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Silk ‘Paper’ Creations for the Fibre Artist
Silk ‘paper’ is a medium that can be used in almost any aspect of fibre art. Silk is lustrous, slightly transparent, and has a beautiful light to it. Silk is easy to dye – there is nothing quite so exciting as a medium for colour.
Since the publication of Take Silk, Judith Pinnell’s first book, which explored the use of tussah silk tops in making silk ‘paper’, lustrous bombyx silk tops and silk throwster waste have become available as mediums for fibre art. These recent additions are featured in Silk ‘Paper’ Creations for the Fibre Artist along with a number of innovative approaches that extend the use of silk ‘paper’ to new heights. Newcomers to silk ‘paper’ will take up the challenge to create. Those already smitten will find additional avenues to explore. If you are searching for rich colour and texture in your work and delight in the excitement of handling pure silk fibres, this beautifully illustrated book shows the way. There are detailed instructions for working with the different types of silk fibre, and full descriptions enabling the creation of hangings, motifs to be attached to other fabrics, and moulded shapes that include bowls, vases and masks.
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At War With My Father
It is June 2008, and I am on a hillside overlooking the NSW country town of Boorowa. It is a long time since I felt any need to visit the cemetery, but today I have come to talk to my father. My research on the notorious Burma–Thai railway, where he was a POW has brought me to this moment. For the past 13 years I have been following my father’s war time footsteps as a way of understanding him as a person and in-turn understanding myself.
Sergeant Fred Howe struggles to stay conscious. A hundred needles from the barbed wire securing him to the tree pierce his bony body; cigarette burns inflicted by his tormentors sting his bare skin; the hot tropical sun escalates his thirst and hunger tears at his gut.
In his lucid moments, Fred ponders his decision to enlist. After all, he was 34 years of age at the time, a married man and father to four children. He wonders how much longer he can last, both physically and mentally. Will the war soon be over and those who have made it thus far be on their way home, or will it drag on until not a single one of them survives?
As a young girl I had no understanding of the war. All Dad had ever told me was that, during the fighting his mates had been shot and killed on either side of him. At the age I was then, this didn’t mean much to me. I just didn’t understand. I never asked any questions, so I received no answers – answers that I would come to crave.
I now realise why, for so much of my life, I have been at war with my father, literally and by following in his footsteps. I am also finally understanding the degree to which his experiences impacted our relationship.
Fred Howe was a prisoner of war for more than three years.
I have been a virtual prisoner for sixty.
Machine Embroidery
Author Kristen Dibbs introduces eleven of Australia’s foremost textile artists and teachers of machine embroidery as they discuss their work and reveal their sources of inspiration.
Share the secrets of their favourite techniques, including silk-paper making, ‘cram-jar’ dyeing, thread painting, contemporary machine-lace making and bobbin work. Each artist has designed an exciting new project especially for this book.
If you love your sewing machine, you’ll find this stimulating book essential reading.
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Natural Fertility 4th Edition
Updated with latest statistics and information.
Fertility is a challenge faced by women universally. Naish provides natural and holistic solutions and preventative advice to support a woman’s wellbeing, and help to overcome problems with contraception, infertility, reproductive and hormonal health.
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Gluten Free Cooking
Updated and revised from the original Wheat-Free Cooking.
Those diagnosed with Coeliac Disease require a life-time commitment to a gluten-free diet. These easy-to-follow recipes, tested many times in the author’s ‘Country Kitchen’, prove that those on a gluten-free diet do not need to give up their favourite foods. Adults and children can still eat delicious breads, pies, pizzas, biscuits and healthy muffins, as well as other favourites.
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Sandakan – A Conspiracy of Silence
Uncovering the horrific story of the Sandakan Prisoner of War Camp, Lynette Ramsay Silver details the bungled rescue attempt and deadly flaws within the senior ranks that ultimately stole the lives of all but 6 Australian men in the untamed conditions of North Borneo. Through painstaking research and interviews with survivors, as well as a study of Japanese records, Lynette has pieced together a detailed and highly readable account of the lives and ultimate fate of Sandakan’s POW’s. The integration of first-hand accounts and historical records forges a merciless portrayal of the crisp trepidation and unwarranted deception behind what has become WWII’s darkest and most deadly secret.
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A Blessing not a Curse: A Mother-Daughter Guide Book for the Transition from Child to Woman
In her sensitive book for parents, Jane Bennett dispels the notion of the curse, replacing it with a positive and enlightened view of menarche and menstruation. With practical advice on how to explain menstruation to your daughter, help her cope with mood swings and pain, as well as handle such issues as contraception, you can feel confident that your daughter will have an affirming experience of menstruation.
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Conscious Birthing: Yoga and Meditation for Pregnancy
In this new revised and condensed edition of The Complete Book of Yoga and Meditation for Pregnancy, Theresa adapts the ancient practice of yoga to the needs of contemporary women in pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. In a beautiful volume, all postures are thoroughly explained in a simple format and accompanied with descriptive photographs.
