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Kaffe Fassett in the Studio: Behind the Scenes with a Master Colorist
World-renowned artist and textile designer Kaffe Fassett provides a window into his creative process, offering readers new patterns, new ideas, and new inspiration.
With successes like Bold Blooms and Dreaming in Color , the latest book from Kaffe Fassett brings together all the best elements of his work and life. Kaffe Fassett in the Studio offers an in-depth look at his work and where he finds inspiration, paying particular attention to his color work. This volume also showcases some of his greatest designs in the areas of needlework, patchwork, and knitting, as well as provides three to four new patterns in each of these areas. Lastly, Fassett will speak to his fabric design and painting processes.
An icon in the fashion and craft worlds, Fassett partners with brands such as Coach and is regularly featured in the pages of Vogue . His brilliant use of color sets his work apart from other artists, and any collection of his work is a must-have among fans and beyond.
Features Color Photographs by Debbie Patterson
With successes like Bold Blooms and Dreaming in Color , the latest book from Kaffe Fassett brings together all the best elements of his work and life. Kaffe Fassett in the Studio offers an in-depth look at his work and where he finds inspiration, paying particular attention to his color work. This volume also showcases some of his greatest designs in the areas of needlework, patchwork, and knitting, as well as provides three to four new patterns in each of these areas. Lastly, Fassett will speak to his fabric design and painting processes.
An icon in the fashion and craft worlds, Fassett partners with brands such as Coach and is regularly featured in the pages of Vogue . His brilliant use of color sets his work apart from other artists, and any collection of his work is a must-have among fans and beyond.
Features Color Photographs by Debbie Patterson
240 pages, Hardcover
Published April 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 24, 2024
I read this book backwards. I normally don’t jump around, but I know Kaffe Fassett for his knitting patterns, and those were at the end of the book. Fassett’s designs stand out to me amongst the thousands I have been obsessively scrolling through since learning how to knit last year, and it really does come down to his playful use of color. Learning that he grew up in Big Sur, California and moved to London to start his fine arts career makes sense in terms of his love of fine China motifs and psychedelic colors. The pictures of the home he shares with his husband and co-collaborater are a treasure trove of beautiful vessels, textiles, mosaics, paintings and always color. Although the book doesn’t delve into their romantic relationship, I would put it on a Pride month reading list just to show the joy that can come from living a life created in all colors of that rainbow.
June 6, 2021
What a wonderful tour of Kaffe's colorful home and studio!
March 1, 2022
I am not a quilter, a knitter nor an artist, but this book about Kaffe Fassett’s home and studio was delightful to me and fed my lifelong fascination with color and textiles.
I particularly enjoyed the tour of his bathroom highlighting Rupert Spira’s ceramics. Rich colors combined with muted hues are so delicious. And then the entry way...delightfully skewed stained glass tumbling blocks. The mosaiced terrace overgorwn with lush climbing florals..a stunning place to contemplate color and design.
Although I could not live in this riot of color, I appreciate what it must be like to be surrounded by the artistic joy.
Favorite Quotes
I particularly enjoyed the tour of his bathroom highlighting Rupert Spira’s ceramics. Rich colors combined with muted hues are so delicious. And then the entry way...delightfully skewed stained glass tumbling blocks. The mosaiced terrace overgorwn with lush climbing florals..a stunning place to contemplate color and design.
Although I could not live in this riot of color, I appreciate what it must be like to be surrounded by the artistic joy.
Favorite Quotes
Color is such a gigantic enigma, changing and revealing different possibilities each time one concentrates on it for more than a moment.
Jumping from media to media gives anyone interested in the mysteries of color a fresh eye on the subject.
January 11, 2022
A lovely book, full of gorgeous photos. Definitely something to browse through on a gloomy day when you need a splash of colour.
May 27, 2021
An awesome book detailing Kaffe’s studio. I love his use of color. His work is very inspiring.
May 13, 2021
This book is a feast for the eyes!
April 27, 2026
Ok, the writing in this is maybe not five star material, but it is very good, and the book goes about descibing in pictures and in words the life work of Kaffe Fassett and it does a spectacularly beautiful and broad sweeping job of it.
