Arts and Crafts Books

This book has wonderful projects and very detailed and easy to understand instructions. I enjoy making items for my garden and this book has helped me create beautiful glass items to display and enjoy. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys working with stained glass and gardening.

This is one of my favorite stained glass books! It has great projects for beginners and more experienced stained glass crafters. The instructions are detailed and the photos are very helpful, also.

The patterns are artistic, the instructions clear, and the results truly do look great in the garden.

I bought this item for my mother, who is a stained glass enthusiast that put aside her craft when my brother and I were children (children and shards of glass don't mix very well, apparently). Recently, I've encouraged my mother to resume her interest. Since she is also interested in gardening, "The Stained Glass Garden: Projects & Patterns" was a perfect fit. Among the projects detailed in this book are lanterns, a bird feeder, and a sprinkler. The instructions are clear, and the projects are interesting. I would recommend this item for other stained glass enthusiasts!

This book has all kinds of information, from basic tools, materials and procedures used, to instructions for making your own light table to work on. Includes patterns from simpler plant stakes and candle holders, to really extravagant lawn sprinklers. Awesome book, good for beginners and the more experienced. Don't know why they chose that cover photo, it is nowhere near the best or prettiest project in the book.

I have enjoyed thinking about doing some of this. The book gives fine guidance

I came across this book in my local library and loved it so much I bought a copy for myself. Ms. Buckingham manages to create beautiful trompe l'oeil work with simple techniques that are easy for even the absolute beginner. An added bonus is that her stencils are available online...

I purchased this book 2 years ago. At the time I did not know they sold stencils until I purchased a few stencils on their website along with their video. The book is easy to follow and they give you many ways to incooporate simple stencils. This book encouraged me to create a mural from a small picture and brought out a talent that I never knew existed. Well done. Fantastic pictures with great color which I feel either makes or breaks a simple stencil or a 5 layered stencil. I would highly recommend their book, stencils and their video. If I can learn, anyone can!!!! A+++++

Grab this book without hesitation!

I saw the author on the show, "Home Matters" and was instantly motivated to buy this book. When I saw that it was available in both hard- and soft- cover verrsions, my decision was difficult. Usually saving a few bucks on the paperback version of any book means sacrificing quality; thin paper, fewer illustrations, shortened versions. etc.

When I opted to buy this in the paperback form, I was expecting the usual compromises. I was, joyfully, wrong! This book not only boasts the easy instructions and wonderful pictorials of the hardcover version, it also has wonderful, high quality paper stock rarely found even in hardcover these days. The quality of this book will stand up to years of planning and crafting!

The projects in this book were well-detailed and gave some good information on composition and layering of stencils. I checked this book out of the library and don't intend on buying it BUT I do recommend it if you like the more folkart type decor. I was looking for something more realistic in floral decor. The trellice project was very cute and would look great with a cottage country look.

I just received this book a few weeks ago, and am half way through my first afghan. I love the way the pattern looks and the speed at which I am able to go with it. Also the instructions are very easy to follow, and the book has clear and beautiful pictures. I would recommend it for anyone who enjoys beautiful patterns that work up quickly and easily.

this book has a lot of really neat very simple patters that are easy to follow and work up really quick. I definately recomend this book to anyone who likes afghans that work up quickly but look complicated and time consuming.

I've had this book for over a year now and I am so glad it is in my collection. I have only made one afghan from it so far, but I have made swatches for a couple of other afghans I'm considering. (I would love to try one of the cable afghans.) I sometimes enjoy just looking at the photos in the book. All the afghans are great looking and are nicely photographed.

There is a great variety of afghan styles to choose from among the 52 (!) afghans: classic, bold, lacy, serene, intricate, simple, handsome, and sweet. Some afghans are done as a whole cloth, others in squares or strips. Some patterns even include weaved strands of yarn to form a plaid look. The color pattern on the Blended Rainbow afghan is very clever.

Most patterns call for worsted weight yarn or worsted weight brushed acrylic yarn. None call for one of the trendy premium yarns, which while fun to use, could be unavailable next year. The instructions are relatively simple, most fitting on just one page of the book. (Only a few are a bit more complicated.)

Because you are working with two strands of yarn (either two of the same color or two different colors at the same time) and because you crochet with a large hook size...typically size N or P... the afghans work up quickly.

The one afghan I made was called Golden Waves, which called for a four-color pattern of soft waves. I made it for my nephew in blues and earth tones. He picked out the pattern himself from this book after looking through all my afghan books! It was fun to make and my nephew is very happy with it. Check out the photo I posted here.

Can you tell I like this book?! So did a couple of co-workers who looked at my copy and then went out to buy their own!

I like several patterns from the book but still trying to get the hang of crocheting with double yarn. The book contains many patterns and the explanations are clear and easy to follow.

