Miniature Books

I first got this book when I was 8 and still love it. Every time I look at it I find somthing new. It has very good instuctions and is good for all ages. All the projects are with very available, inexpensive things. I'm very happy I have this book and it is very fun to put into use.

I was 11 when I was given this book by my parents. That was all it took for me to become completely obsessed with creating these little worlds of tiny people. Granted, this isn't the most sophisticated of all books on the subject, but it is extremely accessible. Now, 14 years later, I still have most, if not all, of the furniture I made by using patterns from this book. The materials are inexpensive and very easy to find - on a child's allowance I was able to do a lot. This is still, hands down, my sentimental favorite.

I was disappointed over the quality of the minatures featured in this book. They seemed way too amateur-ish and uninventive. I feel the author could have tried a little harder in making more creative and sophisticated designs rather than boring, suburban-lazy type she displayed in this book. The designs reminded me of those ugly crocheted blankets you see in the typical housewife or granny's home. It's a great hobby with alot of potential; unfortunately, the only people who take it up have no sense whatsoever of aesthetics.

The up side of this book is that it includes alot of color photos and detailed instructions, if you are inclined to make these dull pieces at home.

i found this book by chance in waldens. i have always had a fascination with miniatures and dollhouses, maybe because of my modest childhood. however, my interest in miniatures was sparked by the discovery of this book. boulton does an excellent job with explaining the miniture making process. as always, the DK company provides clear and colorful illustrations on making miniatures. i love this book and would recommend it to anyone who is an advanced miniaturist or novice.

My Mother gave her copy of the book to my granddaughter who is 8 yrs old. Now she can't wait to get home from school to work on her latest project for her dolls or doll house. Sometimes it is a Mother-Daughter project but not always.

This book is really cute. It is petite and small, I was expecting it to be bigger but it's a really good book for my 18month old. Plus we try to act out things in the book that Bert and Ernie do. Another Sesame Street book she likes is called Shake a Leg. It's cute and active as well.

I bought this book at a garage sale when my daughter was 14 months old. She LOVED it, more than other little books that were NEW! A year later, I keep it in the armrest of my car -- this is the book that buys me at least 15 minutes of quiet EVERY TIME. I think she likes that the characters are familar to her, and I like that she is seeing "kids" engaged in active play, even if they are older than she...

My one year old son loves this book so much that he wore it out! We bought another one and he picked up right where he left off!

This is an adorable little sesame street book. It is a very small size, but this is just perfect for my toddler. It is really well done with little rhymes on every other page. The pictures are adorable. The child can relate to what the book is saying by seeing the pictures. An all around nice book to add to your sesame street collection.

It is very cute, but jumping rope, skating, swimming, diving, washing dishes at the sink, cooking an egg, etc are some of the things that ernie and bert are shown to be doing and it is just NOT appropriate to ask an under 3 -- can you? any of those questions, since they tend to take them literally. my son is 16 months old and doesn't get that he can't, so, i don't know when he will get the concept that he can "pretend" to do these things, so you might want to wait until they understand "pretend".

This book will definately inspire you to try making a few of these critters designed by a very talented clay artist. My favorites are Rocky Raven - and Cocoa Moose!

I look forward to the next book this author puts out!

-CP

This book will definately inspire you to try making a few of these critters designed by a very talented clay artist. My favorites are Rocky Raven - and Cocoa Moose!

I look forward to the next book this author puts out!

-CP

this book does not even compare to other books on clay projects. It apparently hides behind a couple of religious quotes as a reason to over-charge for a minimal treatment of polymer clay projects.

This book is a must-have for people of all ages who enjoy working with polymer clay. The instructions for making cute critters in this book are very easy to follow, and fun!

My favorites are Rocky Raven and Cocoa Moose.

I can't wait for Joshua's next book!

If mom's are allowed to write a review, I would like to encourage other moms to work with their kids and help them achieve their dreams and goals in life. I am very proud of Joshua, and how far he has come in the 3 years he has been sculpting and teaching others. Joshua's book is excellent in design, lay-out, color, and easy to understand instructions for kids and adults. Joshua has even taught kids with learning disabilities to sculpt with wonderful results. If you are an amateur or a pro at sculpting, Joshua's book will be a delight to all who try their hand at his adorable critters.