Conscious Birthing guides the reader through a safe and natural way of maintaining health, increasing vitality and preparing for a conscious and enjoyable birthing experience. This easy to follow guide has been designed to use as part of your everyday life, whether you have previous experience of yoga or not.
Many postures are explained, plus the practice of yoga breathing, deep relaxation, meditation and creative visualisation which help women during pregnancy. These are also important for mental, physical and emotional health in preparation for birth.
These practices increase your sense of wellbeing and health during pregnancy and after the birth. The importance and benefits of each posture is outlined including invaluable notes and precautions based on Theresa’s many years of experience in teaching yoga to pregnant women.
The book includes birth stories written by women who have benefited from yoga during their pregnancies and in childbirth and there is discussion on the value of using specific essential oils and other natural remedies that can be used safely and effectively during labour and childbirth. There is also a postnatal yoga program which takes the reader through the first six months after birth detailing the correct and safest way to practice yoga from birth to six months after the birth.
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Diabetes: Good Food Choices
ENDORSED BY DIABETES AUSTRALIA
Over 100 delicious recipes suitable for people with diabetes – and those without! A healthy diet should be an important feature of our daily life and include a variety of foods from all food groups – plenty of vegetables and fruits, breads and cereals, some dairy foods, lean meat and/or meat alternatives, and a small amount of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. All recipes in this book satisfy the nutritional guidelines suitable for diabetes and overall healthy eating.
In the interests of health and diabetes management, each recipe provides a nutritional analysis per recipe and serve for: Kilojoules; total fat; saturated fat; fibre; carbohydrates; sodium and protein.
Ruby M. Brown is a skilled and dedicated food technology educator as well as a multi-talented culinary author. Ruby has written many books in the area of special diets including Wheat-Free Cooking (More than 100 Gluten-Free Recipes), Good Food for Diabetes and Milk-Free Cooking.
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In the Mouth of the Tiger
In the Mouth of the Tiger is a novel that is very personal to authors Derek Emerson-Elliott and military historian Lynette Silver. It is based on real people and events and the central character is based on Derek’s own father, Denis Emerson-Elliott, who worked for British intelligence before, during and after the Second World War. He is also the MI6 spy that Lynette Silver met on Central Railway station in Sydney, one wet winter’s day in 1996 and is referred to in her book Deadly Secrets.
In the Mouth of the Tiger is an amazing story of love, mystery and intrigue. At the time of the story, Britain ruled the whole of the Malayan Peninsula as part of her Empire. Security Intelligence Far East (SIFE) was a special British Intelligence organisation set up in Singapore to combat the spread of Communism. It comprised agents from both MI5 and MI6.
The book is also a love story between Derek’s father and his mother, Nona Orlov, a very beautiful young White Russian, the heroine of the story and her early life was as depicted in the book and their family home was Whitelawns, near Changi. In real life, Nona (Norma Emerson-Elliot) died tragically young. Derek and his brother and sister never knew their mother was Russian until after her death.
The final scenes in the story are pure fiction but the setting for these events are based on facts. The Emerson-Elliotts did live at Almer Manor, Dorset, in 1949, where they entertained senior intelligence personalities including Ian Fleming and Admiral Sir Reginald Drax, their neighbour (Fleming cheekily borrowed Drax’s name for the villain of the James Bond novel Moonraker).
Denis Emerson-Elliott was a most engaging figure. There has been much speculation over the years on the identity of the wartime naval intelligence officer, on whom Fleming is said to have based his famous character James Bond.
The Kavieng Massacre: A War Crime Revealed
An engaging book revealing the shocking truth of the Kavieng Massacre in March 1944. During the push southward in the Pacific by the Japanese during World War II, a large group of expatriate Australian men and German Catholic missionaries were trapped on New Ireland, many interned by the Japanese in September 1942 at Kavieng. They disappeared without trace in March 1944.
After the Pacific war ended in August 1945, the Australian Government commenced a largely secret enquiry into the fate of these missing civilians. In June 1947 it was discovered that all the Kavieng internees had been secretly murdered by their captors because the Japanese had assumed Kavieng was shortly to be invaded by US Marines. Unknown to them, the US invasion of Kavieng had been suddenly cancelled by the US high command at the last moment and replaced with a diversionary naval bombardment. After the defeat of Japan, the Japanese naval officers responsible for the Kavieng massacre elaborately concealed their embarrassing crime to mislead Australian investigations. This concealment was successful and delayed revelation of the truth until 1947.
The war, the people, the crime, the cover-up, and finally the truth.
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Deadly Secrets – The Singapore Raids 1942-45
In February 1942, when Australian Bill Reynolds escaped from beleaguered Singapore in a battered Japanese fishing boat, he had no idea that his nondescript vessel would be the catalyst for Operation Jaywick, one of the most daring missions undertaken behind enemy lines in World War II. Using Reynold’s boat, now renamed Krait, a small band of intrepid men attacked enemy shipping in Singapore Harbour – an action that would have far reaching and tragic repercussions on the people of Singapore. The following year, members of the same team embarked upon a second and far more ambitious raid, Operation Rimau. Although this mission was partially successful, every member of the party was killed.
