The Art of Embroidered Butterflies Hardcover – October 25, 2012

Not what I was expecting. Wanted to learn to embroidery butterflies, not read her life story. Oh well, pictures are pretty

I have been gathering books on embroidery in order to learn a new skill, but this beautiful book is best used as inspiration only. I was surprised that there are no instructions at all, only photos, so it is not useful for anyone wanting to learn these embroidery techniques. The work is stunning, but I am really not sure what to do with this book. It was too expensive to just add to the shelf, never to be used, so it will have to be a gift to someone who already does work at this skill level.

I should have read the reviews before buying this book!It is a beautiful coffee table book. If you are looking for a book of projetcts, with instructions on how to make beautiful butterflies, this is not it.

Jane Hall has once again produced a beautiful embroidery book recording and creating works from her amazing vision of butterflies. This is not a book for those embroiders who want instruction. This is a book of inspiration and love of delicate, living creatures. If you love books where the author explains their mission and provides pictures to guide the reader to understanding of their love for their craft and the methods they use to achieve this craft, then this is the book for you.

Beautiful book

I would recommend this as a coffee table book. Jane Hall's work is exquisite but the text focuses largely on her experience of butterflies, as opposed to the specific techniques she uses to represent them.

Showed her mind set as she was working on her butterflys. Not a how too book

This book is fine except that there is not a great variety of butterflies and I like books with a lot of pictures of accomplished work.

Sadly not a "how to" book at all! I wish I had read the reviews before I bought this book!! Yes, it is a beautiful inspirational book of Jane's work with really lovely photographs, but as another reviewer wrote it is NOT a "how to do book". I had looked on the "inside the book" feature and liked what I saw, but the problem was it was limited and looking at the intro only you tend to think there will be more than this. I am glad I did not end up paying full original price or I would be sending this back.... Reading the story of the biology of the butterflies and her journey in making them would be pleasant, and this might make an inspiring coffee table present for an embroiderer. The text however is quite a small font and dense on quite a few of the pages, not necessarily making it the easiest reading for coffee table book. However, I am still searching for some good books with practical instructions on how to emulate the beautiful art embroidery work of Jane Hall. And meanwhile will think of who might appreciate this present!

I saw it mentioned in a catalogue a friend brought to our stitching group. As I am working on my Altered book on Butterflies I order the book and it just blew my mind away. Jane Hall is a great artist, I could never reach her level especially as I don't have infinite patience nor skill. Her love for butterflies shines through on every page. This book will be looked at whenever I am low. It's like a ray of sunshine. Thank you Jane for sharing your art and thoughts with us.

but I had hoped it would actually show you how to make a butterfly

An absolutely beautiful book, a complete work of art. It's the sort of book you will keep forever.

I should of read the reviews before I bought it. I hoped for information on how to make butterflies like this but there was very little in the way of information and just a lot of very flowery text. If you like more art style books then I would say get it. If you're an advanced student trying to gain more information in technique maybe skip this one and search for something else.