This was the first book I ever bought on polymer clay. I barely knew what polymer clay was - I looked in the book, thought "I can do that", bought some polymer clay and by that evening was making fabulous roses. This was the perfect introductory book - the books I have subsequently purchased and used would have scared me off. This is the basics, how to condition the clay, roll it into balls, make the shapes, assemble them, bake, and maybe paint a little. No color palettes, skinner blends, no fancy equipment - just clay, your hands, some wax paper, cornstarch, scissors, toothpicks and an oven. The instructions are incredibly detailed, the pictures perfect - Quast doesn't leave you to try to figure out a single thing. No matter how "uncrafty" or unartistic you are, the projects in this book will make you think you were born for the art of polymer clay. The book covers roses, dogwood blossoms, daisies, cherry blossoms, pansies, daffodils and irises, and ends by showing you some great jewelry and decorative household items you can make.

Step-by-step instructions on how to make seven different flowers using polymer clay. Detailed diagrams and tips (from tools and materials to color blending). Good book for beginner flower artists in the polymer clay medium. Provides list of sources and references.

I have many books on polymer clay and this is one of my favorites! The techiques show here can be applied to any sculpture but what impressed me was how lifelike these projects look! And with such detailed explanations and illustrations it is an easy jump to use these techiques to create flowers of your own choice. I have made figures from polymer clay for 7 years now and most books are repetitive to me, I found this one re-energized my creative juices and gave me something new to make, I now make minature flowers to adorn some of my figures and have been pleased with the new dimension it adds.

This is a must-have book for anyone wanting to learn to make beautiful miniature flowers. It is great book for all levels, even those who have never worked with polymer clay.

At first glance I though it would be hard and very time consuming. I was wrong. I was amazed at how easy it really was. In less than two hours, I had a very impressive looking rose bud.

The author first covers materials and how to work with polymer clay. Included templates help you judge size & shape. Each part of every flower is then explained step by step. Numerous color photos help to guide you.

Flowers covered include roses, dogwood, daisies, cherry blossoms, pansies, daffodils, and irises. There are a few projects in the back showing you how to frame the flowers and make jewelry or ornaments out of them.

This is the only book on this subject that I know of, so it's better than nothing. But it's frustrating throughout because the photos depict the author's hands better than the items she is holding. The verbal instructions are fairly good, but in this topic better pictures are a must. Maybe there will be a second edition with this problem corrected. Meanwhile, enjoy her pretty hands.

Very well written book, the pictures are visually stunning and so intruiging for those who love books.

Rare book dealer Anne C. Bromer teams up with scholarly bibliophile and book collector Julian I. Edison (who for more than 40 years has served as the editor of 'Miniature Book News') to present "Miniature Books: 4,000 Years Of Tiny Treasure". This is an elegantly illustrated, 216-page compendium showcasing tiny books showcased in an exhibition at The Grolier Club which, founded in 1884, is America's oldest and largest society for bibliophiles and enthusiasts in the graphic arts. Featuring more than 260 full-color photographic illustrations of miniature books (being 3 inches or smaller in size) from around the world, the examples proffered range from Shakeseare's plays, to Christian bibles, to children's books, to all manner of fiction. Some of these are gemmed, tooled, locked, illuminated, and a few are illustrated by such legendary artists as Picasso, Miro, and Gorey. A work of impressive scholarship and research by Bromer and Edison, "Miniature Books" is a bibliophile's treat and would make a superb Memorial Fund acquisition selection for academic and community library collections.

Very readable, loaded with information and ravishing actual-size photos of tiny books through the ages to the present. The authors transmit their enthusiasm for the history and aesthetics of miniatures. Some of these books are made of tooled and embosssed leather, others resemble jeweled lockets, and their workmanship is spectacular. An excellent source book even for the general reader, and especially readers who are drawn to miniatures.

What I found delightful in this survey were the books from the recent past. Obviously the authors rightly cover historical items (and with beautiful photos, too) but books right up to the turn of the new century are included.

