The Gentle Art Of Domesticity
Jane Brocket
In A Nutshell: Colour and kitsch combine with beautiful prose to provide visual inspiration for the domestic arts
This book is based on Jane Brocket’s hugely popular blog “Yarnstorm”. Probably unlike many readers, I found the book before the blog, so was unfamiliar with Jane’s style and subject matter. It didn't take me long to understand the appeal.
Both constitute Jane’s original take on the gentle arts of knitting, sewing, baking and gardening, the pleasurable domestic milieu enjoyed by many women (including me). I feel I am stepping from a black and white reality into a fairytale world of exploding colour and kitsch. In my own crafting I am not a fan of such vibrant clashing colours, but I still appreciate the stunning photos, and how Jane translates inspiration to a finished piece of work. It is fascinating to see the shapes and pattern of an allotment become a flower and vegetable horticultural quilt.
This is a chocolate box of a book to dip in at random whenever you need a pleasure hit. Under the domestic banner there are a surprisingly wide range of topics – film reviews, art critiques and recipes all sit happily together with musings on socks, knitting and quilting.
Only one chapter is titled “Inspiration” but this is the underlying theme for the whole book. I do not want to replicate Jane’s colour schemes, but I will be taking more photos, and thinking much more of how the world around me can inspire my craft.
