Sunday Reading | Crafting Books for the Summer

I've had a heap of crafting books pass by my desk this past month for review and so for Sunday Reading's post I bring you crafting books for summer break. What are you reading this summer?

How to Create Your Own Gig Posters
Band T-Shirts, Album Covers & Stickers

We used a lot of collage (ransom note-style) back in our band days for gig posters but now-a-days bands have it good with books like this!  How to Create Your Own Gig Posters, Band T-Shirts, Album Covers and Stickers by Ruthann Godollei is a nice collection of art styles bands can use or reference in this how to book.  From screenprinting, photocopy art, mixed-media collage and other guerilla poster styles, this book not only would be good for bands, but the beginning artist as well. Lots of good stuff including inspiration like Hatch Show Print and more!

Publisher: Voyageur Press; First edition (Mar 15 2013)
ISBN-10: 0760343144
ISBN-13: 978-0760343142
Available through Amazon


Vogue • Butterick Step-by-Step

I'm so happy to have this revised edition as a home reference;  Vogue • Butterick Step-by-Step, Guide to Sewing Techniques.  From the editors of Vogue and Butterick patterns this book is chock-a-block with over 500 essential sewing techniques from appliques to zippers and everything in between.

Publisher: Sixth&Spring Books
ISBN: 1-936096-27-7
ISBN13: 9781936096275
Available through Amazon.



Art Lab for Little Kids

Developed for the younger set, Susan Schwake's Art Lab for Little Kids features over 50 projects for preschoolers, but really this book as I looked through it could be enjoyed and translated to any age.  From fabric printing to using more classical media like pastels, the book is inspirational in that the art in the book is done by real children, creating a more realistic and obtainable ideal for the child.



Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN 13:9781592538362
Available through Amazon

Zakka Handmades

24 projects sewn from natural fabrics to help organize, adorn and simplify your life.  Amy Morinaka has written this very useful book  Zakka Handmades, a Japanese term for the many small household goods that organize homes and help with daily tasks.  If you ever have visited Japan or even a Japanese hardware-type store, you know how amazing they are in this department.  So making your own Zakka seems like really the perfect way to help one get organized. Lots of clever ideas like fabric buckets, eye glass cases, eco shopper bags (that you can roll up in your purse) and more.  A perfect book for the homemaker.  By the way, the insulated bento lunch bag is adorable!

Click here to preview.  Available through:

Creative Publishing int'l
Amazon.ca
Chapters.indigo.ca


20 Ways to Draw a Cat
And 44 Other Awesome Animals by Julia Kuo

As every art student learns, the best way to learn how to draw is to draw.  And my teacher in particular told us it's about 20% talent, 80% practice that makes a good illustrator.  So food for thought while your trying out 20 Ways to Draw a Cat.  A sketchbook for artists, designers and doodlers. Who knew there were so many ways?

Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN-10: 159253838X
ISBN-13: 978-1592538386
Available through Amazon


20 Ways to Draw a Tree
And 44 Other Nifty Things by Eloise Renouf

Another illustration instruction sketchbook from Quarry Books featuring the art work of Eloise Renouf. I love this one which could probably take me away for a few hours practicing drawing things like tree trunks, feathers, birds and more. 20 Ways to Draw a Tree.

Publisher: Quarry Books
ISBN-10: 1592538371
ISBN-13: 978-1592538379
Available through Amazon.


Stay tuned for a fun new craft book we're featuring on Tuesday, along with a tutorial and giveaway from Chronicle Books!

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Book vs. E-Reader

For my birthday recently, I was given a Nook e-reader as a group gift from family. My initial response was surprise and delight. It was one of those things I would never have bought for myself, yet I'd been charmed by the commercials and thought having lots of books on one device was a great idea. My enthusiasm began to wane when the initial set-up process took me a couple of hours (why do wi-fi router manufacturers set a password in the factory that they don't pass on to customers?). When I finally managed to get online, I started looking into my buying options. There were lots of new releases to pick from and a few older options from my favorite authors. Magazines were also plentiful. But when I stepped away from the Nook and really thought through the consequences, it's usefulness to me became questionable. 