This is a wonderful book for quick beautiful Afghans! From very basic to more advanced, there is something for everyone. All patterns are worked with two or more strands at a time, while still providing a wide range of patterns! There are basic filets, granny square, 'mile-a-minute' type, and everything in between, there are even baby patterns. Tons of fun and hours of enjoyment! Enjoy!

Terrific book, excellent book on fair isle, Scotland and well written. Would recommend it for anyone's knitting library.

I have this book on audio & knit while I listen. The knitting/listening process actually concentrates my attention on both. This is a five-star book!

This is my first book on Fair Isle, and I'm very happy and satisfied with my purchase. The book covers a great deal of history on the art of Fair Isle and the section on color selection is marvelous.

I'm fairly new to Fair Isle Knitting and this book is one I'm glad I purchased. The directions are easy to understand and the book is beautifully laid out and full of color suggestions.

This book is an essential resource for anyone contemplating or doing Fair isle type kintting. For beginners it is detailed and easily understood, for experienced fair-isle knitters it is inspirational and will lift your knitting into another class.

I was totally ignorant of segmented wood turning until I read this book. Now I am ready to give it a try. I would recommend this book to any serious wood turner.

This is an excellent book, but I feel it is for advanced segmented wood turners. The pictures are beautiful and give you lots of "food for thought." I'm just beginning with segmented wood turning. The book is fun to look at, very detailed in it's instruction, and very interesting to read.

I like everything about woodturning. This book is no exception. You might also want to check the DVD Beyond Wood - Portrait of an Artist. You will see a lot of beautifully photographed pieces and interviews from years of research on the subject.

This book is very helpful and inspiring to any segmented bowl turner. Gives incentive to try the seemingly impossible combination of patterns.

This book was very inspiring. I've made several projects similiar to what is in the book. My work has been praised. Although the designing, cutting of pieces of wood and aleining is challenging; the end results are well worth the efforts.

This is a great book to add to your collection. There is lots of information and pictures. I bought this book for my husband who has done a little blacksmithing and is wanting to set up a shop at home. He has several other blacksmithing books and really liked this book.

A good beginners book, But as a working smith I enjoyed it and found some good tricks, and ideas for my own work.
Great illistrations, good projecte.

This is a good beginner to intermediate book to help someone understand and start blacksmithing. The suthor is well versed in her art and provides good pictures for students to better understand the forging process. Like most books of this kind, however, a student is best served having taken a ahort course in blacksmithing to better understand the terminology.

Although I am very familiar with working with Metal, and many other forms of crafting, I knew little of Blacksmithing. I have always been interested in Blacksmiths since I was a child, but knew nothing of their background, history, and the tricks of the trade so to say that they used to form beautiful and more importantly, useful items that they created.

I recently had the opportunity to work in a blacksmith shop, but I had to do so alone, as the former blacksmith had moved on. Hence I purchased several books to learn of their ways.

I was very interested in this book for one just because it was written by a female blacksmith, something I found to be unheard of, as I never in my life saw a female blacksmith working any forge I ever encountered. I felt that I had to have this book over all others as it would give me not just knowledge of blacksmithing, but a woman's point of view on it, which I felt could be very enlightening.

I could not have been more correct. This is so far the best book I have purchased on blacksmithing, and I have purchased 8 here through Amazon. This book is very well written, depicted, laid out, and explained. I loved the mixture of some of the history, and more so the insight of the craft. For example a simple account of how you will keep getting burned, I laughed over for some time, and yes, so far, I have gotten burned twice. Yea, I'm a newbie, read the book, you will laugh and only then really understand this statement. Also how the Blacksmith bug will bite you and you know it has if scraps of iron start to almost call out to you, grabbing your full attention since as you look at it, you depict in your mind all the things you could make that piece into. I for one remember that line in the book since I have already noticed that the Bug has fully bitten and infected me.

Out of reading the whole book, I was only left with 2 or 3 items that I didn't understand, and that may have been that I missed something in my reading of it, since I did so in a hurried piecemeal fashion. In other words, when I had to put it down or get fired from work, I hurriedly picked it back up as soon as I could to read more!

This is an awesome book. If you are to buy only ONE book, then make it this one. Even the projects in the back are as good as or better than a Project book I purchased. LOL... Enjoy!

The author clearly put a lot of time into this book, and it shows. Clearly explains the basics of blacksmithing without jargon and with useful illustrations. It is entirely on the level about the pros and cons of blacksmithing, the dangers, the rewards, and it is written with engaging humor at times. Great job. I recommend this highly for the beginner!

The book was better than I expected, and arrived before I expected it to.
Great buy. Thanks. :D

This book is so much fun. I'm a digital artist and use Illustrator as my tool. I learned so many techniques from this book. The pictures are big and bold and the author teaches without making you feel like a novice.

I bought this book for my husband and he loves it. He is constantly drawing little pictures for me. It will certainly bring out the inner artist in you. This book is easy to follow along with.