I am taking a class which takes you into his home and studio through Quiltfolk--until I signed up for it, I did not realize just how actively he travels and teaches. He is basically a giant in the area of textile arts. He is an iconic fabric designer, and he works in needlepoint, knitting, and quilting. He has been a working artist for over 50 years and has been a prolific author as well.
In 1988 he became the first living textile artist to have a one-man show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibition attracted such crowds that the Museum doubled attendance figures during the run and the exhibition toured to nine countries afterwards.
This book takes you through his living space, which is one of the things I love to see--where people lived and worked. When I am on the road, those are intentional stops for me. Carl Larssen is a Swedish painter known for painting his family, and his home is adorned with painted doors and walls that are evocative of his work--the same can be said for Fassett's home.
He worked on this book during the pandemic, when we were all home more or less, and has an intimate feel to it, maybe aided and abetted by the amount of time he spent there that year.
If you are a fan, do not miss this--he even manages to include a few patterns, even though that is not what the book's primary aim is, and if you aren't, take it out of the library--you might become one. His fabric isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it is vibrant, distinctive, and I have used small bits of it in quilts to add pop and color. Truely a one of a kind artist.
I am taking a class which takes you into his home and studio through Quiltfolk--until I signed up for it, I did not realize just how actively he travels and teaches. He is basically a giant in the area of textile arts. He is an iconic fabric designer, and he works in needlepoint, knitting, and quilting. He has been a working artist for over 50 years and has been a prolific author as well.
In 1988 he became the first living textile artist to have a one-man show at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The exhibition attracted such crowds that the Museum doubled attendance figures during the run and the exhibition toured to nine countries afterwards.
This book takes you through his living space, which is one of the things I love to see--where people lived and worked. When I am on the road, those are intentional stops for me. Carl Larssen is a Swedish painter known for painting his family, and his home is adorned with painted doors and walls that are evocative of his work--the same can be said for Fassett's home.
He worked on this book during the pandemic, when we were all home more or less, and has an intimate feel to it, maybe aided and abetted by the amount of time he spent there that year.
If you are a fan, do not miss this--he even manages to include a few patterns, even though that is not what the book's primary aim is, and if you aren't, take it out of the library--you might become one. His fabric isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it is vibrant, distinctive, and I have used small bits of it in quilts to add pop and color. Truely a one of a kind artist.
December 20, 2021
This gorgeous coffee table book is a visual feast! I love that this a book about Fassett's unique artistic process. As a multimedia creator, his paintings inspire his mosaics, needlepoint, quilting and knitting and it is fascinating to trace how a single inspiration - usually from his colourful collectibles - translates across these diverse crafts.
Fassett loves colour, and this book takes us into his gloriously cluttered and lovingly curated living areas. He puts colours together I'd never imagine - his motto is if your colour mix is not working, add more colours! - and it is so interesting to see the unique way he views the world.
Although not a project book, there are several for quilting (which he calls patchwork), knitting and needlepoint at the back.
It was a revelation ot see how, as the center of the Kaffe Fassett Collective, he works with his partner and trusted artists to realize his intial vision in other formats, allowing his work much broader reach.
Inspiring!
Fassett loves colour, and this book takes us into his gloriously cluttered and lovingly curated living areas. He puts colours together I'd never imagine - his motto is if your colour mix is not working, add more colours! - and it is so interesting to see the unique way he views the world.
Although not a project book, there are several for quilting (which he calls patchwork), knitting and needlepoint at the back.
It was a revelation ot see how, as the center of the Kaffe Fassett Collective, he works with his partner and trusted artists to realize his intial vision in other formats, allowing his work much broader reach.
Inspiring!
September 30, 2023
I have always enjoyed Fassett's ways with color. This "book studio tour" does a good job of showing process, inspiration, and how Fassett balances multiple mediums. I especially liked how he takes a topic/concept and goes back a forth between painting, needlework, and designing to investigate color and pattern.
