Mark Making: Fresh Inspiration for Quilt and Fiber Artists Paperback – August 27, 2013

What exactly is Mark Making? It's not really thread painting. It's not just surface embellishing. And it's not simply about adding texture and dimension. Helen Parrott thinks of it as adding pattern - repetitive points, irregular swirls, radiating dashes - to create something that is not exactly flat, but also not fully 3-D. It's kind of like sashiko on a green tea rush, but with fewer rules.Well, if it's so hard to describe, then what purpose does Mark Making serve? Maybe better questions to ask are "How do I want to be uniquely inspired?" and "How do I want to convey that inspiration in textiles?" Parrott very kindly makes her book YOUR book.Parrott's advice on the first question is to look around at just the surfaces everywhere, disconnected from what supports them and what we assume about them. Disregard the background and imagine the surface image floating above its base. How would you draw it? If you draw it, you can mark it. And if you mark it, you can make something no one has ever done before, even though nature does it all the time. Parrott provides nurturing guidance on scouting and observing marks; she also emphasizes the importance of documenting them through photographs, journals, and sketches.As for how to transmute that drawn image into tangible art, Parrott uses both paper and textiles, though paper is really just an intermediate step toward ultimate expression in textiles. It starts with editing and selecting from your array of photos and/or paper incarnations, then previewing and experimenting with isolating parts from the whole.Finally comes the magical transcription to textiles. Just a few basic stitches and knots will literally make your mark on fabric. An example of how extraordinary Parrott's concept can be is the piece called "Surface Inventions". Here, a simple hand-made knot or tie is repeated thousands of times to create a black and white surface that looks faintly like Asian or Middle Eastern script.My favorite application is "Radiant Miniatures", with its wood-block-style rose petal unfurling. (And yet it also reminds me of water-blistered skin. Gross, I know, but that was my first impression. After reading Mark Making, I am totally at peace with water blisters as a source of inspiration.) It's simple yet made more complex as a series of tile-like squares. My only wish for improvement with the book is that Parrott would share more about each piece. I'd love to hear more about her own personal trek through each phase of creation and her thoughts on the finished works.Mark Making is surprisingly technical, though not exhaustively so. It includes block printing, monoprinting, and resists. The tools and resources are quite basic, yet are used inventively and lengthily. (Parrott states that such stitched projects can take MONTHS to complete.) If you've got a drawing pad and a few sewing notions, you can start today. A great deal of print is devoted to motivation and exploration, not just technique. Parrot even includes a brief section on "Health and Safety".This is not a project-oriented how-to book. It's a process and technique book, one that says not "How can I make the exact same thing?" but "OMG look at what I can do with this". And yet Mark Making is also not a pure gallery book, in fact, the finished pieces are not really the highlight. And THAT is what is astonishing, that works in-progress or samples made purely for illustration are so very breathtaking. Think of how amazing YOUR endeavor might be.

I am an art quilter. I like to learn new techniques, and this book intrigued me. I think it has some good ideas for adding texture and interest to quilts and fiber works, although you could also apply many of the ideas to other media. There are suggestions for finding and recording mark ideas, ways to combine techniques, for example block printing and resists, with stitching by hand and machine. There are good sections on materials, lots of clear, good quality photos of examples, and illustrations of stitches. There are even suggestions for how to keep your creativity alive and well. I own many, many technique books and this is one of my favorites.

Such an interesting book, fantastic reference images and discussion of collecting them. Very interesting fiber examples that are simply delicious. This book instantly gave me some new ideas for projects I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but this book has shifted me toward what I think will be far more interesting. Seems like a book I'll return to again and again.

As a professional artist, painter, printmaker, and a lover of fiber, I find this book to be interesting not only in a visual sense but it is also well written. Helen Parrott speaks clearly about her approach and process, inspirations, experience, and motivations towards her work and takes you on her journey encouraging the reader to take their own journey while offering techniques ideas of some possibilities to encourage and inspire their own search. This is definitely one of the best books on this subject I have read.

Will return to this book again and again for inspiration, happy with the purchase.

Full of great ideas and pictures. Wonderful for inspiration and motivation

Great

This is a very inspirational book. I am particularly partial to line as, more generally, I am a formalist in my aesthetic preferences. This book is just yummy. Very pleased to have gotten it!

I love this book unfortunately it is identical apart from the cover and title as Mark Making in Textile Art! I thought it was a new book as it also states on the front cover ...fresh inspiration for quilt and fibre artists.

A very attractive book. Full of techniques and inspiration for any textile projects. Suitable for both beginner and intermediate levels.

very happy with product and service

I read about this book before it was released, and was excited to pre-order it. I am most inspired by colour in my work, but line comes in a close second. Flipping through this book the first time, I was disappointed. A word that came to mind was "bland", in part due to the presentation of the material. Pages are set with small print and there are lots of wide white margins and backgrounds. The photography is often quite monochromatic, which for me personally didn't help. Dipping into the text, I'm also left a bit cold. For example, the author suggests hanging an artwork in progress if the finished piece is intended to be hung to see how it could look. Later she emphasizes the importance of posture as you work...? These things should be fairly obvious.Maybe this book would be a better fit for someone who is beginning their artistic path, not for an artist looking for fresh inspiration.

I like this book. It inspires me to continue with my work. Nice pictures and very illustrative.Inspirational incusive to work with some other materials.