In telling the story of both these raids, author Lynette Silver reveals a number of deadly secrets, and gives an insight into the world of covert operations, partly through the eyes of Denis Emerson-Elliott, a British secret service agent closely associated with both missions. She also lays to rest a number of myths which have arisen in the sixty-five years since the Singapore raids took place. Some are the result of assumptions, based on too little knowledge, others were spawned by rumour. In some cases they were deliberate fabrications, either to make up for lack of information or to present a particular spin. Once film-makers stepped in, the distortions increased in the name of dramatic licence. One widely circulated story claimed that the greatest contribution of the Jaywick mission (classified as top secret until after the war), was to raise the spirits of the Australian public at a time when Allied victories were few and far between. A sobering aspect of many of the special operations carried out by Australian forces during World War II is that many fine men who volunteered for hazardous service died while carrying out missions that were politically, rather than militarily, motivated. Even more sobering is the fact that on the Australian army’s post-war assessment, many of these operations, including Jaywick and Rimau, achieved nothing but death, misery and suffering.
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Little Book of Tassels
The uniquely beautiful projects introduce decorative techniques, which will help you gradually develop skills and create your own designs. Colour photographs, clear drawings and simple instructions will have you tasselled in no time!
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Making Wooden Toys
Even if you have next-to-nil carpentry skills and no thumbs, you will find these toys easy to make! Requiring only basic equipment and materials, and including simple step-by-step instructions, this guide will inspire many unique and irreplaceable wooden toys for any child.
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Angels of Mercy: Far West & Far East
In the 1930s, Marjorie Silver was employed by The Far West Children’s Health Scheme and became their first permanent flying sister, based in Bourke. She fought a single-handed war against heat, dust and isolation of the outback to bring vital medical assistance to the far west of New South Wales, before moving on to central Queensland where she established a clinic at Mt Margaret station, in close co-operation with the flying doctor, based at Charleville. In 1964, she moved to Brunette Downs, Northern Territory, where she continued to make use of her nursing skills at the Aboriginal Camp and in the station’s hospital. This previously untold story also involves the topical Nancy Bird, who was employed as the sister’s pilot for the first nine months.
Whilst Sister Silver was fighting a battle against the harsh elements of the bush, another dedicated woman of about the same age had graduated as a nursing sister with a view to overseas travel. Little did she know that she would shortly embark on a sea voyage to the exotic Far East, where she would engage in a battle for survival as an unwilling guest of the Emperor of Japan. Sister Pat Gunther joined the AIF and served in the Far East on the battlefield of Malaya and Singapore. She was captured and taken prisoner at Bangka Island, Sumatra. The story of the nurses imprisoned in various camps in Sumatra is not unknown, but this book delves far deeper than any other story to date and reveals the ‘secret’ that the nurses kept throughout their lifetimes. Author and military historian Lynette Ramsay Silver has an entire ‘forensic’ chapter devoted to the unravelling of this secret.
This book has been compiled from their edited memoirs, supplemented by various conversations and interviews. Interspersed throughout the book and printed in italics, are Lynette Ramsay Silver’s historical details providing additional narrative to compliment first-hand accounts.
The book also lists, for the first time, the name of every nurse who served in WW2. It also includes the fate of other internees that Sister Pat had met in Malaya and during her three years of captivity and the fate of the nurses evacuated from Singapore. It also includes the 29 women that served as doctors in the Australian Army Medical Corps during World War 2, as well as the names of the women who served as nursing sisters in the Royal Australian Navy, Royal Australian Airforce, Australian Army Nursing Service and the Army Hospital.
Angels of Mercy: Far West & Far East is a tribute to the huge contributions made by our nurses in the Australian Outback, and to those who served during wartime.
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Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW
Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW has been compiled from a personal chronicle begun by Billy Young throughout the 1970s, supplemented by hundreds of conversations that Lynette and Billy have shared in the course of their close friendship spanning more than two decades. It is the only first-hand published account by an ordinary soldier imprisoned by the Japanese at the infamous Sandakan POW Camp, and one of only three books by a survivor at the Kempeitai’s equally notorious Outram Road Gaol.
Billy is now the only soldier left alive from Sandakan, and the only Australian prisoner still alive from Outram Road.
Billy’s close friend, historian and author Lynette Silver, provides historical details gleaned from thirty years of researching and writing about events that Billy experienced first hand. Throughout, Billy gives his unique narrative, immerse in vibrancy and life as he takes the reader on a very personal journey. Through the eyes of a tearaway teenaged soldier, Billy shares his thoughts and experiences, some of which have never before been revealed – secrets that he has kept even from his closest family.
Billy: My Life as a Teenage POW also includes short poems written by Billy, along with his drawings and paintings depicting events that occurred during his time as a POW. These are the only visual records in existence.
This book is his memorial to all those who died in Borneo and in Outram Road Gaol.
