Crafts and Decorative arts

Clear instructions and 129 photos welcome you to the world of calligraphy. Starting with the pens, inks, and writing surfaces you'll need, the book explains the basics, from filling the pen to holding the nib at the right angle. Practice exercises help you understand upstrokes, downstrokes, the optical center, and more.

Learn how to curate, create, and gift one-of-a-kind napkin ring sets made from vintage brooches and costume jewelry, preferably from your very own jewelry box. TV personality Lisa Guerrero shares the story of how she created this original craft to honor her family's heritage and upcycle treasures found in her community.

Create lovely new "once upon a time" keepsakes with these 44 cross-stitch patterns, blending the traditional style of France with a charming contemporary simplicity. The designs are eye-catchingly lovely with their subtle colors, gentle humor, and delicate lines. They're all here: wily foxes, big bad wolves, city mice and country mice . . .

Enter this deliciously vintage universe of 500 patterns and add a touch of nostalgia to your stitchwork. Re-create designs from 1800s and 1900s fashion houses and milliners’ catalogs. Take your cross stitch on a bon voyage into the past with traveling motifs like trunk labels of exotic destinations and railroad advertising posters.

This book shows how to make 40 bags and miscellaneous goods with very simple, clear-cut instructions that even total beginners can follow. What makes this book special is that it has patterns with stitch marks at the end of the book. Leather is usually sewn after piercing holes for stitching, which means that punching the holes is the most important part.

This guide to printmaking plunges you into dozens of ways to leave your mark on the world—and on your walls, tablecloths, garments, and every other surface imaginable. Emphasizing the joy and energy of printmaking, the 41 projects use everyday materials, and don't require any previous experience.

Illustrated with more than 300 photos, this guide covers everything you need to know to begin working with glass. Learn the materials and tools needed, types of glass, and successful techniques, focusing on the copper foil method.

Using your creativity and the vibrant medium of alcohol inks, create these 20 beautiful representational paintings. With a broad range of painting subjects including florals, animals, landscapes, and more, these projects demonstrate a variety of approaches to alcohol ink painting to inspire and ignite creativity. Step-by-step photos make each project a learning opportunity.

Handmade textiles are personal, no matter where in the world they're created, and these photos and explanations of 25 diverse world cultures' techniques vividly share the details. Take a voyage through these pages and see how today's artisans continue to create traditional fiber arts with age-old methods.

The best way to start in knifemaking is usually to make a fixed-blade knife, and this photo-rich guide with carefully detailed instructions offers a full tang knife and a hidden tang knife. Make each of these two projects by following the individual construction principles here, and learn all phases of the knifemaking process.

With the delicacy of a spider's web, the traditional, Amerindian dream catcher traps bad dreams in its weave and lets good dreams slide along its feathers to the sleeper. Dream catchers have become an essential item in decoration, but they remain highly symbolic.

Leather is a strong and versatile material, and indispensable when you’re working, hunting, or exploring outdoors. Hunter and outdoor professional Carsten Bothe offers the ultimate beginner’s guide for this useful hobby. These photo-rich, step-by-step instructions prove that anyone can learn the techniques of cutting, sewing, and finishing to make, or repair, your essential leather items.

Upholstery doesn't have to be intimidating! Expert Shelly Miller Leer, founder of HomeRoom and Upholstery Club and former writer and contributor for curbly.com, apartmenttherapy.com, and many other online crafting communities uses her trademark fresh, casual teaching style to empower you with the confidence and skills to get started right away.

The knife—a staple in every household and long considered one of mankind's most important tools. Despite our long history, in today's fast-paced world many no longer know how to recognize a good knife or the characteristics that define one.

Modern makers who have learned the basics of weaving can rejoice with this next-steps guide from Lindsey Campbell, the weaver behind the popular blog and brand Hello Hydrangea. Her trademark style, which powers the popularity of her first book, Welcome to Weaving, helps you take your creativity and your enthusiasm to the next level of style.

The perfect mix of trendy and handy, these 50 designs for useful and stylish little bags and pouches use small pieces of fabric, bringing your stash's power to new heights. The eye-catching and creative designs offer structures, shapes, and effects you've never sewn before, applied to multicompartment wallets and clutches, first-aid pouches, and bags for elegantly toting phones, eyeglasses, ...

Why are people still handmaking utilitarian pottery in the 21st century? Doesn’t industrial production take care of all our storage and cooking and serving needs? Yet, in all corners of the US, pottery is being discovered, studied, developed, produced, sold, collected, used, displayed, preserved, and passed down.

Learn to make leather creations that you and your family and friends will love to use. From a cuff bracelet to mittens, a protective tablet case, or a smartphone case with a secret pocket to hold a credit card, all projects radiate an appealing style and boast clever design features. What makes it easier?

Unplug yourself—and any children in your life—and enjoy the art of weaving at the small-scale level with the fun, accessible potholder loom. Familiar to many from their childhood, simple square potholder looms hold stretchy fabric loops that are woven to create practical gifts or handy trivets for your own kitchen.

This artistic, inspirational guide to wearable art shows you how to nuno-felt patterns and textures into luxurious fabrics like georgette, chiffon, and silk, then design garments to feature them. Using only hand friction, soap, and water, bond wool and silk fibers together to create lightweight, one-of-a-kind clothing and accessories.