Mastering the Craft of Smoking Food -

Mastering the Craft of Smoking Food

Making Silver Chains: Simple Techniques, Beautiful Designs (Jewelry Crafts): Simple Techniques, Beautiful Designs (Jewelry Crafts) -

Around-the-World Art and Activities: Visiting the 7 Continents Through Craft Fun (A Williamson Little Hands Book)

Look What You Can Make from Paper Plates: Over 90 Pictured Crafts and Dozens of More Ideas (Craft) -

House Proud: Hip Craft for the Modern Homemaker Customer Review: The revolution is coming!
This book is incredible. Packed with a mix of both super-easy Sunday afternoon ideas and some more ambitious projects. Opens up lots of new possibilities with interesting and inventive techniques. Only problem is I can no longer sleep as my mind is racing with ideas! Thank you Danielle - this is truly marvelous.
Customer Review: Veering towards Shoddy Chic, rather than Shabby
First off I must admit that I have not seen Danielle Proud on TV, or even heard of her before I picked up her book, therefore am unsure whether the book works better as accompanying notes to previous demonstrations. I flicked through and a few of the projects grabbed my attention so I thought I’d give it a go. On closer inspection I am quite disappointed, the instructions seem a little haphazard and some of the projects are just a bit too, well, shonky.

I like her style and what she is trying to encourage, I am concerned though that the projects could go all too easily wrong for novices [especially the sewing projects] and that there isn’t really much new for anyone with a bit of experience under their belt. Good styling and colour ideas, a few novel touches [I especially like the fabric covered lampstand and the 'crazy' restrung chair] but all in all I would have got better bang for my buck if I had bought a few old seventies craft books from a charity shop as that is the era she has plundered for inspiration. I think better go straight to the source, the instructions are likelier to be more thorough and solid than Proud’s version.

Decorative Knot Craft: Over 20 Innovative Knotting and Macrame Accessories -

Primitive Skills and Crafts: An Outdoorsman’s Guide to Shelters, Tools, Weapons, Tracking, Survival, and More

Nude Photography: The Art and the Craft -

How to Marbleize Paper (Other Paper Crafts) Customer Review: Essential resource for anyone interested in marbling
This book taught me two things:

- Marbling isn’t a random process. You can actually control it, and make real art with it, not just random prettiness.

- There’s an old marbling process other than the oil-based one we know from the simple marbling kits. It’s not so easy to do, but it’s worth persevering with.

This book isn’t a simplistic how-to guide for people who want instant results and don’t have the time to learn a technique. It assumes a moderate degree of, if not skill, then a willingness to practice through many failures until achieving good results. Marbling isn’t easy, and it’s no task for the non-dexterous.

What it does teach is a set of pointers for how to make the old process work, and how to create designs that are under your control. I was amazed by this - I simply never realised that marbling could be controlled like this, not just random splodges.

Despite being a slim book, it contains a lot of detail. It omits a lot too, but the detail that it skips is the tiresome repetition that so many craft books use for padding. It assumes you know enough already to work much of it out for yourself, and is all the better for it.

If you’re interested in making marbled paper, or traditional bookbinding, then I recommend this book.

- And what a bargain !

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft -

Traditional Woodland Crafts (Batsford Woodworking Book) Customer Review: A good beginners guide to working freshly felled wood
Raymond Tabor takes the beginner on a very sedate and easy to follow journey through the steps of finding, using and enjoying green or freshly felled wood. The book is full of excellent drawings and simple explanations which help the novice to understand some of the problems you might encounter along the way. The descriptions of old and very useful hand made tools are clear and concise and don’t assume a prior in depth knowledge of woodworking and the associted skills. Tabor is to be congratulated on making it easier to start using green wood that other books seem to make out

andy hancock - green woodworker

Picture Framing: The Art of Picture Framing in Over 25 Beautiful Projects (Craft Workshop) -

Naughty Needles: Sexy, Saucy Knits for the Bedroom and Beyond (Potter Craft): Sexy, Saucy Knits for the Bedroom and Beyond (Potter Craft) Customer Review: Should be labelled adult content
My daughter loves knitting and I thought she would like this book as it would have a few sexy little tops and bikinis in it. I hadn’t expected whips, ball gags, nipple tassles, blindfolds, condom and vibrator covers along with “kinderwhore” socks. I think it should definitely explain that this is adult content knitting. It may be just what some people want but it was certainly not what I expected!
Customer Review: Just fabulous
This book is so much fun! The projects range from the speedily-completed gift knits (I made the whip for a friend’s Christmas gift) to labours of love that would be painstaking to knit but a delight to wear. My only whinge is that it could do with a few more pictures - some items aren’t clearly shown from the front and the back (the felted corset, particularly).

As for being silly, I would encourage anybody who doesn’t think that knitted knickers are sexy to look at the book’s website and the pictures from the author’s burlesque show - all knitted, many from patterns in the book. It is proof that knitting isn’t just about dodgy Christmas jumpers and fuzzy scarves.

The Art and Craft of Polymer Clay: Techniques and Inspiration for Jewellery, Beads and the Decorative Arts -

Easy Origami (Dover Craft Books) Customer Review: 10 out of 32 ain’t bad
This book would be great for kids. I bought it as a stress reliever for my husband. We had fun trying to make some of the designs but we did find some mistakes in the directions. I’m not sure a child would have been able to figure those mistakes out alone. He’d need an adult to help. There are 32 designs, but only about 10 of those truly make you feel accomplished when you finish making them and are “interesting” to look at when you are done. But 10 out of 32 ain’t bad, is it?
Customer Review: An excellent first origami book for any child
I am a veteran in origami, and after carefully looking at numerous books, chose this book as the first origami book for my 7 year old daughter. She absolutely loves it, and is able to slowly work her way through the models which range from the very simple cats and dogs, and slowly increase in difficulty through a fox, a piano, a butterly, a fancy box, plus lots lots more. All are within easy reach of a complete beginner. I don’t think I could have chosen a better beginners books for her, and have since gone on to buy 4 further copies for several of her friends and my niece! I would recommend this book to any child who would like to learn origami without any hesitation. Brilliant!

Look What You Can Make with Tubes (Craft) -

Beginners Guide to Braiding: Craft of Kumihimo Customer Review: A definite book for the braider or newcomer to braiding
This is an excellent book, full of photographs and instructions. Being a newcomer to braiding I am impressed by how simple the author has made the technique of kimihumo braiding, and it has made me gather some make do equipment to follow her instructions….. and hey presto, I made my first braid.
Recommend to all enthusiastic craftspeople who want to try something a little different.
A big thank you to the author!

Ency of Jewelry-Making Techniq (Jewelry Crafts) -

Kaostar!: Modern Chaos Cunning Craft