Book: The Soulful Art of African-American Quilts: Nineteen Bold, Improvisational Projects

The Soulful Art of African-American Quilts: Nineteen Bold, Improvisational Projects

Product Description
Renowned Kansas City designer and Andover Fabrics artist Sonie Ruffin creates 11 contemporary quilts based on the collection featured in "Bold Improvisation: Searching for African American Quilts - The Heffley Collection." Also included are original designs and patterns for quilts by Sonie, all part of her quest to learn about her family origins and heritage. Sonie's easy-to-follow patterns encourage creativity and simple, quick construction. Each design is paired with Sonie's imaginative stories.

About the Author
For the past four years, Sonie Ruffin, a self-taught fabric artist and story teller, has carved out a niche for herself in the arts community as a fabric artist, fabric designer, and writer. She has lectured and led workshops on her work at numerous museums and galleries, as well as exhibited her work. Sonie's art quilts can be found in permanent collections at galleries, museums, private and corporate collections. Sonie's vibrant quilts are contemporary and bold. They draw from a centuries-old wellspring that explores humanity, through the crux of the African-American experience. She designs from the heart, painting with fabric and embellishing with her needle to reveal universal truths. She is a master at incorporating the boldness of African print fabrics with American print fabrics to create striking designs. She incorporates basic block designs with her own personal designs and invites the viewer to engage in a mental and spiritual conversation with her artwork.

Hands On Crafts For Kids Crafts Around the World

Hands On Crafts For Kids Crafts Around the World

Product Description
Crafts Around the world is fun crafting activities for kids 7 to 12 as seen on the public television series Hands On crafts for Kids. Travel around the world as we learn about different countries and cultures through their crafting traditions. Hands on Crafts Around the world includes 68 projects in four color with supply lists, step by step instructions, and full size patterns.

Folk Bags: 30 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World

Folk Bags: 30 Knitting Patterns and Tales from Around the World (Folk Knitting series)

Product Description
Thirty projects from 23 countries offer a worldwide representation of bags, from Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas. From the fish-shaped Japanese felted bag to the Persian carpet-inspired handbag, each bag is a product of its cultural history. Each pattern begins with a brief history describing the source behind these contemporary interpretations of folk designs. Folk stories also accompany many projects. Included are designs for bags for work or play, and bags of all shapes, colors, textures, and sizes. Using this collection, knitters can create bags for children, for market, for everyday, or for a special evening event.

World Beads: An Exploration Of Bead Traditions Around The World

World Beads: An Exploration Of Bead Traditions Around The World, With 30 Projects To Creatie You Own Jewelry

Product Description
Sophisticated glass baubles for Venice, intricate silver filigree from India, and intriguing batik back bone from Africa--dazzling and elegant beads from around the world have earned a passionate following among designers, collectors, and jewelry-makers alike. Beads have played a significant role throughout history for nearly all cultures, serving as adornments, money, and charms to bring luck or ward off evil. Now, with this definitive book written by the two biggest authorities in the field, Janet Coles and Robert Budwig, you can explore bead traditions from around the world.

Learn all about the fascinating ways that these ornaments are made and used today as well as throughout history, and then put to your new found expertise to work with thirty step-by-step projects for creating replicas of authentic, traditional beaded jewelry. -From Peruvian ceramic beads and pre-Columbian gold and rock crystal to silverwork from Bali, Janet Coles and Robert Budgwig celebrate the beauty, diversity , and traditions of beads. -Ideal for designers, collectors, jewelry-makers, and anyone with an eye for beads. -Richly illustrated with the stunning photography of Jonathan Lovekin.

Kids Around the World Create!: The Best Crafts and Activities from Many Lands

Kids Around the World Create!: The Best Crafts and Activities from Many Lands

From Library Journal
Grade 3-6-A book that encourages interest in and respect for cultures and crafts from around the world. Braman begins with craft recipes, shopping tips, and helpful hints, followed by an instructional section that is organized by the crafts' functions-from celebratory to utilitarian. Some projects are for decorating; others are for parties and good luck, record keeping or holding things. Ancient and modern crafts are included. The directions and black-and-white drawings and photographs are clear and easy to follow. With care, children can achieve results that resemble the photos with the exception of the Amish quilt and the Zulu woven basket. While Amish women appear in a photograph sewing a quilt, instructions only provide for making a single quilt square and ask children to paste instead of sew. In the case of the basket, the picture clearly shows a girl wrapping raffia around a coil of reed to make a basket, while the instructions utilize a small, ill-shaped yogurt cup as a loom. A "Culture Link" appended to each activity includes a photo and brief description of a similar craft from another culture. While these links are informative, they may prove to be confusing or disappointing as they do not include instructions. Nevertheless, many cultures, including Inuit, Caribbean, Chinese, Egyptian, Ghanaian, Greek, Guatemalan, Japanese, Incan, Sudanese, and Tibetan, are represented in this welcome addition.
Marcia W. Posner, Holocaust Memorial and Educational Center of Nassau County, Glen Cove, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Travel the Globe with These Fun and Easy Projects!

There's nothing like the thrill of finding out about faraway places. Now you can meet the people and share the customs of different countries by creating some of the things that keep their cultures alive.

You'll make a bookmark with a Guatemalan design using a cardboard loom, or an Egyptian bead necklace using dough or store-bought clay. Learn how prehistoric people told stories by making your own version of a cave painting, or make a good-luck charm in the form of a Tibetan goodwill message flag. Kids Around the World Create! is full of fun crafts and activities that will teach you about the customs of cultures around the world.

Every country has something special to offer, and all the activities in this book help you enjoy and explore this diversity. All the crafts are easy to do and the supplies are made up of simple household materials. Have fun as you journey to distant and exciting lands!

The Kids' Multicultural Art Book: Art & Craft Experiences from Around the World

The Kids' Multicultural Art Book: Art & Craft Experiences from Around the World (Williamson Kids Can! Series)

Product Description
An exciting hands-on feast of multicultural art and craft experiences. With this book, children learn by doing--reaching across continents with paper, paste, and paints, while developing basic sensibilities about the wondrous cultures of others. Over 400 outstanding how-to illustrations.

Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World

Global Art: Activities, Projects, and Inventions from Around the World

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-6-Arranged in chapters by continent, these crafts will be useful for geography and cultural reports. The authors use a system of symbols to denote which continent is associated with the activity, the level of difficulty, the basic art technique involved, and how easy or difficult the required materials are to procure. Black-and-white line drawings illustrate the process and/or the finished product for each project. Most of the activities are interesting and directly linked to the cultures they represent. Others, like several for Antarctica, seem more contrived. Building a structure of icing and sugar cubes is sure to be a hit with children, but how illustrative is it of the Antarctic environment? Necessarily, not all countries and cultures are included but many are represented by more than one project. While children can use this book, the descriptions (e.g., "Young children create a miniature woodland scene..."), the pervasive use of symbols or icons, and the terse but accurate directions indicate that this book was designed for adults.
Torrie Hodgson, Burlington Public Library, WA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Folk Vests: 25 Knitting Patterns & Tales from Around the World

Folk Vests: 25 Knitting Patterns & Tales from Around the World (Folk Knitting series)

From Library Journal
Vests have long been a favorite garment of knitters because they are fun to make, comfortable to wear, and easier to knit than garments with sleeves that must be carefully fitted to the wearer. Oberle is a knitwear designer and popular workshop teacher whose designs often appear in popular knitting magazines such as Interweave Knits. This book, like her earlier Folk Shawls, is a compilation of patterns based on the folk wear traditions of Europe (Scotland, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia, Switzerland, and England), Asia (Nepal, Japan, and China), Africa, and the Americas. The 25 vest patterns each include background information about textile traditions of the country or region, a full-page photo of the garment, a materials list, and complete instructions. Avid knitters will have difficulty deciding which of these elegant vests to knit first: the beautiful Sari Silk Vest from Nepal, the "Many Buttoned Vest" in the German tradition, or the African-inspired Kasai Vest with its wealth of Fair Isle motifs. Warmly recommended for textile collections and public libraries.

Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Great Book of Celtic Patterns: The Ultimate Design Sourcebook for Artists and Crafters

Great Book of Celtic Patterns: The Ultimate Design Sourcebook for Artists and Crafters

Product Description

Calling on geometric forms found in Celtic monuments and manuscripts, this crafter’s companion presents basic design principles and step-by-step instructions for plotting out and drawing lines, twists, braids, and knots in the ancient Irish tradition. With lessons that can be applied to a multitude of arts and crafts—from needlework and woodworking to decorative painting—this instructional guide unravels the secrets to creating intricate Celtic knot work. Offering increasingly intricate designs with the addition of lines and new textures, artisans of any skill level will revel in the endless archive of original patterns provided in this sourcebook.

Navajo Weaving Way: The Path from Fleece to Rug

Navajo Weaving Way: The Path from Fleece to Rug

From Library Journal
The publisher has performed a real service in making available the work of Bennett, whose books on Navajo weaving and tradition have been out of print for some time. In 1968, as young woman, Bennett moved to the Navajo reservation in Arizona planning a two-year stay to learn traditional Navajo weaving and spinning techniques. She remained for eight years, learned to weave under the tutelage of Tiana Bighorse, and began a life-long fascination with the Navajo way of life. This volume is a reworking of Bennett's Working with the Wool (1971), The Weaver's Pathway (1974), and Designing with the Wool (1979), combining material from these earlier books with new information on Navajo spinning and dyeing techniques. Recommended for scholarly decorative arts holdings as well as public how-to collections.

Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
Navajo Weaving Way is a compilation of Nol Bennett's earlier, out-of-print books on Navajo rug-weaving traditions: Working with the Wool, Designing with the Wool, and The Weaver's Pathway. This book augments the information in Bennett's previous works with all-new chapters on spinning, carding, and dyeing techniques. Illustrations include photographs by John Running of Navajo women carding, spinning, and weaving, along with detailed line drawings depicting specific techniques.

Hands Around the World: 365 Creative Ways to Encourage Cultural Awareness and Global Respect

Hands Around the World: 365 Creative Ways to Encourage Cultural Awareness and Global Respect (Williamson Kids Can! Series)

From School Library Journal
Grade 1-6-- This lively and entertaining volume is crammed with information designed to foster cultural awareness. Milord takes students through the year, day-by-day, exploring such topics as "Fun in the Sun," "Native Tongue," and "One Nation" on double-page spreads with a different activity each day: carve a Southeast Asian chop, design a Muslim prayer rug, make a wedding crown. The book is written directly to children in an informal, engaging style. However, the intended audience will have a difficult time participating in many of the activities without a lot of adult assistance. Some of the projects are fairly complex, such as making stilts or organizing neighborhood Olympics. Others require X-acto knives, paints, and varnish. Some of the directions are difficult to follow. And several of the projects, such as defining heroism, are really lessons and would not be much fun to do alone. The best use for this book is as a teacher resource, for it offers a wealth of group activities and topics for discussion. It will also be valuable in high schools that have a future-teachers program. The lists of additional books, periodicals, and organizations provide a gold mine of additional resources. --Marilyn Makowski, Greenwood High School, SC

Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc