The Myth Magic Of Embroidery

From ancient times, embroidery and other textile arts have been associated with myths and legends, fables and fairy tales, high drama and folklore, from Ancient Greece to modern Europe. This book explores the use of embroidery in such rituals. The Myth and Magic of Embroidery contains embroidered pictures inspired by nature, including plant life, animals, landscapes and sacred places from many origins such as Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Old English. Each chapter contains an adaptation of a legend or fable with illustrations taken from the author's own workbook. The book includes detailed working methods and new design techniques, such as the transformation of traditional ethnic stitches and the translation of designs from ceramics and architecture into motifs for embroidery, enabling the reader to create stunning embroidery pieces of their own.

Seventy magical designs by nine talented artists and designers are brought together to make a unique collection of fables and legends from East and West in cross stitich.

The authors of this book investigate the patterns, imagery and symbols of stitching through history to show how they can be interpreted in embroidery techniques today. Topics covered include embroidery used for narrative and magical purposes, for clothing and fashion, in interior design, in imagery, and in the use of nature and natural forms. Each topic is illustrated with drawings and embroidery samples, both historical and contemporary in origin. This book is designed to be of interest to emroiderers, City and Guilds students as well as anyone interested in art and embroidery history.

This volume was first published by Inter-Disciplinary Press in 2016. Story can have a power and presence that stretches beyond the vast, unspeakable boundaries of time and space; and yet story can also have a delicate impermanence that lasts no longer than a moment before it flashes back into the void. Some stories can bring people together; other stories can tear entire civilisations apart. Stories express and enliven experience; stories project and describe the desires and anxieties of existence. Stories can be narrated through written word and physical gesture, through graphic illustration and musical orchestration, through the spatial dynamics of architecture and the abstract poetics of conjecture. For these and myriad other reasons, storytelling and narrative are central to humanity, and the study of these practices is central to an understanding of what it means to be human. In this volume, the many narrative dimensions, media, and critical approaches to storytelling are explored with the common intention of comprehending and appreciating the global role that story plays in the articulation of human experience.

Jewish esotericism is the oldest and most influential continuous occult tradition in the West. Presenting lore that can spiritually enrich your life, this one-of-a-kind encyclopedia is devoted to the esoteric in Judaism—the miraculous and the mysterious. In this second edition, Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis has added over thirty new entries and significantly expanded over one hundred other entries, incorporating more knowledge and passages from primary sources. This comprehensive treasury of Jewish teachings, drawn from sources spanning Jewish scripture, the Talmud, the Midrash, the Kabbalah, and other esoteric branches of Judaism, is exhaustively researched yet easy to use. It includes over one thousand alphabetical entries, from Aaron to Zohar Chadesh, with extensive cross-references to related topics and new illustrations throughout. Drawn from the well of a great spiritual tradition, the secret wisdom within these pages will enlighten and empower you. Praise: "An erudite and lively compendium of Jewish magical beliefs, practices, texts, and individuals...This superb, comprehensive encyclopedia belongs in every serious library."—Richard M. Golden, Director of the Jewish Studies Program, University of North Texas, and editor of The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition "Rabbi Dennis has performed a tremendously important service for both the scholar and the novice in composing a work of concise information about aspects of Judaism unbeknownst to most, and intriguing to all."—Rabbi Gershon Winkler, author of Magic of the Ordinary: Recovering the Shamanic in Judaism

With over 1780 entries, Szabo and Kuefler offer the largest and most heavily annotated bibliography on the Tapestry ever written.

Explore personal transformation through the stitching of dreams and intentions. Anything but ordinary, Mystical Stitches combines the beloved and accessible craft of embroidery with a spiritual element, introducing a rich treasury of 200 magical symbols you can use to set an intention and create personal icons to wear or embellish items in the home. Christi Johnson offers unique patterns inspired by botanicals, animals, numbers, the cosmos, earth elements, zodiac signs, and mythical beasts, for novice or well-practiced crafters to combine into talismans with personal meaning. Johnson’s folk art style is vibrant and unintimidating and provides a framework for bringing spiritual elements into physical form. This publication conforms to the EPUB Accessibility specification at WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

The Embroidered Armour examines the Greek Mysteries, mythology and legends that heralded a revolution in thinking between the time of Homer and Plato, which gave birth to the Western cultural tradition. In investigating ancient Greek concepts concerning the relationship between seeing and knowing, Roberto Peregalli presents an eloquent demonstration of the modernity of ancient Greek wisdom.