Some of these really look beautiful like the 1988 colorful polycarbonate covers from Maurice Dufrene's `Florilegium' or the wraparound cover to Frank Dobie's 1979 `White Mustang', created with several different leathers. Both books are only two and a half inches tall.

The nine chapters, in words and images, give an overview of tiny tomes and it was nice to see that most of the books features are displayed actual size. Perhaps missing from the text was a brief description of how many of the books were printed. There is an interesting photo on page 106 of an uncut sheet from 1752 `London Almanack' showing twenty pages (and a gatefold of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Palace) which were no problem to print but the precision was in the binding such small items, if the craftsmen were a fraction out part of a page could easily be missing. Judging by the amount of commercially printed books included from the last hundred or so years binding machinery can handle small pages easily.

The last chapter covers oddities including a 1991 German medical companies little book with a dummy heart pacemaker as part of the package. A sidebar is devoted to hidden paintings, printed or individually artist painted, on the fanned out fore pages. `A Small Book of Flies' printed in 1983 includes actual fishing flies (under a piece of glass) in a book two and three quarter inches by one and three quarters.

It is this coverage of books besides the usual fine art ones that made the book come alive for me. Incidentally the production is first class, with gold blocking on three sides (when was the last time you saw that on a book?) printed in 175dpi screen and a handy silk bookmark.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Miniature books, those tiny treasure measuring not over three inches in height, length or width, have fascinated for some 4,000 years. Some of these books as those exhibited recently in Toledo, Spain, are so small that they can only be seen through a magnifying glass. Current prices for these books vary, and some dealers specialize in them. Today, there is a miniature book society, an international non-profit organization, providing a forum for collectors and interested parties.

Now, everything you wanted to know and more is available in this compact, beautifully illustrated volume by rare book dealer Anne C. Bromer and collector Julian I. Edison. The book is dedicated to Stanley Marcus, an avid collector of miniature books and contains a foreword by him in which he said that miniature book collecting gave him the greatest pleasure. He also noted that these small volumes "enlarged my field of knowledge to a wide variety of subjects ranging from pornography to philosophy, religious topics to small books for children." And so it is for aficionados.

Richly illustrated, Miniature Books includes chapters devoted to illuminated manuscripts, religious topics, politics, children's literature, and more. In addition, there are listings of sources for miniature books as well as mention of those in libraries.

Author Bromer notes that she first laid eyes on miniature books some 35 years ago and has been entranced with them since them. So have many - enjoy!

- Gail Cooke

This is a great book for beginners. It has clear instructions and nice color pictures. There are 11 projects, but they are very tiny! They would make great rugs for in a doll house.

i recently received this book and it has already been useful. i wasnt sure how to finish my punch needle pieces properly and with this book i now know. the photographs are wonderful and the directions are easy to follow. if you are interested in punch needle this is a must have book.

This is an excellent book on punchneedle embroidery. This type of embroidery is becoming quickly popular and this book will tell you everything that you need to get started and have fast success. The book is great for both beginners and the experienced puncher with a number of patterns, a lot of technique, and excellent color illustrations. The author, Linda Repasky, is very knowledgable on the subject and presents clear and easy to follow instructions in this book. The book covers every area of the art and includes directions on how to frame finished work and how to make pins from your creations.

If you are looking for a book to get started - or you are an experienced puncher and looking for inspiration, this is the book for you!

It doesn't matter whether you're new to the art of punchneedle embroidery or whether you've been doing it for a while now. No matter your level of experience, you'll find something in this book to delight you. Repasky's clear, readable style will guide newbies through every step of learning punchneedle, and her projects and finishing techniques will inspire even those who already have experience. There are resources galore, also. The photographs are very well done and give those who learn via a visual representation plenty of needed information. Every project comes with an extensive thread conversion guide, too, so whether you have an old stash of DMC floss or whether you have the latest hand-dyed floss or wool, you'll be able to execute these truly primitive, whimsical projects with no trouble at all. And they are so small, you can probably get through one of them in one or two sittings. If you want to learn punchneedle embroidery, this is a fabulous place to start.

MINIATURE PUNCHNEEDLE EMBROIDERY: SIMPLE TECHNIQUES, BEAUTIFUL PROJECTS provides eleven folk-art-inspired designs to illustrate the method of punchneedle embroidery. Easy techniques supplement very basic tips on equipment to get beginners started nearly instantly. Step-by-step photos in color and black and white supplement larger ones of finished results which inspire.

Have not had a chance to work any patterns from this book. Robyn Pandolph's fabric is pretty.

This is a delightful book with lots of different design ideas for other applications included. You will perfect your applique skills doing these quilt designs. The only bad thing is that you MUST have a CD rom and a printer to retrive the patterns as they are NOT printed in the book itself.

I am a fan of Robyn's fabrics and I love her style. This book just radiates her soft touch. I so much enjoy going through the book. The patterns are so do-able and she suggests so many other uses for each pattern and idea. The CD-ROM is a great addition as you can print the patterns in the size you want and for the project you are working on. The CD also allows you to "try out" different fabrics and different looks for each pattern.

This is one of my favorites!

I had the pleasure of taking an applique workshop offered once a month for a year at my local quilt shop with Ms Pandolph. I enjoyed the workshop and Robyn and her designs. I bought this book after browsing a friends copy. I especially like having the patterns on the cd. I wasn't sure about it at first but after decorating one of my daughter's hats, a pair of overalls and one of my jumpers, by altering the size of the patterns, I was won over by the idea of having patterns on the computer.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys applique and Robyns lovely designs. And it is alot of fun playing with the designs in the different color schemes on the computer, so much easier than trying to figure them out in "real life"!!

Here are some excerpts from my review of this book. You can see the complete review on the Quilter's Review website.

"...'Stitched With Love' includes clear how-to instructions and recipes. Not only do you see photos of quilts, you see these cute quilts in rooms showing the other projects included in this book. The beautiful double-page photos by Mark Packo make you think you are looking at a decorating magazine instead of a quilting book...."

"Robyn's easy applique patterns look real nice in her vintage fabrics, but I would like to make the quilts in bright colors for baby shower gifts. She anticipated this by including a nursery brights palette along with a country colors palette and a contemporary fabrics palette.

"There's also a teaching video on the CD-ROM, in which Robyn shows her method of needle-turn applique step by step. The best part of this video is that each step is a separate mini-video, making it easy to repeatedly watch just the pieces on which you need clarification...."

This book was not available in local stores as it is out of print now. Amazon had a copy of it brand new. Showed up in perfect, unused condition and in a timely manner. Glad I was able to find it here and at a great price!

The Ultimate Missions for Revenge of the Sith pretty much mirrors the format of the first two books in the series, and is easily worth purchasing just for the new maps if nothing else (and there is a lot more). This book also shows (begins?) the trend of mixing the minis game and RPG info, as the last several pages are devoted to Episode 3 character RPG stats, which is outside the scope of the minis game, but fun to have nonetheless. As with the other books, some of the attempts at recreating movie situations make for terribly difficult missions, but this book should provide players of the game with many hours of ideas. A side note; most of the illustrations are excellent -- it's a very sharp looking book.

If you love the Star Wars Universe you can probably make up your own senarios for the game, however, this book like the ones before it really make living the movies through the game easy to jump into. If nothing else the new maps alone make this worth the purchase.

Though I am a huge fan of the Star Wars Minis game, I am not a big fan of the scenarios in this book (some are pretty good, but most are not). However, there are several things I liked about this item that I thought worth sharing. The best thing about this book are the two maps at the end:

Map 1: Throne Room/Chancellor's Starship -- A very good to great map that is legal for 100, 150, and 200 point tournament play. This map is huge/rigid friendly, and works well for both shooting and melee characters.

Map 2: Mustafar -- A very good to great map that is legal for 100 and 150 point tournament play. Huge advantage for shooters (so if you like to play shooting squads - as opposed to melee squads - you'll definitely want to get this map).

