Cloth Stories reviewed by Cas Holmes

Cloth Stories: Capturing domestic life in textile art is the first book by embroiderer and textile artist Ali Ferguson. It’s a guide to creating exquisite, intimate and nostalgic work inspired by the home. Here, textile artist and fellow Batsford author Cas Holmes reviews the book.

by Cas Holmes

I was delighted to be invited to review Ali Ferguson’s nostalgic reflection through contemporary interpretation on home and family life in Cloth Stories the latest in a series of books by Batsford which asks the reader to take a more considered and thoughtful approach to using resources and materials. From the very beginning, Ali talks about following a ‘thread of thought’, a concept that runs through the pages as she encourages you to seek the potential to be found in domestic references and ideas of home as stimulus to create your own stories in textile art.

Divided into clear chapters Ali starts with boldly sharing her visual thinking processes using ‘mind maps’ and clearly demonstrates how writing down her thoughts and ideas have helped her to make connections between the meaning behind her work and the techniques she uses to make these ideas visible. This process of enquiry runs through her work and punctuates each chapter in the book.

In the first chapter Visual Thinking, Ali discusses how ‘Meaningful Materials’ from cloth and paper to words and motifs, have the power to turn your thoughts into stitch projects. Favourite materials and suggesting themes are explored that give the materials, the work developing, a ‘voice’.

Subsequent chapters look at the associations we make to various rooms in our homes from the kitchen to the nursery. I was particularly drawn to ‘Stories form the Scullery, not because of personal association with a similar space, my home is too small to have one, but more because of its association with the drudgery of daily chores. Beautifully stitched paper and cloth fragments are framed with a vintage washboard in ‘Laundry Tales’ which honours the work entailed by ‘domestic care’.

Glimpses into family life and the things we may all have memories experiencing are shared in the stories we tell each other. Works are mounted on wood fragments, incorporated into baby shoes, and in everyday ‘chance finds’ re-imagined in the artists hands because of their association with the domestic.

Ali’s working processes are beautifully photographed by Michael Wicks and sits well alongside work by carefully chosen artists which include Caren Garfen, Maria Thomas, Mandy Pattullo and Haf Weighton who share a passion for the domestic and telling of stories.

This is a title which will sit very appropriately with my collection of reuse, re-purpose and revalue reference books that I can ‘rejoice’ in having on my bookshelf.

Cloth Stories: Capturing domestic life in textile art by Ali Ferguson is available here on our website and from other good booksellers.

Cas Holmes is the author of several books by Batsford including Soulful Stitch: Finding creativity in crisis, co-authored by Deena Beverley, out 10 October.

Artworks by Ali Ferguson, photographed by Michael Wicks.