My problem with Fassett's process is that some of his sections/projects teeter out of art appreciation into art appropriation. He constantly refers to Asian and African works in monolith and uses "oriental" as a blanket. In most cases, he fails to understand the context, symbolism, and cultural ramifications of the works he collects or studies.
My problem with Fassett's process is that some of his sections/projects teeter out of art appreciation into art appropriation. He constantly refers to Asian and African works in monolith and uses "oriental" as a blanket. In most cases, he fails to understand the context, symbolism, and cultural ramifications of the works he collects or studies.
November 27, 2022
This is a very good complement to Fruity Knitting's several episodes on Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mably. It goes through Fassett and Mably's major craft history and has a small section of patterns for each craft. As a book I could spend more time with the pictures and ponder the patterns. I wished for more patterns, alas.
January 18, 2024
Great GUSHES of color. Soooooo much inspiration. Totally makes me want to dump out certain areas of my life and create create create. Working with color has always made me happy. I really found interesting how he got started in the story of his house and meeting Brandon and so many pictures. There are some patterns in the back and really only three throws that I would consider knitting but boy if I ever need inspiration. It’s a good one to pick up.
July 9, 2021
Kaffe Fassett, you did not "find" these patterns, you appropriated them from other cultures without seeming to want learn their contexts. That being said, I love his color combos and general aesthetic, and he seems like an earnest artist who makes sure he gives the rest of his team props for their contributions. I could look at pictures of piles of the Fassett Collective's fabrics all day.
May 1, 2022
Kaffe Fasset shamelessly name drops in all his books, but here it is totally justified when it is the people who helped him produce all the samples who are named. Gorgeous photos of his house, drenched in a riot of colour and packed with Collections of objects that have caught his eye over the years. I love colour, but I couldn’t live or create in the sensory overload that he seems to thrive in
October 5, 2021
Indulge yourself with a book filled with gorgeous pictures of Kaffe's studio, house, quilts, knitting, and more. Lots and lots of colors and textures. The man is not a minimalist, but his eye is discerning, and he makes all the disparate elements work. Inspiring!
January 20, 2022
A wonderful inspiration of a book! Glorious for the eyes. Motivating to embrace one’s own artistic pursuits. A lovely mix of how painting pollinates other mediums, like fabric design and needlepoint. A joy to read Kaffe’s artistic voice.
October 16, 2022
How to Kaffe
Inspiring photos and tons of color exploding about. Quick read but really gets me excited about using more color. Has patterns at the end which you can download. Much appreciate that cool fact.
Inspiring photos and tons of color exploding about. Quick read but really gets me excited about using more color. Has patterns at the end which you can download. Much appreciate that cool fact.
May 22, 2023
Loved this. I think this book will be a permanent resident on my inspiration shelf. Great read, great inspiration, lovely insight into the mind and home of a fellow artist. Wonderfully colourful with a few ‘try-at-home’ patterns at the end.
December 1, 2025
Amazing book full of colour, ideas and an overview of Kaffe Fassett's creative life, inspiration and home as well as some projects with patterns at the back if you want to try something out. Definitely a book to revisit for future inspiration.
January 2, 2022
Gift for mom. She is one of Kaffe's biggest fans and this one is biographical.
January 2, 2022
A color feast. Mostly looked at the pictures
January 9, 2022
A wonderful record of Kaffe’s world. Inspirational
March 20, 2022
Gorgeous book full of beautiful pictures. I kept thinking as I looked through the book “god I’d hate to have to clean this room!” 😂
January 28, 2024
Wonderful glimpse into the home and studio of an inspiring artist and designer. I have knitted and stitched many of his designs over the years.
September 18, 2024
This was a beautiful book! It was so nice to see Kaffe’s workspace and his projects, to hear his stories and see his surroundings. The patterns were a bonus!
February 24, 2025
I loved the vibrant colourful photos in this ebook. This opened my eyes to making beautiful patterns and inspired me to try some new ideas in my own art.
July 27, 2025
This man is absolutely amazing!!
March 4, 2026
I was already a fan of his quilts. Now I've gotten a peek into his design process and his colorful London home.
March 31, 2026
The apotheosis of a creative life
March 1, 2022
Interesting mix of bio and crafting
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews