Arts and Crafts Books

This is a well written book. It does an excellent job of starting off with basic chair designs and moving on to more advanced designs. A lot of good photographs show the process of chairmaking. The gallery of chairs from other woodworkers is great - inspiring.

Jeff Miller starts you out with the most basic chair ever and then leads you along to more and more complicated designs step by step. By the end of the book, you feel confident in starting to build an arm chair. Great book.

An excellent overview of different types of chair designs and production of each. Not over the top for anyone that would like a guide to building chairs.

Chad

Excellent and clear book with very good detail on the techniques for the more unusual shapes and angles. A good series of projects starting with basic disigns and progressing onwards.
Chairmaking & Design

I looked all over the Internet for this book a while back and couldn't find it. Used sellers are charging way too much (over $100), so I finally just checked it out of the library (very available and no cost).

This is a good book, and is the only one I know of with general chairmaking info that covers different chair types. The other chairmaking books I've seen seem to be specific to Windsor chairs. I would like to see more books like this ... until then get this one from the library.

This is one of the more interesting free motion embroidery
Books. I think that any one who can sew can do these projects. They are well illustrated and directions are clearly given. No guess work.

I have tried several of the techniques and the author has made learning free motion very understandable and attainable. It is my favorite new quilting book!

This book presents good technical information on handling thread, etc. for free-motion techniques. I find the examples quite uninspiring artistically, though.

As a freehand embroiderer for more than a couple of decades, I purchased this book a few years ago and have thoroughly enjoyed it. I must admit that I buy books like this as much to enjoy reading as to learn from. Unlike a prior reviewer, I won't criticize Ms. Fahl for having a different artistic vision that I might have--and my work is quite different from hers. So what? This book is presented as a jumping-off point for the buyer's creativity. This book is a great companion to Ms. Fahl's DVD presentation on working with thread; I have reviewed it separately. For a beginner, this can be a very good first resource.

We just cannot get enough time to try everything in this book It is absolutely inspiring. It is exciting just reading it and makes one long to get to the sewing machine. Why do we have to do housework, cooking and cleaning when there are such exciting things to create. Thanks to Ann Fahl for the work she has put into this book.I will always treasure it as I learn the art of Thread Painting.

The book is complete in reviewing all the aspects of jewelry making. Very clear explanations supported by big beautiful photographs. A must for all jewelry enthousiasts who would like to start steps in this beautiful craft.

can't put this book down. My design club members are borrowing it.Probably 6 more sales of this book as it is great reference material. The book is also "fun" to read. Great down time pleasure.

This book is by far the best I have. I have no professional training and I am pretty much a beginner (amateur at polymer clay pendants and total beginner at metal). The thing is that I love sculpting....Yet, this book has more info that is helpful to me than any of the other books that I have. The illustrations in this book are more helpful to me than just drawings, like in some of the other books. The angle of the photos shows me exactly what the author is doing. Yeah, it's a lot of info, but that's what I wanted. This book is more complete, in my opinion, than the other books that I have. I love the project pictures that the author has included, as well as the pictures of other artist's work. It's a good price- cheaper than the others that I have, and I'm glad I bought it.

This is an excellent reference for the bench as well as an inspirational book. It explains in a detailed manner about metalurgy, alloys, basic techniques, intermediate and advanced. The pictures are big and the author shows an extensive variety of projects (gallery and wearable pieces) to demonstrate the different techniques. It is a big book, therefore, contains lots of tables, information and pictures.

I've been doing basic stone setting and soldering fabrication for a couple of years and have been looking for a good introduction to more advanced jeweler's techniques to help inspire me to take it to the next level. There are a multitude of beautifully illustrated and produced books that attempt to do this - but fail because they don't show you enough (in an misguided attempt to keep it simple) - The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques comes to mind as an example of this problem. This book - Carles Codina's The Complete Book of Jewelry Making - is the real deal. It serves as a basic introduction, but gives enough detail to really get you off the ground and doing projects. I learned new wrinkles on techniques I thought I knew - and got really good insight into new techniques I've been wanting to learn, such as bead setting, engraving, bright cutting, granulation, reticulation, patination, enamel, etc.. Impressive as getting this right is - this book goes further: it gets into the cultural history and significance of jewelery art and is full of really inspiring examples of jeweler's art. Simply having pictures of great art isn't impressive - but really connecting the achieved vision of that art with the techniques described is. So, you don't just get a good idea of how to do the technique and what it looks like - but you also get a real sense of why; of how the technique pays off artistically.

This book starts off with a brief introduction of where jewelry fits in human civilization. Then it moves to introducing the bench and basic techniques and then moves on to advanced techniques. The basic techniques section mentions important details such as collecting and organizing your scraps and assaying metals. The techniques section illustrate each technique step by step and each one shows you a finished project. Finally it does a series of project illustrated step by step that make use of multiple techniques in a real applied fashion. Each part of the book is illustrated with sumptuous photographs showing the technique and tools. The text is brief, but doesn't lack detail. The artistic vision of the artist is modern - but whether you love the pieces shown or not, there is no debating that they utilize and illustrate the craft in an admirable fashion. This book fires me up and gets me working.

This is a good coffee table book, one you will pick up and read or look through time and again. It's great for ideas for picture or art quilts. There's something for everyone with an artistic bent.

BEGINNING ART QUILTERS -- BUY THIS BOOK ! This beautiful book is literally filled cover to cover with inspiring ideas. For the first month after I received this book, I carried it with me everywhere I went; and every time I looked at it, I saw something new. I am a beginning art quilter and this book gave me tons of ideas. If you're suffering from a creative block, buy this book! Buy this book if you're not suffering from a creative block! Buy it simply to admire the beautiful works of art published on its pages. A great addition to your quilting library!!

Wonderful book. I immediately bought at least one more copy as a gift for a friend who's also getting into quilting. There were ideas for techniques and products for fabric art. The stories behind the quilt squares were very moving also.

After seeing the exhibit at The Chicago Quilt Show I had to have this book. It is extremely inspirational and I believe it will help anyone generate new ideas. Additionally, I enjoy reading all of the personal comments from the creator of each project- it is like reading someone's diary. And finally, it is a book that I find myself going back to again and again and it seems like a new book everytime. I cannot recommend this book enough.

This big book of ideas is exactly what active or "artists in planning mode" quilters need for inspiration. Beautiful book for great ideas. One of my favorite books to refer to when I am planning my next project.

I purchased several art journal books (at the same time) wanting to immerse myself in the paper aspects of it. Saw this book listed and decided to check it out...having the large stash of fabric that I do. Did not expect much. Was I wrong! It is loaded with so much information that I wanted to jump back into my fabric stash only 1/4 way through the book. Chapter 4..at the end of the book... will really energize your creative thoughts. It seems to be all here. All the information to not only get you going but to keep you going.
Highly recommend to anyone that especially loves textile arts.

This book seduces you to get out your sewing machine... you may never have dreamt of sewing books, but once the pictures show you the phantastic, colorful books that are possible, and the clear descriptions convince you you can do it, you can't resist. I bought the book for a friend and then got a copy for myself... I highly recommend it to anyone who combines a love for fabrics and books.

One of my absolute favorites. The first part of the book gives you all the information you need to get started, including techniques, tools, stitches, etc. All well explained, including visuals. Perfect for beginners & advanced crafters alike. The second part is full of gorgeous projects with step-by-step instruction. All are well within the capabilities of any level of crafter, as it is not so much the construction of the books that is inspired, but rather it is what you do to embellish them that is key. And the last part of the book gives you several pages of examples of cloth books made by others. Lots of inspiration on the possibilites of various embellishment techniques there. I am just wild for this book and am itching to get started!

I have to admit, I love books. But I also love fabric, quilting and journal making. This book involves all three. I purchased this particular book based on other reviews and was not disappointed. I haven't made a journal yet, but am planning to as soon as some of my other sewing projects are caught up. My biggest problem? Deciding which book to make and how big it should be!

