Miniature Books

I knew when I got this book that it might not work out as expected since I owned a Papua New Guinea wild boar. I couldn't train him at all with the techniques discussed, although a Vietnamese Potbellied Pig would follow them. My Papua New Guinea wild boar was very wild.

Eventually I had to sell him as meat because he was so undomesticated. In all, this book is perfect for those who want a 500 lb piece of promenading bacon not walking on carpets or flowerbeds.

We're a new PBP family and this book is the best that we've read so far!! Valentine is an expert at teaching about these wonderful creatures. I highly recommend this book to any PBP owner; new or not!

great reference book for new owners of potbelly pigs. I have three, my first experience and the book is excellent resource. Great color photos! a good bargain

Was extrememly helpful on giving me insight how to help prevent unruly behavior. Being as pigs are extremely intelligent animals with good memories - it is best to mold their behavior as they grow. We have just started teaching obedience. I have obedience trained dogs in the past, but have found (through this book) teaching a pig is quite different. We have started the basic training and are looking forward to teaching tricks - it helps build a relationship with these beloved animals. This book along with The Complete Guide for the Care and Training of Pet Potbellied Pigs - Revised Edition have helped me immensely. We plan to enjoy our pig for years to comeand feel this book will help us accomplish that.

So well written! If you are considering or own a piggy it is a must read. Images are fabulous! Information is priceless and clear cut. Very happy to have made this small investment. Thank you, Nellie and Valentine Piggers:-)

This is the best book on miniature bear making I've encountered. The author leads you thru the easiest to the most difficult with ease. You don't have to buy this book for one or two favorite patterns, all of them will be your favorite. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to make miniatures.

If you love making miniatures you will love making this gorgeous little bears the only porblem is once you start you cannot stop.

The instructions and patterns are very easy to follow specially if you start from 1st project and go right through the book.

Filled with a wealth of information and beautifully photographed, Debbie Kesling's book is an absolute neccessity for the beginner as well as the more experienced bear maker. Every bear lover should have a copy. It is a wonderful coffee table book as well!

How to Make Enchanting Miniature Teddy Bears by Debbie Kesling is as perfect a book as the tiny teddies she makes. Just as each bear is executed with thought, planning, and skill, so is this book. The text provides not only an excellent guide to the world of miniature bears, their design, and creation, but is a very enjoyable read. The photos are sharp and detailed and give the user an excellent picture of each step in the process. This book is absolutely number one!

Debbie Kesling's book has given me hope that even I could make a miniature teddy bear. After seeing her work up close, I was certain I could never manage the mastery evident in each bear she creates. During the years I taught crafts, I never ran across a more clearly written how-to book, especially with such detailed photographs and a willingness to share secrets to success learned from years of experience. Her book is typical of her work... precise, well-composed and full of substance.

I was extremely happy with the service I receivec. I requested that this book be sent to the county jail, via Overnight Mail, for my son, and it wzs received the next day. Time was of the essence and you delivered. I can't rate the book myself, because it was not for me. I would definitely use Amazon.com again.

I have been admiring and studying the Art of Boris Valejio since 1988. This is a collection of Art (late 1970s-mid 1980s) from his career PEAK. Details and tones duplicated from a MASTER Painter. If you buy ONE collection of Boris's fantastic Art, IT MUST BE MIRAGE...

There are some beautiful pencil renderings with precision use of the eraser to bring his sketches to life. An added bonus to pages of glorious full color women and men in the god-like exploitation of the human form.

I'm a long-time Boris fan. I actually own this in hardback, purchased over twenty years ago. It still is one of my favorite art books even after two decades.

Okay, why "Mirage" and not some other Boris book? This isn't a just some anthology of book covers. Quite simply, it has the finest collection of sensual fantasy art I've seen. I say sensual and not erotic because there is a difference. Boris paints lots of skin in this collection... plenty of gorgeous female pulchritude, but it keeps to the tasteful side lecherous. Oh, there are a couple of male figures as well, and they're just as well executed as his females, so you can't fault him there, either.

But don't think this is a series of illustrations with some poetry (by the artist's then-wife) thrown in to justify a book full of nudes. There's always a heavy element of high (or sometimes low) fantasy in every scene... that's fantasy as in mythic, not fantasy as in Penthouse Letters, even though Bob Guccione would have jumped at the opportunity to have any of these women grace the pages of his magazine. And to the surprise of some, there are several very humorous images as well.

Yet there is some truly incredible art in this collection as well. There is one painting of a triton and mermaid... uh... "disporting" themselves underwater that still stands out after twenty-plus years as one of my favorite pieces of art regardless of style, genre or medium. That's saying something.

