Durene Jones
We chat to CrossStitcher designer Durene Jones about her success as a cross stitch book author, with eight titles to her name, and counting…
When Durene Jones found herself out of work, she spent time drawing, designing and stitching. A graphic designer by trade, she thought she would take the leap to creating charts and plucked up the courage to send some examples to magazine editors. Now one of the most established designers in the business and a regular designer for CrossStitcher, she shares what it’s like to be the proud author of not one, but eight cross stitch books…
Hi Durene! Can you tell us how did working on your own cross stitch books come about?
I was approached by Tuva Publishing to do some work for their Kanavice magazine. After working with them for a li le while, they asked if I’d like to produce a book. Of course, I said yes!
Do you have a favourite book out of the ones written so far?
I’ve now designed eight books – three of those aren’t for sale yet. My favourite book so far is my Floral
Folk Art book, mainly because I love drawing and designing folk-art style designs and it was a dream to work on a whole book of them.
How does the process start?
The Tuva team are based in Istanbul, so I would meet up with them at the London Book Fair to chat about initial themes and ideas. Since Covid, discussions are online. Once we agree on a theme, I can go away and start researching it. Research is done just about every way you could think of! I don’t like to limit where I’m looking as I feel this needs to be different for every topic. I’m always on the lookout for ideas. I collect ideas online, bookmarking sites of interest or collecting pictures, but I also love ge ing out and going to the library, where the librarians know me and can suggest books to look at or places to hunt which gives me extra avenues that I might not have otherwise had.
How do you turn your ideas into cross stitch designs?
Once I have a collection of ideas, I can
start drawing them out as sketches. I draw things on paper just in black and white, I don’t usually add colour at this stage because that just slows me down. I like to get the ideas down quickly as they come so they don’t get forgo en. At this stage, I send my drawings to the publisher to make sure they are what we both had in mind, and I haven’t gone off on a weird tangent! This was a nerve-wracking waiting game for my first book, but over the years I find it isn’t that way anymore.
What comes next?
With 50 or so medium-to-larger designs drawn, I can then move onto the charting. I know the size of a whole book page, so this usually helps me to decide what sizes the charts will be and how complex the design. I find I can work more easily if I draw everything first then chart everything.
I like to work through things in stages, so my mind isn’t having to switch from one thing to another. I choose colours as I’m charting on my computer. Most of the time I work from a thread shade card, but occasionally I do collect actual skeins to check the colours if I’m a li le unsure of how they sit together.
Do you ever get ‘designer’s block’?
I do suffer from this, usually towards the middle of drawing the initial designs. I think this is when the motivation starts to wear out a li le and I can find it hard to come up with interesting ideas where I don’t feel like I’m just repeating myself. Usually, a few hours just designing something completely different will help, drawing Hardanger pa erns in my graph pad, or just drawing unrelated things in my sketch book. My go-to for recharging is ge ing outside for half an hour to po er in the garden. I have breaks where I make a cup of coffee and look on Instagram for 10 minutes or so. I also always have a li le box to hand with something crafty but really basic inside it. Currently this is Christmas cards with embroidery or English paper piecing shapes I can just sew together, something simple that I can pick up and switch off for a few minutes while I craft.
How long does it take from agreeing to do a book to seeing it in print?
This varies, I would guess the average time is about a year and a half to two years from the idea to print. It’s not a quick process by any means!
What does it feel like when you see your books for real?
I have to say it’s very exciting to see my book alongside others on bookstore websites, and even more exciting on the odd times I’ve spo ed the real thing in a shop. I have been known to rearrange the shelf in Waterstones, so my book has prime position at the front of a display!
What is coming up next for you?
I have worked on three more books that aren’t available yet, including an essential guide to cross stitch. My head is always wandering to the next idea or the next design. I always have too many ideas for the time available!
Instagram: @durenejonescrossstitch www.tuvapublishing.com
I collect ideas online, bookmarking sites of interest or collecting pictures…