Creative gifting

My Faraway Country Myanmar

Linda Lewin Golden
Hare Books, £25

Linda Lewin is a jeweller, artist and sculptor in Scotland who has written and illustrated a story about her father’s childhood in Myanmar. The family history is interwoven with Myanmar’s, from independence from the British Empire to more recent military coups. 

Fashion Embroidery: Embroidery Techniques
and Inspiration for Haute-couture Clothing

Jessica Pile
Batsford, £25

Jessica Pile is Production Director at Hand & Lock in London, which has been providing embroidery services to royalty, the armed services and designers since 1767. Her book includes inspiring fashion images as well as instructions for hand and machine stitching, tambour beading, goldwork and monogramming.

Grand Shetland Adventure Knits

Gudrun Johnston and Mary Jane Mucklestone
Laine Publishing, €36.90 (£32)

Great Shetland Adventure Knits features 14 knitwear patterns inspired by the landscape and knitting history of the Shetland Islands, including socks, hats, scarves and colourwork sweaters.

Gudrun Johnston was born on Shetland and the book not only includes the patterns, but also short travel stories about some of her favourite places to visit on the islands. 

Jewellery and Silverware Inspired
by Architecture

Vicki Ambery-Smith
Unicorn Publishing, £30

Vicki Ambery-Smith makes jewellery and silverware inspired by architecture, and this tells the stories of pieces she has made. She discusses the history of the buildings, classical and modern, the background behind commissions and her techniques – all beautifully illustrated with the author’s exquisite design drawings and photographs.

All the Beauty in the World: A MUSEUM GUARD’S ADVENTURES IN LIFE, LOSS AND ART

Patrick Bringley
Bodley Head, £20

Patrick Bringley gave up his job as a journalist following the death of his brother and became a guard in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This gave him the time to reflect and to study the art. In this book he tells us about learning about the artworks, discovering how the museum worked and interacting with the people there.

The Edinburgh Skating Club

Michelle Sloan
Birlinn Ltd, £9.99

The cover of this entertaining novel features the iconic Henry Raeburn painting The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, a work of art that plays a key role in this well-researched piece of historical fiction. The story is set in Edinburgh and manages to cover both the world of art and the role of women in the 18th century and in modern society – all with light humour. 

Scottish Women Artists

Charlotte Rostek
Fleming Collection, £9.95

Introducing the story of more than 60 artists, Charlotte Rostek weaves a narrative from the 18th century to today. Starting with the first formally trained female artist in Scotland, Catherine Read, Rostek discusses key art movements and developments over 250 years. Many of the featured artists are in the Fleming Collection, a private holding of Scottish art.

Make Your Own Mosaics: ancient techniques
to contemporary art

Helen Miles
White Owl Books, £14.99

This book covers the history of mosaics and the different approaches to mosaic making, and offers new ideas about how to create mosaic pieces. A beautifully designed book with excellent photography and clear, concise writing, it includes detailed instructions for eight mosaic projects. Helen Miles is the great grand-daughter of former past RCSEd President Alexander Miles, who also had an “uncanny exactness in the management of words”.

Scotland and the Origins of Modern Art

Duncan Macmillan
Lund Humphries, £50

Duncan Macmillan argues that the 18th-century Scottish philosophy of moral sense played a central part in shaping the ideas explored by painters in subsequent centuries. Macmillan discusses how we describe our constantly changing world and why imagination is believed to be important in art. In this scholarly work he includes the work of many well-known European artists, especially Scottish and French.

Serena Sews

Serena Baker
Black & White Publishing, £20

Three of the last four winners of The Great British Sewing Bee TV programme are doctors, and the winner in 2023 is a breast surgeon. Baker was a medical student in Edinburgh when she won (she’s now a junior doctor in London). Her book includes chapters on creating, altering and using patterns, as well as covering basic sewing skills and how to refashion existing clothing.

Tartan

Jonathan Faiers
Bloomsbury Academic, £19.99

Tartan contains everything you need to know about the fabric: the origins and development of the material, its construction, the role it has played in history and how it continues to be used in fashion today. The book has been updated by Faiers to accompany the Tartan exhibition at V&A Dundee, which runs until January 2024. 

One Sketch A Day: a visual journal

Chronicle Books, £14.99

If you would like to develop a daily drawing habit or keep a visual record of a year, this book will help. It’s an elegant sketchbook with gilded page edges and ribbon marker, which offers space for daily doodles, drawings and notes. A possible gift for budding artists.