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Caro & Co: Helping Kids Find Wonder in the Everyday
Wonder can be found everywhere, in the simplest of places and in many of the activities we undertake every day – you just need to know how and where to look. And, of course, wonder is amplified tenfold when you head outdoors.
The outdoors is where imagination and discovery collide in the most spectacular fashion. Mother Nature’s secrets are just begging to be discovered and, what’s more, she is a brilliant, patient teacher and your child a willing student. Everything outdoors is full of wonder.
Encourage your child to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, the magic in the mundane and enchantment in the everyday. This book lists some ideas on how to go about this. All the activities, either indoor or outside, are simple and inexpensive, and rely mostly on the ready imagination of your child. If you are guided by your knowledge of your own child, together you can find a little wonder in everything you do. So go on. Open the door, step outside and find some magic.
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Creative Handpainted Bears 3
This guide to handpainted bears inspires a variety of vintage styles. Finished artworks introduce a nostalgic novelty to any space or design. These classic paintings are created with loving attention to detail and each bear has its own unique personality. Included at the rear of the book is a pattern sheet which makes these bear designs achievable for even the beginner. Easy step-by-step instructions are accompanied by colour photographs and illustrations supporting each progression of development.
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Deliciously Decorative Cookies: Easy-to-Make Cookie Creations
Discover the art of cookie decorating in this beautifully presented collection of projects. For bakers of all skill levels, this delightful book features 50 projects to try with a wide range of different decorating techniques: elegant cookies piped with royal icing, or fun and funky fondant cookies, or cookies made with amazing coloured dough, or built up into awesome 3D cookie sculptures.
The projects are grouped according to the type of icing used, and a neat icon shows roughly how long it takes to make each one. At the back of the book there is a selection of cookie recipes, decorating tips, and a set of templates. With step by step instructions and photography, each project features simple, elegant designs that are guaranteed to amaze and delight.
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How to Package your Handmade Products: Tips and Creative Inspiration for Crafters from Crafters
From making boxes to die-cutting your logo, How to Package Your Handmade Products is aimed at crafters, providing a comprehensive guide to creative packaging ideas for handmade products, encouraging the turn of a passion into a lucrative business. Whether selling on sites such as Etsy or through craft fairs, trade shows, and local stores, this book shows you how to give your handmade jewelry, soft craft, or homeware products that professional edge to make the crucial difference between a one-time sale and customers who come back for more!
Existing packaging books are aimed at graphic designers or specialist packaging designers. This book is aimed solely at design-makers, crafters and creators making sense of specialist terms, standard envelope sizes, folding terminology, and measurements. Advice ranges from the simple; how to customize basic boxes and labels with printing, creative washi tape, or other designs and shapes; to the more complex; making your own packaging and recycling old material to make new packaging. Also included are printable templates and a resources section at the back of the book with handy sizing charts, standard envelope sizes across the world, ratios for scaling the accompanying templates, and measurement conversion charts, making this a truly indispensable resource for the creative and innovative crafter and seller.
So whether you’re making boxes and labels from scratch or buying precut templates from a local craft store, this book gives you all you need in order to design and customize your packaging with your unique style. With a unique mix of accessible information, gorgeous inspiration, and helpful advice, How to Package Your Handmade Products shows how easy it can be to create gorgeous packaging for lovingly handmade products and ensure your precious products look as stylish outside the box as they do inside.
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Little Book of Heirloom Christmas Tree Decorations
The heirloom Christmas tree is an exquisite silk miniature elaborately embroidered with a profusion of decorations, many of them based on those which Jenny Stephenson hangs on her family Christmas tree each year. One of the joys of this project is that the complex effect is achieved with the simplest of stitches, worked with a luxuriant variety of silk and metallic threads, embellished with an abundance of tiny beads and sequins.
The book clearly lays out the sequence to be followed in the tree’s creation, with each decoration fully explained, step by step, and illustrated with diagrams and a colour photograph. The instructions are precise, but there is much scope for creating your own version through the use of a different colour scheme for the balls and bells, beads of different styles and the addition of special trinkets that you may have set aside for that special project.
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Silk Paper for Textile Artists
A creative step by step demonstration of basic methods for crafting this unique luminous fabric. In four chapters, Sarah Lawrence displays how silk paper can be embellished and adapted through the clever use of dyes, natural and manmade ingredients and simple techniques such as cutting and layering, embroidery and more. It includes examples of the myriad ways textile artists can create flat and 3-D designs in this medium, from framed articles to jewellery. Featuring photographs of the original pieces made especially for this book, along with photographs and descriptions of the authors exhibitions pieces. Includes a helpful glossary of silk making terms.
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75 Flowers for Cake Decorators: A Beautiful Collection of Easy-to-Make Floral Cake and Cupcake Toppers
A beautiful collection of easy-to-make floral cake toppers for cakes and cupcakes. From simple blooms to elegantly exotic flowers, this delightful collection of floral cake toppers provides the perfect decorative finish to showcase your cakes and cupcakes. With a wide range of amazingly lifelike flowers to choose from, using methods including pulled, wired, piped, molded, and cutter, there is something to inspire both the expert and amateur alike. Select your cake decorating technique, from fondant or frosting to marzipan or chocolate, and discover how to turn your baked treats into culinary masterpieces. Each flower is presented in a dynamic view, clearly showing the individual components and how they fit together. The book includes: step-by-step photography and easy instructions; guidance on essential techniques and materials; recipes and crucial cake-making skills to allow even the beginner to make the perfect cake.
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300 Cake Decorating Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets
This book is an indispensable compendium of essential knowledge and troubleshooting tips. Tapping into the hottest trend in the cookery as craft market right now, this book is crammed with information on the art and craft of cake decorating. Author Carol Deacon shows you how to use fondant, buttercream, chocolate and marzipan to create a stunning array of cake decorations, and edible delights. Decorated cupcakes are a favourite with adults and children, and this book is for you if you want to make delightful frosted cakes, or a cupcake tower adorned with cookie cutter daisies, or give as gifts or favours, adorable gum paste animals or delicate ribbon embellished porcelain like flowers. Crammed with over 300 professional fixes, insider tips, and money saving secrets, content is arranged by topic to enable any crafter to achieve a professional look to their cupcakes, cake pops, or celebration cakes.
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Popular Quilling
Helen Walter provides a wonderful new assortment of Australian native florals and charming floral emblems from around the world. The book features a brand new section on distinctive Australian animals and outback symbols, as well as a superb Christmas component, making this book an essential collection of numerous quilling designs. With easy-to-follow instructions and colour photographs of each project, Helen’s book will inspire both the novice and skilled quiller.
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Put Your Stamp On It: Cards, Interiors, Scrapbooks & Stationery
Want to create beautiful, hand-printed gifts and items for you, your friends and your home? Put Your Stamp On It shows you how. Drawing on a growing trend for rubber stamps and stamping as a printmaking craft – and a burgeoning stamping community of artisans and experts to go with it – this book illustrates just how easy it is to create your own rubber stamps and go on to print infinite personalized projects in the comfort of your own home.
It explores the basic principles required for a professional stamping finish, from choosing essentials tools to carving your first rubber reliefs, mounting stamps on blocks and printing on a variety of materials including fabric, paper and wood. Put Your Stamp On It also explores the brilliant duality of this printmaking medium: it can exist as a simple craft or has the potential to create more complex, intricate artworks.
Put Your Stamp On It includes 20 brilliant stamping projects from simple designs to intricate masterpieces, as well as fully-illustrated guides to the essential tools, skills and techniques with tips and tricks for troubleshooting. Be inspired to adapt projects to print on a range of materials including paper, fabric and wood, and with various inks.
A great introduction for the novice stamp maker, this book also offers more advanced tips and tricks for experienced stampers looking to expand their skills. Happy stamping!
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Handmade Books and Albums: Decorate and Embellish Notebooks, Diaries and Journals
Transform ready-made albums and create stunning journals of your own with the techniques and ideas described in Handmade Books and Albums. Using easily accessible materials and equipment, you can achieve spectacular results, whether enhancing the cover of a store-bought journal or creating a sumptuous album right from scratch. Beautifully illustrated step by step instructions take you through more than 20 projects. Additional projects show you how to make paper and embellish the pages in your book. It includes a selection of the different materials that can be used for creating covering binding, and fastening notebooks and journals.
The essential handbook for the creative soul.
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Jewellery-Making Basics
This practical easy-to-use book allows you to start making sensational necklaces, bracelets, brooches, rings, earrings, and more, even if you have never so much as picked up a pair of pliers before. Clear photographs guide you every step of the way, from setting up your workspace and transferring designs to basic filing, sawing, and soldering skills. Additional diagrams give clarity to tricky stages, and provide troubleshooting tips. Techniques are interspersed with practical projects so that you can create beautiful items of jewellery as you learn, from simple silver rings to elegant stone-set pendants. Includes advice on practicing using inexpensive materials, and tips on designing you own unique pieces.
The essential handbook for beginning and experienced jewelists.
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Little Book of Beaded Crusts and Tassels
Follow this simple guide to bead crusting and create magnificently decorative designs without bead counting or glue. Learn a variety of crusting techniques to created beaded surfaces and intricate tassels. Colour photographs, instructional illustrations and text lead you step-by-step to help you create beautiful decorative items that are quick, easy and lots of fun.
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Wild Jewellery: Materials, Techniques, Inspiration
Create your own stunning pieces of contemporary jewellery from materials found in the wild. Expert advice on how to identify and select different raw materials and where to find them is accompanied by full colour step by step instructions on all the tools and techniques you need to transform your finds into wearable art.
Simple in their execution, the techniques include crocheting various found materials, working with silver wire and setting small objects in polymer clay or epoxy resin. Each method can be adapted to make literally hundreds of different pieces – rings, bracelets, brooches, tiaras and necklaces – using all manner of wild objects. Providing a wealth of choice for the aspirational ‘wild’ jewellery designer, the results are original and striking, from resin-inlay twig beads to a crocheted-wire stone setting and a hose-clip ring shank.
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A Guide to Endangered Flora in Quilling
Having already published over 86 quilled floral designs, Helen Walter now presents quilling endangered plant species. This should excite quillers and also raise an awareness of our disappearing flora, whether the disappearance be caused by climate change, human activity, loss of habitat or natural disaster. The projects are set into seven categories of endangerment: Prehistoric; Extinct; Extinct in the Wild; Critically Endangered; Endangered: Vulnerable; and Thriving. The 42 plants are all beautifully presented in full colour with clear step-by-step instructions.
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Beadopedia: The Only Beading Reference You’ll Ever Need
Beadopedia is a concise yet comprehensive guide to all things related to the craft of beading. Covering the basics, intermediate, and more advanced beading techniques, Beadopedia will give you the know-how you need to create jewelry and accessories you’ll love to make and wear. With step-by-step instructions and clear images it will help you easily pick up new techniques, or master any that you’re less confident at. Beadopedia is comprised of the latest and most popular beading techniques out there, including macrame, soutache, wire crochet, and many simpler techniques, like how to tie a double knot on elastic.
Making your own jewellery and accessories can seem a bit daunting when you first start out, with such a vast array of beads, findings, tools, and beading-related terminology. This compendium will simplify all of this, with clear instructions and useful descriptions, to use as an invaluable reference as you work through your beading designs.
There is something here for everyone, from projects to attempt when you are just starting out, to ones for those who have already done a bit of beadwork and want to give something new a try, while learning new techniques. The 25 inspiring and fresh design projects, from beginners to advanced, are presented with clear step-by-step instructions, accompanied by close-up photos. By working your way through the techniques and projects in Beadopedia, you will be well on your way to creating your own beautiful jewellery. It will provide you with the knowledge and confidence you’ll need to experiment with new ideas and will be useful to refer back to as you work on new designs.
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Decorative Beading: Lampshades, Tassels, Scarves, Brooches and More Delightful Projects to Make
Beth Bulluss has presented us with a collection of stunning beaded lampshades, beaded bags, beaded combs, bookmarks and scarves. This simple guide instructs both novice and skilled beaders to craft intricate decorations and accessories; the essential handbook for the creative spirit. Through numerous set projects, discover the diverse applications of beaded fringing worked within this fabulous title.
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Exotic Beads: 45 Distinctive Beaded Jewellery Designs
Be inspired by Sara’s 45 exciting beading projects from around the world. Create stunningly unique necklaces, chokers, earrings and bracelets to treat yourself and others. Projects range from simple ideas for beginners, to intricate and inspirational designs for more experienced bead workers. Clearly annotated colour photographs detail techniques and steps to bring your striking creations to life. Harness your imagination and craft timeless gifts and treasures that are uniquely yours. Get beading!
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75 Chinese, Celtic & Ornamental Knots for Jewellery
The essential guide for novice and experienced jewellery makers. Learn to tie decorative knots from across the world with this stylish directory. Follow clear diagrams with step-by-step instructions to create 75 exciting and distinctive jewellery knots. A grading system allows beginners to get started straight away while experienced jewelists can delve into a variety of complex and intricate designs. 10 projects will inspire readers to create beautiful and original ornamental knots that can combine with beads for a modern look, or consist entirely of knots for a traditional style. With detailed material lists and photography of finished items, this book is the complete guide to jewellery knots. Also, containing a comprehensive techniques section, 75 Chinese, Celtic and Ornamental Knots for Jewellery shows how to use jump rings and seal cords correctly. This practical know how will be invaluable as readers progress to designing and creating their own knotted jewellery.
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350 Jewellery Making Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets
This book packs in the combined wisdom of two writer-educators who are consummate problem solvers when it comes to jewellery making. Together they show the reader how to fix common problems, try out new creative techniques, get more skilled at familiar methods, improvise tools and discover ways to save money, such as recycling gold and other precious metal scraps. From beading to setting a stone, understanding annealing to soldering your own silver chain, you can riffle through the book, experimenting with new innovations to create your unique jewellery designs. Packed with over 200 expert fixes, insider tips, and tricks of the trade, content is arranged by topic to enable any jewellery maker to achieve a striking and professional look to their earrings, necklaces, rings, and more. A must have for anyone who makes their own jewellery, whether at beginner or intermediate level.
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Beading Basics: All You Need to Know to Create Beautiful Beaded Accessories
Take the hard work out of beadwork and make beautifully embellished jewellery and accessories. This easy-to-use book reveals everything you need to know to get started straight away in this rewarding and adaptable craft. Projects include simple step-by-step instructions and colour photographs to follow as you create your very own unique treasures and gifts. For the avid jewellery maker or even a fresh beginner, this wonderful title guides you through the fun process of beading to craft numerous eye-catching designs.
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Beading: Learn it. Love it.
If you can’t get to a beading class or workshop close to home or work, then this skill-building book is the next best thing. For the beginner and the improver, it’s a passport to successful learning.
Features include: Hundreds of detailed how-to photographs, carefully annotated so it is easy for you to see what you should be looking at. Guest designers sharing some of their favourite patterns. ‘Quick-start’ projects for beginners who are impatient to try out their skills on projects that don’t need much in the way of materials or time. Really useful lists sprinkled throughout the pages, for readers who want to quickly understand the essentials. Beader’s clinics: ‘Doctor’ Jean solves her students’ beading dilemmas.
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Pretty Birds: 18 Simple Projects to Sew and Love
Most crafters are guaranteed to have a stash of lovingly collected fabric scraps and off cuts hoarded away in anticipation of the perfect project. However, in reality many crafters need inspiration as to what they can actually make with these pieces of fabric, and end up watching guiltily as their stash grows ever larger and more disorganised. Pretty Birds has now provided the perfect answer to what to do with your stash.
More elegant than cutesy, Pretty Birds is aimed at the young and hip end of the hobby crafts readership, offering creative inspiration and easy to follow tutorials that are suitable for sewers of all levels. Crafters will fall in love with the charmingly simple illustrations, which will have them diving straight into their fabric stash in order to recreate each whimsical character for themselves. In addition to the book’s core fabric projects, inspiration and advice is also offered for transforming each into a useful and original household item, such as a chunky doorstopper or handy cable tidy pouch. A selection of standard pattern templates for items such as these is included at the back of the book, providing readers with a valuable additional resource.
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Sewing Basics: All You Need to Know to Begin Sewing Clothes and Home Furnishings
Sewing Basics will teach you every essential sewing technique and give you the confidence to dust off your sewing machine and create the garments you’ve always dreamed of making. Learn to sew like an expert and make 12 terrific projects along the way for yourself, your family and your home. Sewing Basics is a complete beginners guide to machine sewing that covers every stage from choosing fabric to completing the finishing stitches. Step-by-step colour photographs, detailed diagrams and easy to follow instructional text will ensure that you absorb each technique quickly. 12 original projects allow you to practise new techniques and skills while creating garments and furnishings right from the word go. Be inspired again and again by Wendy Gardner’s fabulous title.
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Stitch it Simple: 25 Hand Sewn Projects to Make and Share
The projects in this book range from greeting cards to shopper tote bags, to a starter quilt, which is easy to piece together; the perfect place to start for your first quilt perhaps? There are cushions for the living room, a doorstop, slippers to keep your feet warm and looking great, a cute apron for baking, a wall tidy to hide away bits and pieces in your bedroom or office something for every room and every occasion. While the projects are straightforward and easy to follow if you are new to sewing, they are also sure to appeal to the more experienced sewer, with lots of possibilities for adapting the ideas to make your own. Creating great textile projects doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming. It is all about choosing the right fabrics and using them in a simple and effective way to create something that is both striking to look at, and practical to use in everyday life.
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Stress Free Sewing: Troubleshooting Tips and Advice for the Savvy Sewer
Stress Free Sewing is an essential reference book for home sewers, crafters, and sewing enthusiasts at all levels. You know that panicky feeling you get when your sewing machine jams? Or that awful frustration of seeing your careful stitches in a buttonhole come undone? What do you do when you look on the Internet and everyone has a different take on how you should be sewing on a ruffle? Sewing, for the beautiful and rewarding fun you get out of it, can sometimes be stressful and frustrating, even for the best of us. Organised by the stages in a project, from choosing tools, through reading patterns to fitting waistlines and adding buttons and zips, all the information is presented so you know exactly where to look when you get stuck with a problem. Illustrated entries cover every aspect and item in the sewing process, with each entry providing the characteristics, pros and cons, and basic considerations of working with that item. Icons alert the reader to whether tips relate to buying and choosing materials – using and working with them; techniques and best practice hints; or health and safety considerations. Cross references take you between chapters so you can see how different aspects relate to each other, offering troubleshooting tips that offer advice on how to deal with virtually any sewing situation. A detailed contents list combined with an index at the front of the book make it extremely easy to flick through and find information.
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Kids Learn to Stitch
The latest in the successful Kids Learn to… series. This book enlists the help of two animal characters, Pip and Peg, who will help children learn how to use a sewing needle and thread to make simple, practical and decorative projects. With clear colour photographs and comprehendible instructions, this title will inspire children to create their very own unique toys and designs. Enjoy hours of fun and creativity with this brilliant title.
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Heartfelt: 25 Projects for Stitched and Felted Accessories
Make a wide range of accessories for children and adults using felted knitting, embellished with applique and embroidery techniques. This creative title includes a range of techniques to suit all abilities and varied resources. Teresa Searle demonstrates her unique method of combining felted knitting with applique and embroidery to inspire a wide range of richly coloured accessories. Projects include unique hats, mittens, slippers and scarves, as well as beautiful jewellery such as brooches, hair clips and corsages. Discover the creative opportunities of felted knitting with Teresa’s terrific project guide!
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The Home Sewer’s Guide to Practical Stitches: The Ultimate Guide to Sewing Seams, Hems, Darts and More!
An ideal worktop companion for home sewers, The Home Sewer’s Guide to Practical Stitches is a complete and illustrated resource of hand and machine stitches. What’s the best stitch to hand set a zipper? When should you use a diagonal basting stitch? What are other uses of a blind hem stitch? Whether sewing clothes from published patterns, designing your own sewing projects, or executing simple repairs, The Home Sewer’s Guide to Practical Stitches is the most comprehensive and ready reference consolidating all the most useful and practical information sewers need to choose and use every kind of sewing stitch.
While sewing patterns come with instructions on what stitches to use, they don’t actually include the instructions on how to do those stitches. With machine stitching, using these recommended stitches is contingent on that stitch being available on your sewing machine. If it isn’t, would you know what would make an appropriate substitute? Now, with The Home Sewer’s Guide to Practical Stitches, not only do you have a complete resource of step-by-step techniques for every stitch, the directory style advice arms you with the information you need in order to make your own choices according to the fabric you’re using and what you wish to accomplish.
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Quilting on the Go: Paper Piecing Patchwork You Can Take Anywhere: Techniques, Patterns and Projects
Maybe you have the urge to sew but don’t want to be stuck behind your sewing machine all the time? This fantastic title is wonderfully portable. You can stitch on the train, bus, or airplane, in waiting rooms, in the car while your baby naps, or at the beach – all the stolen moments when your hands are idle! Learn to build a tool kit with everything you need to get stitching. When you’re done, just snap it shut and your project is safe and waiting for when you’re ready to sew again. Clear explanations and step-by-step photography will have you stitching in no time and, before you know it, beautiful patterns will materialise from your fingers, which you can use to create a colourful quilt, a cushion, a bag, and much more.
Includes detailed instructions for preparing templates, basting techniques, joining pieces and finishing techniques, and with a myriad patterns to try, you’ll find this book full of inspiration for you to find an idea and make it your own!
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Quiltopedia: The Only Quilting Reference You’ll Ever Need
Quiltopedia is a concise yet comprehensive guide to patchwork and quilting. A range of techniques are covered for both hand and machine stitching, which gently guide the novice quilter through to more intermediate and advanced skills. Advice is given for fabric and thread choices, and for choosing and using the right tools and equipment for this craft.
30 different projects are offered for the reader to try out their quilting together with fabric requirements and clear, step-by-step instructions and diagrams. Useful hints and tips are given to help the newcomer avoid the pitfalls often experienced when setting out to make a quilted project. Full-size templates are given which can be traced or photocopied for use in a variety of the projects. Unique instructions are given which will show readers how to draft some of the most popular patchwork blocks to their own preferred size, rather than work to the dictates of printed templates. This book is aimed at beginners, but with information and projects that will also be of interest to quilters with more experience. It will prove a valuable addition to any quilt maker’s bookshelf!
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Successful Scrap Quilts
Create dazzling scrap quilts with a whole new set of block designs based on one simple shape, the rectangle! Two stars of the quilting world share their expert tips for turning a so-so scrap quilt into a smashing success. Be inspired to create unique designs that add a heartfelt touch to any space. Follow simple instructions to complete a wide range of projects for both the novice and skilled quilter. Delve into this fantastic title and discover the special skill of quilting!
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200 Sewing Tips, Techniques & Trade Secrets
Just like having your own personal sewing guru on hand 24 hours a day, this book covers all the techniques you could ever need, along with hints, timesaving tips, and homespun secrets. Improve your skills, speed up your sewing time, and make garments, accessories, and home projects with a professional finish in no time. Easy to follow, step-by-step techniques are organised in the order you will need them, or you can dip in and out for help with a specific problem. ‘Try this’ and ‘fix it’ panels highlight useful inspirations and troubleshooting ideas throughout the book.
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Quilt the Beloved Africa
The craft of African quilting is a beautifully textured and vibrant art form that bears testimony to the rich and complex nature of the African continent. In this, their third book, doyennes of the discipline Pat Parker and Jenny Williamson delve deeper into what it is that sets this relatively new style of quilting apart from the more well-established American and European styles that have dominated quilting circles for hundreds of years. The quilts in Quilt the Beloved Africa are a fantastic mix of colourful fabrics that are the key differentiators of the African style of quilting. Another key feature of the local style of quilting is the use of images drawn from its vibrant flora, fauna, and the faces of its people. With a wonderful gallery of quilts followed by thirteen projects, all with easy step-by-step instructions, templates and wonderful colour photographs of the quilts and the inspirations for the quilts, this book will take you on a quilting adventure through Africa like no other. We hope you enjoy your journey through their third African quilting odyssey – a beautiful palette of textures, colours and patterns that continue to make African quilting a joy to behold!
Not available from Sally Milner publishing in Republic of South Africa and USA.
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