I stopped by the library just to get “a book or two” and found a whole slew of great new books that they just added.
Grow Your Business by Mark Henricks – What I think will be a really great read. It goes over a ton of information and is a bit weighty. If I can get down to it though, I think it will be really helpful. It covers everything from marketing to hiring employees for the first time.
Knitting Art: 150 Innovative Works from 18 Contemporary Artists – this book really caught my eye because it boasts beign a great collection of contemporary fiber artists working in knitting – a topic of particular interest to my own studio practice. It features one of my favorite artists and I quite a few other I had never heard of. I was particularly fond of these two women’s works, which I had not seen before (shame on me).
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Making Miniatures by Christiane Berridge is a real gem of a book if you are interested in making things on the small scale. It has great ideas for using cheap materials to make detailed small scale furnishings, props, and people. I might just have to get this book. I think it would be a huge help when I get back into my doll house animations.
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Paper Puppet Palooza by Norma V Toraya – I saw this right after the Making Miniatures book and thought they would go perfect together. I love combining 3 dimentional environments with 2 dimentional characters and I think this will really help me to make those paper characters be a bit more mobile. Perfect! The artist’s style is really interesting too and has a real whimsy about it.
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Watercolor Day by Day by Michael Crespo – I know my way around oil paints and acrylics and while I’ve dabbled in watercolor, it’s been awhile. This book at 20 lessons to be worked over 20 days. Take one month and you cover all the basics transparent watercolor. I think it will be a fun way for me to take myself through a “class” and polish my skill base a bit. More on this on the Kro Studio blog tomorrow.
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Happy Gloves: Charming Softy Friends made from Colorful Gloves by Miyako Kanamori – this book is adorable and fun. No two ways about it. I love the way the projects are working into drawings. The instructions are clear and the softy friends are, well, charming! I think I’ll get this closer to christmas and make a bunch to go with people’s gifts.
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Wallpaper Projects: More than 50 Craft and Design Ideas for Your Home by Derek Gagerstrom and Lauren Smith – This has some really fun projects and I like the smaller scale ones the best. Most of the projects are a little out of reach for me because I live in an apartment and designer wallpapers are not available in central iowa for any kind of reasonable price. That said I love the broach and wallet and will make some next time I pick up some wallpaper samples.
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1000 Handmade Greetings: Creative Cards and Clever Correspondence by Laura McFadden and Deborah Baskin – When I first picked up this book I had certain expectations – so when it wasn’t what I thought it would be I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping to learn something about new assembly ideas, but for the most part they are all a standard card set up – 1/2 sheet folded with art on the front and blank inside. Once I got over that I came to see this book as a great inspiration to anyone who is making greeting cards. Some are really innovative, some are pretty standard. It seems like there is a lot of letterpress and it does feature a lot of independent artists and I do really like that.
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I’m holding onto Grow Your Business, Watercolor Day by Day, Paper Puppet Palooza, and Making Miniatures, the rest are going back to the library today to inspire others.
Sorry there wasn’t a post yesterday – the plan was to post after I got home from working in the garden, but I got slammed with a sinus headache and put completely out of commission for the rest of the evening. I’ll make it up to you by posting a little something something on Saturday.
I am feeling much better today and think I just need to keep on top of taking my meds while the polin is in full force and the weather is going up and down and all around. I’m filling in at the chocolate shop today, but will get some new kits in the cl shop when I get home (and yarn in gpf shop), so make sure to check back after 10:30pm tonight for new things.
Happy Crafting!
Kristin
What library do you go too?
I go to the Ames Public Library. They are pretty great.