The truth is this: I already have a computer (at work and home) and an i-phone (curse those games!) that take up a considerable chunk of my time. In the last couple of years, I've developed frequent headaches from staring at a computer screen. Did I really want to add another one to my life? Though some books have bored me, I've never developed a headache from staring at the printed word. Besides that, shopping for new reading material would just be too easy with an e-reader. I knew that I would end up buying more books and magazines than I already do just because the result would be instantaneous. Good for Barnes & Noble, not so good for my budget. If out-of-print books were on the menu, I might have been more easily tempted. I recently discovered a copy of Yvonne de Bremond D'Ars' "In the Heart of Paris" in a box lot I won at a silent auction and have been absorbed in her engrossing tale of parceling out a house full of antiques to five very different nieces--not something I would come across on a Nook. 

Ultimately I decided to draw a line in the sand, and I drew it at the Nook. The technology wheel is going to keep turning at a breakneck pace and ever-new enticements are going to be put before us. No one will decide for us that enough is enough. It's up to us to decide which devices make our lives easier/better and which ones monopolize our time and energy at the expense of the things that matter to us in the long run. So my Nook is going back to the shop. No doubt I'll regret my decision at some point in the future--particularly when I'm travelling. But when I crack open a book at the end of the day and pick up where I left off, I won't for a minute wish I was staring at a brightly lit screen. Perhaps I'm setting back the concept of a paperless society. But when it comes to books, I can live with being a traditionalist.

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Reading Nooks

Some reading nooks are created to make use of dead space--in a bay window, a large foyer or on the landing of a staircase. Others are carved deliberately into the corner of a room. A comfortable chair and good natural or mood lighting are essential. Some folks like to have their books surrounding them, always an arm's length away. Others prefer little embellishment around them. The better to be submerged into the world of their novel. A blanket, candles, flowers or plant life are small additions that raise these small spaces from serving a purpose to inviting us for an extended visit. Some think an afternoon spent reading is a waste of time. My feeling is that time spent reading makes the rest of the day better spent.

Images: House Beautiful magazine, July/August 2010 issue. Marie Claire Idees magazine, January 2010 issue. Period Living magazine, October 2010 issue. Red magazine, November 2010 issue. She Moves the Furniture.

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Librophiliac: Libraries/ Bookstores

I am a confessed Librophiliac- below is my personal version of church, my favorite drug and a place that I can loose myself for hours if not days.  Between pages, I am transported.  Kindle and the technology of books in that way will never replace the smell of books, the feel of books or my love of books.  This to me is heaven.  I have spent my life mostly, "well read but sleepy."

Strahov Theological Hall - Original Baroque Cabinet

Strahov Theological Hall; Statue of John the Evangelist Holding a Book

Strahov Philosophical Hall

Abbey Library St. Gallen, Switzerland

Angelica Library, Rome, Italy

Herzog August Library, Wolfenbüttel, Germany

Beatus Rhenanus Library, Basel, Switzerland

Bernadotte Library, Stockholm Sweden

Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy

Biblioteca Di Bella Arti, Milan, Italy

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal

Biblioteca do Palàcio Nacional da Ajuda Lisboa III, Lisbon, Portugal

Biblioteca Geral University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Puebla, Mexico

Bibliotecha de la Real Academia De La Lengua, Madrid, Spain

Bibliotheque Alencon, Normandy, France

Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris, France

Duke of Humphrey’s Library, Bodleian, Oxford University, England

Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, USA

Old British Reading Room, British Museum, London, England

Casanatense Library, Rome, Italy

Cathedral Library, Kalocsa, Hungary

Chetham’s Library, Manchester, UK

Dutch Royal Archives Library, Netherlands

El Escorial Library, San Lorenzo, Spain

Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

George Peabody Library, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands

Hereford Cathedral Chained Library, Hereford, England (Rare books were once kept chained to the bookshelf to prevent stealing.)

Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek Weimar II, Germany

Joanina LIbrary University of Coimbra, Portugal

Kremsmuenster Abbey Library, Kremsmünster, Upper Austria.

Biblioteca Castilla La Mancha, Spain

Library of Congress, Washington, DC, USA

Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada

Library of St. Walburga, Zutphen, Netherland (Preserved from the 16th century)

Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria

Library of the National Palace of Mafra, Portugal

Library of the Prussian King Frederic the Second in Potsdam, Germany

Melk Monastery Library, Melk, Austria

National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

North Reading Room, UC Berkeley, California, USA (Terrific reader suggestion)

New York Public Library, New York, USA

Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, Belgium

Queen’s College Library Oxford

Real Gabinete Portugues De Leitura Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (Possibly the most beautiful library of them all.)

Rennie Mackintosh Library, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland (Added on excellent reader suggestion.)

Riggs Library, Georgetown University, USA

Rijkmuseum Library, Amsterdam

Riksdagen Library, Swedish Parliament Library, Stockholm, Sweden

Russian National Library, St. Petersburg

St. Florian Monastery-Library, Austria

Salamanca Library, Salamanca, Spain

Sansovino Library, Rome, Italy

Sorbonne Library, Paris, France

State Library, Victoria, Australia

Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg, Klosterneuburg, Austria

Suzzallo Library, Seattle, Washington, USA

The New Library of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

Theology Room at St. Deiniol’s library, North Wales

Trinity College LIbrary, AKA, The Long Room, Dublin, Ireland

University-Library, Helsinki, Finland

Vatican Library, Vatican City, Rome

Austrian National Library, Vienna, Austria

Waldsassen Abbey Library, Bavaria, Germany

Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, England

Yale, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

At the end of this post we at Curious Expeditions asked for beautiful libraries we had overlooked. Turns out, there were a lot. In fact, more than we will ever be able to post. But in the spirit of the compendium below we have put up some of our favorites from the reader suggested libraries. Thanks to everyone who suggested a library, it’s fantastic to see that we aren’t the only ones with a bad case of librophila. (We also apologize to anyone who suffers a scrolling related injury.)

Amelia S. Givin Library, Mount Holly Springs, PA

Bad Schussenried Bibliothekssaal, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana, Florence, Italy

Bibliothèque Solvay, Brussels, Belgium

Boston Athenæum, Boston, MA, USA

Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford, England

Cornell Law School Library, Ithaca, NY, USA

Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., USA

George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore House Library, Asheville, N.C., USA

Harper Library, The University of Chicago, IL, USA

John Rylands Library, Manchester, England (Thanks to Edward Brownrigg and John Rylands)

Klementium Library, Prague, Czech Republic

Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Wales

National Library of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Old Chicago Public Library (Current Cultural Center), Chicago, IL, USA

Pierpont Morgan Library, NY, NY, USA

Saxon State Library in Dresden, Germany (The reading room pictured is entirely underground, the ceiling being level with the grass.)

Sterling Memorial Library, Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (The rest of Sterling Library is incredible, but I particularly enjoy that wonderful library specialty, the card catalog)

The Grolier Club Library, NY, NY, USA

Law Library, Iowa State Legislature, IA, USA

The St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, Northeast Vermont, USA

Thomas Crane Library, Quincy MA, USA

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto, Canada

University of Michigan (Old) Law Library, MI, USA

Widener Library, Harvard. Cambridge, MA, USA

Wiblingen Monestary Library, Ulm, Germany

 

 Daunt Books on Marylebone High Street , London"

Jay Walker's library.  New England home and pass through a hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects — on the walls, on tables, standing on the floor — the room occupies about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you — a 1665 Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943 on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II. In no time, your mind is stretched like hot taffy.

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