working with color. The differences between the painter’s and printer’s color wheels, for instance, might be confusing to artists who don’t work with computer software.
On the whole, Thomas takes it slow and offers lots of examples and advice that can help quilters approach design with confidence and creativity. The finished projects shown are exciting and inspiring and encourage readers to take to their fabric (or paint, or paper) and explore.
Twelve workshops in color and design round out the book, guiding readers toward that exploration and discovery. This rigorous training is meant to take a year, but devoting that kind of hands-on time to learning about color and craft can only be a positive experience.
Thomas has been teaching these methods for more than a decade. This detailed book is a full education in color and design and offers practical ways to apply the concepts to unique creations.
Reviewed by
Sarah White
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
