Stitch lettering research

Tânia Raposo

Last week in Lisbon I came across this little french lettering book for stitching.


I know there is quite some books out there on this matter. On of the most awesome ones I saw was actually presented to me by Erik van Blokland during a class in Type and Media, which I found a PDF online. 

Does anyones know of some other nice books out there on this matter? 

Thank you very much in advance.

Stephen Coles

I've got a great one at home in Oakland that I'll post images from after TypeCon. Edit: oops, no, that’s in the PDF you linked above.

Nina Stössinger

I looked a bit into cross-stitch lettering a while ago (while researching for this essay about “pixelated” letters across different media/applications). The (few) physical specimens I have are off in a box somewhere (sorry), but for now here are a couple of publications I can recommend:

• Catherine Pouchelon: Abécédaires Brodés du modèle à l’ouvrage. Editions de l’Amateur, Paris 2001 – this is a large-format coffee table style book in French that gives some historical context, lots of (also non-letter) examples, and a potentially useful-looking annex with a bibliography and an overview over the Sajou pattern booklets (which in a French context are central)
• Jan Wenzel / Janine Thaler: Letterlap / Gestickte Schrift, Institut für Buchkunst Leipzig, 2009. This is a two-part diploma project result, one a specimen overview of digitized examples, the other a more historical essay about embroidered lettering, in German. Review by Florian Hardwig (also in German).
  

Nina Stössinger

For a taste of the Sajou booklets (unfortunately I can’t remember where I found these):

Marta Bernstein

Very interesting, thank you all for sharing/posting 

Mark Simonson

Heh, so much for “reproduction interdite”.

Tânia Raposo

Hey Nina, thank you so much for all this material. I will look into the suggested books. 
Is the article you point to in German only, or bilingual? 
I have to finally pick up on my German, I am pretty good at Spanish now, so that cannot be an excuse anymore  

Also I will share a small treasure, that was given to me by my mother in law and that sparked this interest for me. 

Nina Stössinger

That’s a great sweater, Tânia.
You mean the “Letterlap” essay? I just checked and it looks like it’s German only, sorry.
For literature and especially also specimens themselves I think there is still a lot of “hidden” material to be found in local/specific contexts… probably lots to be rediscovered in the strange crafty corners of strange used bookshops in all corners of the world.

Tânia Raposo

Yes, that is why I decided to ask around here. To see if more people had some gem around in their bookshelf, or in boxes.

Lila Symons

T, I got one to share too -- I just have to get the title... and I just realized it was already shared...

Elizabeth Carey-Smith

Such lovely examples! There's an amazing history to samplers, too, in terms of them being records of births in households.

Victoria Rushton

Not a full alphabet because my mom can't find the pattern book, but I couldn't not share this cross-stitch she made for me when I was little. Very hearts very flowers. 

Ray Larabie

This reminds me of when I was a kid enduring boring visits with older relatives. I'd stare at these needlepoint lettering samplers, trying to memorize them so I could make pixel fonts on my TRS-80 when I got home.

Rob Keller

I have this one book – fairly similar to the PDF that's linked above, but it doesn't have as many cool sample alphabets. It has more overviews to misc embroidery topics.

Dan Reynolds

Tânia! You have the best mother in law ever. I covet that sweater. Is it something that was mass-produced, or did she make it? If it was a commercial thing, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Pooja Saxena

Michael Twyman brings out a pretty large collection of the Sajou books for one of his sessions with the MATD students. I can dig up photographs of those if you'd like. Also, have you seen “A Handbook of Lettering for Stitchers” by Elsie Svennas? Lots of lettering patterns in that! It is available as a scanned PDF here.

Tânia Raposo

Hey @Pooja Saxena, yes this book is really great. I also linked to it on my first post.

Tânia Raposo

@Dan Reynolds the sweater has a label, Betty Barclay. Which I found online, but this sweater was from Frank’s mom when she was younger. So I don’t think you will be able to find it anymore. I also have a not so awesome as this one sweater with stitched Cooper Black capitals on it. But it is now saved until winter.