Five Beautiful Books That Are Inspiring Me During The Creative Retreat

Sun streams in through the window and I curl up on a comfy chair in my studio, a book balanced on my lap.

Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

In reality, the “comfy” chair in my studio has long ago been claimed by cats and there’s always something else to draw my attention from my shelves of books and magazines (you know how much I love them).

Why is that? Why don’t I let myself curl up with an inspiring book even on days when my goal is to soak up inspiration?

I’m working on it.

I don’t know about you, but these days I’d rather spend a few minutes with a book than scrolling through Instagram (though that’s a topic for another day). I haven’t been scrolling through Instagram. Or spending time on Pinterest. Yet still time is flying by. Somehow it’s already the 19th of March and my creative retreat is more than half over. “Make more time for books” needs to be one of my priorities, even when the month is over.

I have a stack of new ones in my studio right now and I’m making a point to savor them (even without the sunshine or comfy chair). Maybe they’ll inspire you, too?

a pile of art, garden and creative books

1. Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create by Philippa Stanton

I’ve followed Philippa Stanton (@5ftinf) on Instagram for years, enjoying her beautiful photographs and the frequent appearance of her Siamese (if you’ve been around a while you might remember my Jerome). I had no idea she’d written a book. It’s gorgeous. And filled with exercises and journaling prompts to help spark your creativity. I haven’t (yet) spent much time with it, but I think it’s rich with possibility and look forward to digging deeper with it.

2. UPPERCASE Encyclopedia Yarn·Thread·String

The ninth volume of the UPPERCASE Encyclopedia is here! This is another book to spend some time with. It includes profiles of (by my count) 65 artists and businesses whose art is fiber. Beautiful. Interesting. Inspiring. Just like all of the UPPERCASE publications.

3. Garden, Stitch, Life: 50 Embroidery Motifs & Projects to Grow Your Inspiration by Kazuko Aoki

My friend Laura recommended this one, saying I’d probably enjoy it more than Kazuko Aoki’s other books because it shares a bit about her process and inspiration including photos of her studio and garden. How could I resist a description like that? I bet you can’t, either. The views of her studio, garden, sketchbooks and inspiration are shared in gallery-style pages of multiple photos, but I would have been happy with a book filled only with them! The embroidery motifs are pretty and interesting (I love the pieces made to look like pages torn from a sketchbook!) and are almost all garden- and nature-related.

4. Floret Farm’s Discovering Dahlias: a Guide to Growing and Arranging Magnificent Blooms by Erin Benzakein

Follow that link and watch the promo video. If it doesn’t convince you this book is completely gorgeous, I don’t know what will (watch the video in this blog post, too, for a bit more background). You know I love to grow (and paint) dahlias. Maybe you do, too, or maybe you’d like to try growing some this year? This book will help you do it. And if not, you’ll certainly enjoy the photos.

some dahlia flowers from my garden a few years ago

5. Papier-Mache: a Step-by-Step Guide to Creating More than a Dozen Adorable Projects by Sarah Hand

As you may have guessed from my post last week, of the five, this is the book I’ve spent the most time with this month. Sarah Hand’s work is so joyful! I think papier-mache is one of those art forms that take us back to childhood. Sarah says as much in the introduction of her book. She describes it as “wonky” and “off-kilter” and “askew”. My art is mostly none of those things, so perhaps papier-mache was the perfect prescription for my creative retreat. If you’re looking for something messy and wonky, then maybe papier-mache will be perfect for you, too. Sarah’s book will walk you through the entire process. My pieces (I got a bit carried away in the making) are still in progress, but they’re coming along. They definitely promise to be wonky and off-kilter and askew. Hahaha!

I hope you’ll look for at least one of these books and find inspiration in its pages. Maybe you’ll even be able to curl up in the sunshine with it on your lap.

If you’ve been nurturing yourself with a creative retreat this month, how has it been going? What’s been challenging for you? What’s been inspiring? I truly want to know.

Quin “helping” with the photo shoot for this post