Another nice thing about this item is the terrain tiles, special rules, and random scenario generator at the end (it's very flexible, so you can use all of them, or just the parts you like). For example, you can roll a D20 to determine what type of terrain there is (snow, desert, jungle, swamp, etc.), type of mission (skirmish, ambush, rescue, escape, etc.), and more. All options in this section of the book come with their own interesting and easy to understand special rules. Unfortunately, this is basically the same information that comes in the Rebel Storm: Ultimate Missions book (but if you don't have that book, it is worth getting in this one).

In sum, I would not necessarily buy this book for the missions (which make up 75% of this book), but this item is definitely/still worth getting for the maps, terrain tiles, and the special rules and random scenario generator.

These Ultimate Mission books are brilliant. The maps are, as in past Ultimate Mission offerings, reason enough to get the book. But the wide range of missions is very welcome. Of course there are missions based on Episode III, but missions of highlight would be the addition of missions based on the events seen in the Clone Wars animated series from Cartoon Network. There are a few missions that use the maps found in the Revenge of the Sith starter game box set and the Clone Wars starter set as well. There are a couple missions that, if your collection of miniatures allows anyways, the choice to use miniatures from various sets, not just the Revenge set. It's cool to see one of these books acknowledge past sets and maps, not just stick to the new stuff.

This is an ideal publication for those dolls' house enthusiasts who enjoy making their own furniture and accessories. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, with required materials being easy to obtain. Beautifully illustrated, this book is enjoyable to read and gives inspiration to make your dolls' house into a unique possession.

I bought this book based on reviews, but was very disappointed. It is filled with simplistic projects that produce crude results, not likely to satisfy the modern sophisticated dollhouse collector. The description of daily activities in a Victorian home is mildly interesting, but nothing you will not already know if you collect miniatures. Basically, the author sounds like a nice lady, but the book is a waste of money and time.

The book 'Victorian Dolls' House Projects: A Day in the Life' by Christiane Berridge, is to me, one of the most interesting books I have ever purchased on the Victorian Dolls' House era. Her down-to-earth manner of explaining things and making use of every-day items in and around your home, are all you will need to further enthuse you in creating items for your hobby. Christiane, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!

The projects in this book are great and are suited to beginner doll house enthusiasts or more experienced. The information about Victorian life is presented in an interesting way, looking at how a typical Victorian day progresses from early morning to night, with interesting and fairly simple projects to accompany the text. Highly recommended for anyone aiming for a Victorian doll house!

Loved the book. I always enjoy books with projects in them. I've already put some the instructions to use. Loved the pictures and the directions.

Superb is not enough! Nunn has a habit of producing excellent chess books. Add 101 Brilliant Chess Miniatures to Nunn's list of well annotated, edited, researched, and written books.

These 101 decisive games were culled from over 65,000 games of twenty five moves or less between chess players of at least 2500 Elo. All of the games are post 1970 with many from the late 1990s.

Entertainment and instruction are seamlessly woven together in 101 Brilliant Chess Miniatures. Play through the classic, Tal-Uhlmann, Moscow 1971. Enjoy the virtuoso performance in Topalov-Ivanchuk, Linares 1999. The annotations and comments to all the games are top notch.

Buy this book now! If you are a tournament player, you'll win more games. If you just love chess, you'll fall in love all over again!

.
John Nunn at his best is better than most chess writers at their best. I agree with most of the praise for this book and other Nunn books. And yes Gambit is a premier publisher of chess books, no doubt. Yet this particular book has several aggravating avoidable flaws in the way it was physically produced.

[1a] In large paragraph blocks the move notations are intermixed among annotations, variations, and general text. Their only distinguishing feature is that the live moves are bolded. However, in implementation this turned out to be a rather subtle cue for the human eye. Next time Gambit should find a font that provides a more stark contrast between bold and not-bold.

[1b] For this format of embedding live moves among variations, Figurine notation is simply a poor choice. The little piece images have no differences between their bold and not-bold versions, whereas capital letters do. The choice of Figurine notation worsens the problem described in 1a. Maybe a solution could be to use White icons for variations and analyses, but Black icons for live moves, to achieve more contrast?