Let me add my praise to the reveiw list for this beautiful and inspiring book. The photos and colors will jumpstart your creative energies. The projects are wonderful just as illustrated, but I found them to be just the beginning. It's a book full of ideas and techniques that will keep me busy for a long time. I keep this book close by just so I can admire the work illustrated and for the inspiration it provides for my next project.

I really enjoyed this book, and the author is really a master at her craft. Some things I still don't understand and need clarification on, and for a real novice, I'm putting this aside for a while as it seems a bit more than I can handle at the moment. I don't understand the sizing guidelines, and just wish someone would print a sizing chart. (Cannot find one anywhere) It would help so much. The rest I can read and practice. All this "1/12th" or "1/16th", I'm still trying to figure out if that is the size of the picture in comparison to the real figure or what it really means. I really missed something and otherwise, I would recommend it because she is an extremely good author and doll maker. I know I would also buy more from her if I ever get going on this!

This book is more for an intermediate to advanced sculptor.

There are many lovely color photographs from exceptional doll artists, but most of the "learning techniques" are in black and white with a lot of text.

A beginning sculptor could learn from this book, it's an excellent tool, just not much of the "hand holding" through every step like other books of this type.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and feel it is worth having in your library.

This book is wonderful, it covers every aspect of dollmaking. If this is your first time making a doll or your 100th you will find new and helpful information in this book. Definatly add this book to your doll making library.

The book "Fantastic Figures: Ideas & Techniques Using the New Clays," by Susanna Oroyan is a great book on advanced techniques in clay. However, for a beginner like me it was a bit overwhelming. So I am placing it on my book shelf and hope to be skilled enough to use it some day. As the dolls in it are great examples of OOAKmanship!

This book is a great book... but, I am only giving it 4 stars because not all of the pictures of the dolls are in color. Many are in black and white. I have been making dolls for a couple of years and her instructions are great, but probably not for the beginnner. It is interesting to see the different mediums for OOAK dolls. She provides a lot of examples using different mediums.

I was thoroughly impressed with Michael Seidman's ingenue in the subject of fiction writing... I've only read half the book and I already have a considerably solid idea of how my book should be constructed... I recommend this book to anyone who has the desire to write or anyone who has written before.

Seidman's approach to writing is not for the faint-hearted or those with a cookie-cutter mentality, but it is for someone who wants to get a solid handle on craft. With decades of experience working for top publishers and editing some of the best in the business, Seidman has distilled his knowledge and made it easily available for anyone truly interested in learning how to write. Seidman's books on writing should line every writer's reference shelf.

Seidman does something very special in this book: he talks to writers as a friend trying to demystify the process of writing and the process of getting published and beyond. It's an absolutely refreshing change from other writing books that admonish, cajole, preach, and give self-help pep talks. It's an enjoyable book, which makes it that much more important to those of us who want to learn.

This is what happens when Strunk & White takes An Idiot's Guide to Getting Published to a cheesy motel room for a weekend of frolic. You get the perfect love child of how to write a book for publication without looking like the proverbial idiot. Seidman manages to beat the unsuspecting reader over the head with his well worn copy of Elements of Style in such a way that you don't really notice the lumps until later. Then he switches hats and lets you know exactly what's going on behind those closed editorial doors. Apparently they aren't designing new and inventive ways of make authors pull the rest of the hair out and swear to take up horticulture.

If you want to write a book and you want to publish it, then this is one of those that should grace your collection of how to write books and get published tomes. It's compact, it's laminated cover doubles as a coaster in a pinch, and you can actually learn some punctuation rules if you're not careful.

This is a concise, intelligent piece of work written in three clearly defined segments; the most intensive being the first part which deals directly with the art of writing in the real world. There is then a short, centrally located segment which is about networking that makes plain good sense look quite simply like a brilliant idea. The Third and last section deals in no uncertain terms with the Business of Publishing, and make no mistake, the guy who wrote it has more than 40 years experience in the field, so each page he presents to us is not only useful, it's a no fooling around, fact-filled leaf within a series of only hundred and some business oriented pages that complete this valuable text. The book then is punctuated with an ending comprised of short, comprehensively helpful lists. Do yourself a favor and don't miss it.

