This is a review of Embroidery designs from the sea, by Barbara Snook. Taplinger Publishing Company, New York, 1977. ISBN 0-8008-2403-2.

Embroidery designs from the sea is an inspirational design book – it is definitely not a step-by-step embroidery book, and does not contain designs or instructions for finished pieces. Instead, it provides fantastic, wonderful sketches of all kinds of sea life, suitable for adaptation to embroidery. It provides ideas and suggestions for stitches to use and possibilities for incorporating these sketches into a final design. Barbara Snook also provides some photos of her work and discusses her creative process.

I love flipping through this book – for instance,  there are 6 different sketches of jellyfish (describing 3 species). There are all kinds of creatures in this book, from plankton to limpets to sea horses to many different crab species. So if you’re looking for interesting sketches to get your creativity flowing, this is a really great book. Just don’t expect it to be a step-by-step project book or basic introduction to embroidery. I’ve included a couple of excerpts from this really fun book.