[2] Every game consumes 1 or 2 pages. The games are in no particular sequence. If all the 2 page games had been printed toward the front of the book, then all games could have been viewed in their entirety without needing to flip between pages. Early on the book intermixes 1 and 2 page games. The unpleasant and unsurprising result is that around game 12 we encounter a game that can be viewed only by flipping back and forth between pages, a hassle. Of course from their the problem intermittantly runs on for several games.

[3] The back of the book boasts that the reader can enjoy the book even when no board and pieces are available. This goal would have been better achieved if the diagram captions had described the moves with a better notation format. A caption like "After 24. Rxh8!+" does Not enable me to fully judge the supposedly exceptional move. It often matters a whole lot from which square the moved piece originated. And it matters a whole lot the type of piece that was taken. The book would have been better for its customers if Gambit had captioned more informatively with "After 24. Rh1:Bh8!+" (or at least "Before 24. Rxh8!+" if notation orthodoxy must override usability issues). I often have to scan backward through the paragraphs searching for the previous moves to discover the missing info, far too tedious. Gambit claims the reader does not need a board and pieces. That claim would be more valid if better notation had been used in the captions (and there is plenty of extra unused room in their captions.

Otherwise the book delivers well on what it claims to provide.
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I have always had a soft spot for this topic ... I have built entire web pages - and even web sites - dedicated to great, short games of chess. So I was very happy to see that a player of Nunn's stature do a book on this fun and instructive topic.

I don't know what motivated Nunn to write this book, but I am very thankful he did. He took his database, and decided (properly) that a miniature was any game that lasted only 25 moves. (or less) "To my horror, there were over 65,000 such games." - GM John Nunn. In order to get this down to a more manageable number, he decided to further limit the games to those where both players were rated at least 2500 (Elo) or better. This got the number down to around 1,300 games. Nunn then played through all of these and whittled the number down to about 120 games. [From the period 1971 to 1999.] (He knew that some games would be eliminated once they were subjected to thorough analysis. The publisher had already given the mandate of only 101 games for the final version of the book for publication.)

I would have liked to see more detailed analysis, maybe some opening stuff and more commentary ... but Nunn notes the format of the work placed great restrictions on the amount of space. (Although we wonder why some games deserve five pages of analysis, and others only get one!)

But in the end, we are presented with 101 great games of chess. Some of these are true masterpieces, I doubt (very much) that the average player has seen more than a handful of these games prior to studying this volume.

Now the $64 question is: Is this book any good? And ... "Will it help me get better?"
I think the answer to both questions is a resounding YES!!! Chess is a primarily about tactics. And the emphasis here is definitely on the "hand-to-hand" aspect of chess. Chess is also about surviving the opening and eliminating mistakes, and a careful study of this book will also help you achieve this goal as well. And to be really successful, your chess study should also be fun, and I think this book meets this criterion as well. I give this book my HIGHEST recommendation!!

There are a few shortcomings to this book. A couple of the examples are turkeys, and probably should not have been included ... they are definite lumps of coal in the presence of diamonds. A couple of the games are more curiosities and opening traps than they are real games of chess. (I.e., # 92. H. Spangenberg - V. Tkachiev; BLACK wins in only 12 moves.) But much of this is really a matter of taste too.

A real oversight is the lack of any index. How many times did Kramnik make this collection? (Three times, that I can see.) How many times was the Najdorf Sicilian played? (Four times out of the first ten.) How many times did Tal score a touchdown? (More than once.)

It would have also been nice to see a list of groupings like: "The best win(s) in under 15 moves, the best Sicilians," etc. It would have been nice to know what the sources were for some of the annotations. (Mostly they came from the Informants, I imagine.)

But in the end, this is a great little book. Its fun and it is filled with really scintillating tactics. If you don't enjoy this book - you should consider giving up chess!

An excellent and entertaining selection of some of the best games of the last 30 years or so. Some of the games are so complex that a couple of pages of notes do not do them jusice. However, our author always tries to pinpoint the major variations and that point in the game when the game was lost. You'll be delighted with this book, I have no doubt.