If you find nudity objectionable, skip this book... you'll never get past all the skin to see the art behind it. Some of the images are slightly disturbing. Some are what I'd consider "filler" to add volume to the book, not as appealing or creative as many of the others. Yet there are some that are simply stunning... breathtaking in color, style and subject, and that makes up for any weaknesses the rest might suffer.

And as I mentioned, there is poetry included as well, contributed by Boris' wife (before Julie Bell). As far as open verse goes, she does respectably well. Some of the poems are rather forgettable, but others may appeal to the individual reader. I like Dylan Thomas and a few other modern poets who use free verse, so the style doesn't bother me a bit. Still, on the whole, the art is why I got the book, not the poetry.

If you want art by daVinci and verse by Tennyson, save your money... you'll be disappointed. Personally, I enjoy art by Boris and poems by Doris just as well.

Overall, an incredible collection well worth the acquiring.

If you are a fan of Boris Vallejo, or are thinking about buying a book of fantasy art -- this book should be the first one you buy. This is an absolute must-have for any art book collection, fantasy art or otherwise. Of all of Boris Vallejo's work to date -- this book by far has all his best art.

Boris Vallejo is by far the best fantasy artist EVER! His 1970s and 1980s art is by far much better than his current work, as is evident from the Mirage book. The figures/subjects in his early work in the Mirage book look like they actually belong in the painted scene. Many other fantasy artists draw subjects in scenes that look like models posing for a painting -- and look really stiff like cardboard. Boris meshes the scenes perfectly and transports you into another world with his vivid depictions of fantasy characters.

I recommend buying Boris Vallejo books in the following order:
1) Mirage
2) Fantasy Art Techniques -- buy it even if you're not an artist.
3) Enchantment
4) Dreams
5) Sketchbook

Verdict: Buy it!
Reviewed by Harrison Chua.

This book collects a series of Boris' paintings, plus a few very detailed pencil drawings, done between 1979 and 1982. If you're not already familiar with Boris' work - well, you probably are whether you know it or not. He has done years work of book covers for Edgar Rice Burroughs, as well as reams of posters. The one constant through all his work is passion for the human form and human power, both male and female.

These paintings range from the lush and sensual to humorous or macabre. A hookah come to life has a demonic presence, but a bar of soap come to life (and licking the bather) is more charming and a little silly. Even the simplest pictures have overtones - that bather is truly a beautiful woman, leaving me just a little envious of such close contact. Maybe not envious either, but off in thoughts of my own. And the preface is right, 'erotic' is much too simple a word for all the different feelings and combinations of feelings that come from having or holding a strong, healthy body.

My only complaint is a sameness in the female figures presented. The faces are beautiful, long and elegant, but mostly the same. The figures - the one figure, really is beautiful, but I value the uniqueness of a figure and the differences between figures. Cloning can serve a narrative purpose, certainly, but sameness wears. Even the loveliness of Danielle Anjou, acknowledged as a principal model and collaborator, wears.

Boris is the master of the figure in fantasy art, and has been for many years. This is a great sample from an earlier time in his career. It's almost impossible not to like.

//wiredweird

This is a cute book with stuff that you can make out of everyday stuff! I highly recommend it!

A savvy friend gave this book to me after discovering that I'd found a Barbie Doll that looked like me (mortifyingly enough, in my mid-twenties). I opened this little hardcover/spiral combo and gasped aloud--exquisite little how-to's on oft-neglected areas of dollhouse fun...a Twister board, a Christmas Tree, flowerpots, wedding cake, croquet, team pennants... Some conceivably Barbie-sized, and many more traditionally dollhouse-sized, like the ballet tableau and the tiny bathtub scene. (There's definitely a scalable quality to the crafts, either way). Best yet, you're not paying $20 a pop in a toy store to have impersonal pink-&-purple logo-labelled uberfeminized fluff. Instead, the book gives you 21 little projects to create with common household/hobby items, and causes you to gaze speculatively at your old tinkertoys, wondering where your glue and paints are.

I highly recommend this for a creative doll-oriented child, and the whimsical adult (who knows better, but starts building a Barbie condo on the pantry shelves).

This is absolutely the most precious book. All the craft ideas use items that are easy to find. And the projects are not only easy to make, but a lot of fun. Definitely recommended.

This book is very cute and creative. Now alot of girls are building little house for little toys like keychains and those kind of things. This book helps them make beds and and lamps etc. This shows them how.