A casual glance through this book originally made me think it looked too cutesy and not what I wanted. I'll still say that too many of his characters and examples are cutesy, and rather stilted. But there's a lot of excellent material here. I found several tips that I (so far) haven't seen in several other books. I've had several nagging questions: Exactly how do I get things done? How is a finished cartoon created? On what size and kind of paper, using what tools? Blitz walks you through all of that stuff. The section on drawing backgrounds and perspective was also really handy.

I'd say this is the single best book I've seen to get started on cartooning. Even if you want to draw some other, very different style (like, some kind of dark Batman comic or something), if you have little or no cartooning experience, this book will be helpful.

I don't consider my self to possess any artistic abilities when it comes to drawing. I wanted to enter a contest on YouTube where I had to draw pictures of things. I got this book. Followed the easy to use instructions, drew my pictures, entered the contest and won the $5,000 grand prize. I would definitely say I got my money's worth from this book and much much more. Highly recommended.

I bought this book at the request of my sister-in-law who is a potter. It was recommended to her by another potter. She loves it.

The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes: Glazing & Firing at Cone 10 (A Lark Ceramics Book) (Purchased on 01/02/2008)

The book has tons of information very useful for a beginner potter and or a professional. Simple to use and has a variety of exercises to follow. Explains very well and has lots of images that makes it easy to comprehend, a must have as a text book.

I found that this book it is very useful and cohomprensive in parts of firing and recipes. There are beutiful pictures; but i find it is not so fluing in the exposition it could be more astonoshing with all the new about the recipes.
If are a novice I think you could also buy another books to introduce you better in the world of making your own glazes more satifing( it is the The Ceramic Spectrum: A Simplified Approach to Glaze and Color DevelopmentHopper book on glazes spectrumThe Ceramic Spectrum: A Simplified Approach to Glaze and Color Development).

Very happy with this purchase. The recipes are all laid out and organized very well. Easy to find what you're looking for and lots of good pictures.

This is a brilliant book with great technical information and fabulous pictures. Most importantly for me though is getting good glaze recipes that have materials that are easily found or can be adapted to what I have. I have trialled many recipes in this book and have found good success. John Britt writes well and gives good firing information. Also most helpful is where he shows the same glaze used on different types of clay, this is a critical factor in the success of any glaze so a most important point that needs to be shown.
If you are wanting to learn about glazing, then this book is a must for you. If you follow through each section and test as many of the glazes as possible, and follow the different firing methods, you will at the end have a comprehensive understanding of glazes and firing.

I am new to using a serger and found this gem of a book to help me understand how to get the most out of it. The explanations are easy to read with plenty of photos for greater understanding. This handbook covers all you need to know about using a serger,from serger parts, threads, threading, tension controls and techniques. There's guides in the back to help with trouble shooting and machine maintainance as well. I have yet to find another book that explains so much about the functions and features of a serger in such a user friendly format. I'd recommend it to anyone who has, or is thinking of buying a serger - from beginner to advanced!

I own four serger books and this is by far the most useful. It is a great resource for those new to serging, especially if the instruction manual that came with your serger is inadequate. The book covers all of the basics needed for serging without previous experience - serger parts, threading, tension, basic operations, serging knit fabrics, rolled hems, troubleshooting, etc. The author is obviously quite experienced in pointing out common serger pitfalls to the beginner.

I already own a copy of this book so I purchased this for a friend who is new to the sergers. This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn how to use a serger. I have read it three times and each time I learn something new. Sergers are a very different animal than a sewing machine, so regardless to what brand you have this book will help you master how to use it and troubleshoot it when necessary.

If you are new to serging, this book is an excellent introduction to the topic. It covers all the basics very clearly and is well illustrated. Beginners can't go wrong here; experienced serger users will want something more advanced.

Although I've sewn since I was a teenager, I'm new to serging. This is the ideal starter book. Its explanations are clear, as are its trouble-shooting tips, & it's logically organized. It will be sitting next to my serger for some time to come.

Great book. Easy to understand and use.Great for anyone yearning to learn about design in the 3d aspect.

This is a great reference for any artist or art teacher. I learned design as a freshman in college. That was about 20 years ago. Design is still a very important part of what I do especially since now I must teach it. This book will help any artist improve her/his work. It will also enable teachers to better instruct their students in the elements and principles of design. Highly recommended.

As a beginning student of design, I've been looking at a number of texts. This is the best I've come across so far. The concepts are presented concisely and in a well-organized format. The illustrations are superb, drawing from a number of crafts, media, and styles. The tone is friendly and encouraging. Recommended highly!

The book is well-written and the examples include some stunning and unusual pieces of art and craft (including painting, photography, pottery, needlework, quilting and more). It is an excellent introduction to design for beginners (artists, craftsmen and art-lovers) but even intermediate readers will find it useful.

This book is a very good choice if you are looking to broaden your horizons in design. There are lots of pictures for examples, and the text is easy reading.