Through the Eye of a Needle - Julia van den Bosch

During Lockdown, when the whole world had turned upside down, Julia Van Den Bosch took solace in the beauty of the natural world around her. Using hand-embroidery, in its traditional role of story-telling, Julia has written and illustrated this magical, breathtaking book. The aim of the book is to take nature to people and to make it come alive through rich, multi-layered embroidery.

Colours of flowers and shapes of leaves and trees; bleached grass and golden cornfields at harvest time; spiders webs on the structures of decayed seedheads; a metallic green chafer beetle, landing on a deep crimson rose; a shooting star. All are part of the world full of intriguing secrets, minute detail, and the sumptuous colours and textures of nature that lend themselves to be translated into rich embroidery.

The wonderfully textural illustrations are just stunning. Taking inspiration from nature, Julia recreates grasping moments in time and offers them up to the reader, alongside herbal information, poetry, the seasonal flora and fauna and more. It’s a book that takes time to read, because each piece of her art that is pictured requires attention. Your gaze is drawn into all the fine details that are put into each piece.

In the book Julia takes us through some of the process; why she uses certain crystals in her works, the meanings behind them and what they give to the piece itself. It is clear that she understands the cycles and the seasons intimately and weaves us into a world, that is utterly enchanting. From the tiniest moth or bat, to the great towering stalks of cow parsley, the humble but persistent dandelion, to magical and mysterious mushrooms, snowdrops and the unfurling fronds of ferns, all of these are presented beautifully and artfully in this work. Favourite material is hand-dyed velvet, with all its lustre and subtle change of colours.

If you are a nature lover and are into your arts and crafts, the book will definitely be a joy to you. Perhaps you might even be inspired to have a go, yourself!

Julia has been a member of Prism since its inception under Julia Caprara and works with photography, hand embroidery and applique, also using botanical art techniques. She sometimes places tiny particles of crystals in the work for their energies.  She firmly believes that in working with hand embroidery, she can record the emotions of the time and, importantly, place intention into the work.

The book 'Seasons for the Soul' can be purchased from all major bookshops and online retailers.

Published by Unicorn, March 2024

Hardback, £25.00

ISBN: 9781916846043

You can find out more about Juila’s work on her website https://juliavandenbosch.com/