A superb look a the Greene Brother's masterpiece ultimate bungalows. It includes some of the best Greene and Greene photography I've ever seen, and has a very good look at the details of the architecture, and the internals of the Greene and Greene houses. This book focuses more on the houses themselves, and the fixed appointments therein, rather than the furniture itself. Influences on the Greenes are coupled with a well laid out timeline give you a real view into the evolution of their style.

Excellent! The best book on this subject I've ever seen...

Superb photoraphic illustration depicts the design genius of the Greene brothers. A comprehensive study of leading architects of the Arts & Crafts movement...a high compliment to the monumental craftsmanship of those who executed their designs.

The book is beautiful, filled with both architectural ideas and furnishing ideas for items done in the craftsman style. I purchased the book for these ideas and was delighted with all the pictures. Some of the stonework illustrated is breathtaking in its beauty.

We were very disappointed at the quality of printing, inferior paper stock, and lack of clarity in the photographs. At the "coffee table" price we were expecting much higher resolution in the color photographs and better quality paper.

This book was ordered, because of the author is highly qualified in the ornamental knot arena. I am very pleased with the directions and illustrative drawings. A further good reference came from The Magazine of the International Guild of Knot Tyers, Issue 96, September 2007, giving it a glowing report in their Book Review section.

I read this book and it`s very good! I tried to do whips and home and they are very pretty :)
I took a good results.

Eugene Solomin
Russia

Great book, well written and very easy to follow. Ron makes things so easy to follow that even the really hard stuff makes sense right off the bat. If you can't make a good quality whip after reading and following this book, give it up you never will be able to.

Nice book have not used it to make a whip yet. Some things are not quite as clear as I would like to see. Better to have someone show you than read a book.

I must say I did find this book fascinating and the information contained in it provided an overview of the entire process of whipmaking form skiving a core to to plaiting the overlay. However, If your looking for a step by step, ultra-specific instruction manual, taking you completely thru the process of making a whip from scratch, this book still is not quite it!!! Don't get me wrong, there is alot of great information, and this is certainly THE Published book to get that comes closest to an instruction manual, but I feel, if your an absolute beginner, you're still not quite going to be able to knock out a COMPLETE whip from scratch after reading this book. Unfortunately, that's exactly what I was looking for when I got this book.

For instance, whenever Mr. Edwards talks about anything to do with the "set"(the overlay plait) he is very specific. But he quickly glances over other parts of the whip that are equally as important(i.e. he never fully explains exactly how to correctly taper and shape cores or bellies for certain whips which is going to be devastating to the overall whip taper if you don't have it right). The section right in the beginning explaining the different types of Leather and Hides was also lacking. And I know he's an Australian, but he spends WAY to much time emphasizing Stockwhips and barely anytime on the most popular American whip, the Bullwhip(you will DEFINITELY NOT be able to make a proper bullwhip after reading this book).
If you really want an INSTRUCTION MANUAL guiding you specifically thru every single step in making a Bullwhip, then go to www.dukewhips.com and buy Rob Duke's Bullwhip Making Instruction Guide.
I really did enjoy Mr. Edwards book. As I said there are a number of extremely vital techniques explained that are invaluable to the whipmaking process. I just wish it would have pulled the entire whipmaking process together more coherently.

This book has plenty of pictures and also clear step-by-step instructions, easy to follow, for all stages - from beginners to more experienced artists. Very realistic miniatures, absolutely perfect!

There is only "raw" food though, no dishes... (suggestion for her next book!) I'll buy any book she writes!

I have been looking for a book that will help me make some of the foods for my little people in the doll house. Now, they can have tasty and semi-real food. Very detailed and easy step by step instructions.

This is a book come with the step by step guide to create the indivdual items. It is a book value for money.

Anyone who is interested in making miniature food should purchase this book, the explanations are superb.

A great book! This book covers the basics of working with polymer clay, including mixing colors and which tools you'll need. It also shows you step-by-step, with words and pictures, how to create each project. And the best part: the finished food that *I make* by following the steps, looks REAL! Making miniature food is so much fun, thanks to this book!