The name of this book is "Tiny Treasures" and that's just what this book is, a tiny treasure. Tiny because it's, well it's tiny. A treasure, because it has literally occupied hours of my darling's time. Some people think it's easier with two children, others think it's twice the work. I am in the others category, so when I saw how they took to this neat little book after their dad brought it home, I was thrilled.

This book will walk your little girl right through dozens of projects. Yes, I must say, you are going to have to help, maybe not when they get older, but I had to help mine make most of the projects and I can't remember having so much fun with my girls. They have learned so many useful things because of this book and we've had dozens up very interesting conversations as I explained about the things we where were making.

If you have a girl child somewhere between three and thirty-three, then I believe this is a book for you. It's full of projects a girl and her mom can do together. Not only do my girls love this book, but I do too.

Sophie Cacique Gaul

I found this to be an excellent book, but the constant plugs for the Sinclare Institute videos annoyed me while I was reading. Advertising for other books/products from the same author/publisher/company should be before the title page, or after the content, not at the end of each chapter, as well as several times throughout the chapter.

I've read it. My husband's read it. I even gave it to my 24-year-old daughter to read and she loved it. We all loved it. I know it's really helped my husband and me. The bedroom is now my favorite room in the house. It didn't use to be that way. We had lots of trouble getting on the same page in that department, let me tell you. But not anymore. Great book.

Since reading this, my husband and I have gotten so much closer and happier, not to mention sexier. ...

...and believe me, I've read a few. I used to be an advice columnist, and if I wrote this clearly and amusingly, I'd probably still be in the business. 10 Secrets doesn't float all over the place or get lost in heavy-breathing or New Agey mumbo julumbo. It offers a clear, delightful path to sexual fulfillment. My only concern now is keeping my husband from trying to meet Felicia Zopol.

This book still has me giggling with delight. I feel like a teenager again. I feel better than a teenager because now I'm finally getting it all right and not groping around in the proverbial dark back seat of a Chevy. I had my first genuine, mind blowing orgasm after reading this book and trying out some of the techniques. Then I got my husband to give me one (another first). Thank you, thank you, thank you. I don't know how I lived without this book for so long.

I purchased Mr. Right When You Need Him as a gift for a close friend with a very bad track record in romance.

She was recovering from her latest broken heart, and this gave her (and every other person there) a great laugh.

Get one today for yourself! It's so much cheaper than therapy!

Great gift! (Although you'll probably wind up wanting to buy one for yourself too!) I saw it first at a bridal shower...then started buying them as gifts for all my friends...and yes, one for myself!

Karen Salmansohn is the best -- I love her books !! What a great combination of humor (comic relief) and penetrating insight into contemporary life. This one is for those times when you'd rather laugh than cry. And don't miss her new one about doing absolutely nothing as a way of changing -- improving your life. She just keeps hitting the target in the right creative key in her wonderful series of books.

Mr Right when you need him is the perfect gift for any woman, single or married. The doll has 4 or 5 phrases that will instantly make this a gift that will be passed around from person to person. However, I must warn you that too much use causes difficulty in squeezing the doll (It was a little too popular with my friends!) The book is light hearted and a fun read. Highly recommend as a gift!!

This is a very nice book and doll package containing 'a sweet-talking man-doll and 64-page owner's manual with helpful tips on use and care.' Author Karen Salmansohn is superb. In part of West Africa, people have carved statuettes of their "spirit spouses" -- here is a good contemporary American version. Highly recommended.

Not only do the "twin authors" provide a first-hand glimpse into the world of "being a twin"...but through the plethora of inspiring interviews with "real-life" twins, they gave me the "real-life" gift of stopping to think of "being human!"

Not only do the "twin authors" provide a first-hand glimpse into the world of "being a twin"...but through the plethora of inspiring interviews with "real-life" twins, they gave me the "real-life" gift of stopping to think of "being human!"

It was refreshing to read a book about twins that wasn't all research and statistics. This book tells a short story about the lives of twins that are either famous or have accomplished something extraordinary or stick out in some other way. Notables are Muhammad Ali's twin daughter, the Hennessy's, Tamera and Tia (Sister Sister show), Mario Andretti and his twin Aldo and Jane Seymour's twin boys. Also the story of the Jim Twins (in every book about twins) and the famous Hensel conjoined twins.

Very interesting reading, and I agree it's a good coffee table book. I do think they should have more boy-girl and other fraternal twins sets represented though.

I liked this book enough. I was disappointed that it focused so much on identical twins and same-sex twins. (My twins are boy/girl...there is only one vignette in the book.) I haven't found myself reading it over and over. The pictures are lovely and the stories are fine. I give it a B or maybe B+.

