Do You Like Craft Books?

[eleny]

I like borrowing craft books from my library and then getting ones that are my favorites if they're available.

Today, an order arrived in the mail. I purchased The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. It's a large paperback with black and white photos and drawings with instructions for many three dimensional techniques for manipulating fabrics.



This has never been my thing. I have gathered fabric for blouses, curtains and aprons. Small projects. But this book knocked me out. I can see using many of the techniques in the book for other small items like pin cushions. I'm tempted to have fun with techniques I never tried.

If nothing else, the book is filled with eye candy for the sewing crowd.

I'd like to hear about your craft library.

[Katherine Brengle]

1. I have several...

A jewelry book, knitting, a couple of painting books, color theory, scrapbooking... My addiction to books spreads into my addiction to crafting lol.

I learn well on my own from books, so I tend to prefer them to class-type learning.

[KarenS]

2. ohhhh this book looks great!!

fun stuff.

I have a subscription to Stamper's Sampler Magazine (thankyou Huz).

My latest quilt book purchases include Gwen Marsten's Liberated Quiltmaking and Liberated Strings :)

[likesmountains 52]

3. That looks like a really cool book...I might have to try to find one

[diamidue]

4. Have you ever read Japanese Craft Magazines?

I love them but they are very hard to come by. Some of my favorites are:
Cotton Time; Cotton Friend; Cotton Paint; and Handmade Zakka. Everything is in Japanese, of course, but the patterns are fairly simple to follow and the magazines are just gorgeous and inspiring. Mostly simple sewing projects - things for the home and family - Kind of pricey, tho.

[eleny]

5. I'm so glad you brought these up!

Yes, I've seen them. I first learned about them when I came across a craft blog where they were discussed.

There are some ebay sellers in Japan who sell them. Some of those prices aren't so high. And then there's some sites that carry them along with Japanese fabrics. The fabrics are cute, too.

I haven't taken the plunge yet. But I have saved some instructions posted by a blogger who has some of the books.

Do you live near any of the bookstores that carry them in the U.S.

Here are the links I've collected in case this is new to anyone reading this thread -
Buzzville's cover photos with ISBN
http://buzzville.typepad.com/photos/japanese_craft_books/index.html
Fabrics and books at these next two sites
http://superbuzzy.com/
http://www.craftlog.org/craftingjapanese/
http://www.kitty-craft.com/
Search by ISBN here at Yesasia, they ship free -
http://us.yesasia.com/en/Search/AdvancedSearch.aspx
Molly chicken's blog has a lot of book page scans and often gives the ISBN -
http://mollychicken.blogs.com/my_weblog/japanese_craft_books/index.html
Instructions on how to find books and understand the web pages
http://www.makewrite.com/blog/28-book-search-tool-for-japanese-craft-books/

[diamidue]

6. Thanks for the links!

I recognize some of those links you posted. I had never seen the "Crafting Japanese" site before tho. Looking there, I see Kinokuniya listed as a source of Japanese magazines. The closest one to me is San Francisco and I was just there 2 weeks ago. The store is amazing - I wanted everything in it! I ordered a magazine thru the kitty-craft site once, but they are pretty expensive. The "Yesasia" link you posted looks really promising. The prices there are as good or better than in San Francisco - and the shipping is free! Thanks for listing that. I've bookmarked it.

These are a couple of my favorite on-line fabric sources. Not necessarily Japanese, but cute things:

http://www.ciaspalette.com/index.html

http://reprodepot.stores.yahoo.net/

[eleny]

7. I think some of those craft blogs are very popular

I found one blog by chance while looking for an eggplant recipe. "Super Eggplant" turned up in the Google search. It's a cute blog. Then I noticed that she listed some of her favorite crafting blogs and I developed a list of bookmarks. Now I have too many to visit every day. But I visit them every few weeks and find that there's always something new.

A crafting Japanese blog popped up one day. I love the embroidery with everyday themes. I think they'd make some fun crafting in the hot summer months ahead.

I love those fabric sites! Haven't ordered from them since my stash is so full right now. But omigod! Have you ever tried fabric.com? They have some great discount sales and offer free shipping once in a while for customers who get their newsletter. I've found that they have terrific customer service, too.

[gizmonic]

11. Have you seen "The Cute Book?"

omg, the stuffies really *are* cute! I can't wait to make some. :bounce:


From the Publisher
The world of craftsters is full of things Japanese Cute - kawaii, and the look created by Aranzi Aronzo is familiar to many but not until now has a single one of the hundreds of bootleg American copies they've sold been in English. Finally these priceless books of mascots, accessories, clothing and well, just about everything, come in ready-to-read English!
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781932234688&itm=3

*edit for link*

[diamidue]

12. Those would be fun to make.

I looked on Amazon and saw that they have 2 more books coming out in October - also in English.

Aranzi Aronzo Cute Dolls
Aranzi Aronzo Fun Dolls

[gizmonic]

14. Oooh, two more to add to the gizmonic library!

:bounce: :bounce: :)

[likesmountains 52]

13. oh oh....you're going to make me late for work! What fun sites...thanks

[Left Brain]

8. Just from the cover, that book

looks like it would indeed be eye candy.

Eleny, my craft library is almost as obnoxious as my materials stash. I got my very first crochet book in 1973, so I've had 34 years to build a library.

My biggest subject is crochet. From there, I have sections of my bookshelves devoted to painting, embroidery and ribboncraft, sewing & quilting, beading, knitting, dollmaking, origami, even computer crafting.

One of my biggest collections (not to mention the most difficult to stay on top of) is the hundreds of free patterns I've downloaded from the internet. I have binders full of the hard copies, and I finally started saving patterns to a CD which makes more sense since I'll probably never make most of them.

Iv'e designed a few things in crochet, and I'd like to do more of that. This is how I justify my humongous and ever-expanding library.

[eleny]

9. I'm glad you mentioned your crochet

I've been crocheting since I was little. My favorite crochet book, one that I've lost, is a book about the afghan stich. You know - the Tunisian Crochet. It's a narrow and tall book rather than the usual wider shape of most books. And it was pretty thick. It had pictures and instructions for all the Tunisian stitches. I really like that kind of crochet since some stitches look like knit and purl. I wish I could even remember the exact name of the book.

Let's talk about computer crafting some day.

And btw, craft libraries and stashes are never obnoxious! :D they just need taming once in a while. I like your idea of puttng stuff on cd. The only time I ever do that is when I think my computer is going on the fritz and I do a frenzied backup. God knows, I'd never think ahead and actually keep my craft stuff together on purpose. Oy.

[Left Brain]

10. Lots of free tunisian/afghan stitch patterns

at Crochet Pattern Central:

http://www.crochetpatterncentral.com/directory/tunisian_crochet.php