Modern embroidery by Mary Hogarth -PDF book

Modern embroidery by Mary Hogarth PDF book (1938) (rug hooking, embroidered panels)

It is generally recognized today, and strongly so in the United States, that technical skill is not in itself sufficient to produce work of distinction, but that a basis of good design is equally essential. While this has never been denied in the case of painting and sculpture, there has until recently been a tacit assumption that one or two "minor" arts, such as that of embroidery, could get along very well without much conscious design, — were, if anything, the better for it.

The art of the embroideress was judged rather by the cunning of her fingers than her eye, and anything supremely difficult of execution could be sure of praise, regardless of its meaning or use. Hence the increasingly debased repetition of "traditional" patterns by means of transfers — patterns, not designs.

It is not possible to get full satisfaction from work limited to the reproduction of worn-out ideas. Everyone is an artist to a greater or less degree, and it is the aim of this book to help its readers to discover their own powers. The dozens of examples from all over the world which it contains are the work of artists with the needle, but their artistry is of a kind within the reach of all intelligent people. There are hundreds of ideas here waiting for you to develop them into designs of your own as attractive, as useful, and as modern as these. The Editor desires to express his acknowledgments to the designers and embroiderers who have permitted their works to be reproduced in this book, and for their assistance in compiling the descriptions and in many cases preparing explanatory diagrams.

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