This book truly touched my heart. I am a twin and felt that it honestly portrayed the many complex and deep emotions and issues that twins experience. I can't wait to share this book with my twin and family! And there are so many amazing people in the book. I didn't realize Muhammad Ali and Jane Seymour had twins. And how different each relationship can be, yet also have such commonalities. I absolutely love this book and find myself opening it up often to read an essay and look at the beautiful photos.

Ever since I saw the Foreign Film, Amelie, I have been in love with garden gnomes. I would love to have one in my yard, but since I live in an apartment, I can't. This is the perfect trade off! It is small enough to fit in a suitcase (or pocket) and fun to have in photos. It is a silly little thing but always makes me smile.

The Gnome itself is very cute. The little story book is a delight!

This is such an adorable and charming little gnome. He makes a great figurine in general, or as someone suggested great for vacation pics. I ended up getting one as a little gift for my mother, who has a small garden on her window. He looks great on the window. Very nice quality, cute design, the little book is a fun read - for adults and kids. And it comes in a neat gift box, makes a delightful gift or for yourself. I may end up getting myself one, since it's charming.

These wee little gnomes make the cutest little "bag stuffer" to include with your housewarming or feel better gifts.
Adorable!

This little guy makes a wonderful travel companion, or he'll wait patiently on your desk or dresser. I especially like his friendly appearance and small stature.

He's solid, made of some kind of plaster-ish composite material.

If you need a miniature friend, this is the guy for you.

I have one and will give you information on the Hummel Silk Carpet.(The Book lacks this information)
On the back is a tag stitched to it saying:

M.J. Hummel
ORIGINAL HUMMEL SILK CARPET
HANDKNOTTED IN BEIJING, CHINA.

ARS AG, ZUG, SWITZERLAND

LIMITED EDITION :10 /50

Also there is a tag attached to the SILK CARPET written in both Chinese and English
ZHE JIANG SILK RUG

I am giving this information because the book does not have a picture of this HUMMEL SILK CARPET and not sure about the information I just posted.
VALUE UNKNOWN but it is Very Beautiful

not only is this a complete guide -- but it is so easy to use -- anyone owning or buying Hummel's should have this -- I only wish I could find Guides like this for my other collectables --

This book is very well illustrated, well layed-out, easy to use, and the pictures are very beautiful. It's full of information, explains more than I expected, and it is a MUST for Hummel collectors.

I have all, since the first publication, of Robert Miller's Price Guide to MI Hummel Figurines, Plates, Miniatures and More.
Mr. Miller has all the knowledge one would expect & want to find in his books after much research and many trips to Germany to gain this knowledge. This is THE HUMMEL BIBLE! I highly recommend this book to all Hummel collectors or to anyone interested in the collecting of fine arts. Very well written with explicit details about Sister MI Hummel's life in Massing, Germany & her schooling. Each known Hummel is pictured & tells of the Master Artist who molded each three dimentional figurine from the drawings by Sister beginning in the 1930's to the present TMK markings. A great investment for Insurance purposes when appraising your figurines by The Hummelking!

Even though it's proclaimed by expert collectors as the absolute source of information about Hummel figurines, Robert Miller's reference work is easy for amateurs as well. He provides insightful guidance in determining value and quality as well as interesting tidbits about production and variations in the figurines. His work is referenced by many sellers in internet auctions, but is also helpful in figuring out just what you already have. As a rank beginner, I had no problem in following his material and ascertaining the value of an inherited collection. It was also useful in helping me determine additions that I wanted to make to the collection.

This game is very enjoyabale. It takes about an hour to play a round with the standard rules. The pieces are pretty indestructable. They are pre-painted so the out-of-the box time to play time is low

As collectibles, many of the pieces are worth a lot right out of the box. Each box is a suprise as to what you will find. A decent collectible if you want something harder to damage than cards, but still want to be able to play with the collectible item (as opposed to say, coins)

This toy is really cool. It is simple for young players and fun for everybody. I like the board best.

This toy is really cool. It is simple for young players and fun for everybody. I like the board best.

I used to love to lay Yu-Gi-Oh. I even played in tournaments. But then I discovered Star Wars. It's even greater than Yu-Gi-Oh! After watching all 6 Star Wars movies, I really into the characters, which made the game more interesting.

This is a great set of minis for a good price if you buy from a third party seller. In my first 3 packs I got 2 very rares and 1 rare. I was so pleased that I am buying the rebel storm boosters