Crafts and Decorative arts

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bookworms derive great pleasure from the simple act of reading. But what happens when a book is old or damaged and no longer in a fit state to be read? Through 20 do-it-yourself projects, Upcycling Books: Decorative Objects gives your tattered friends a new lease on life.

In an invitation to expand and liberate your creative voice in floral design, Jenny Thomasson (AIFD, PFCI, EMC) generously unfolds her artistic process that has made her a rising star in the industry through 40+ beautifully shot compositions. The delicacy, intensity, and cyclical temporality of flowers mirror our deepest emotions—making them a potent source of inspiration and innovation.

Weaving the shape, not just shaping the cloth! Now, for the first time, handweavers have the tools and techniques to allow them to weave the 3-D shapes they want, on their own looms. Three new techniques are at the core of this exploration: weaving expanded areas, weaving dense areas, and weaving with infinite tensioning.

Embellishments and accessories are on trend in the artisan fashion world, and macramé is the perfect method for creating contemporary garment embellishments. This book introduces the materials, the knots and techniques, and how to choose the best combinations for various style needs and garment enhancements.

A colorful guided tour from an expert, enabling weavers, textile lovers, and art lovers to notice and appreciate what tapestries can do and how they do it. This guide from expert tapestry weaver and historian Sidore gives how-to strategies enabling weavers and nonweavers to notice and appreciate the meaning of these artworks.

Zero waste is key to Maria Sigma's renowned weaving designs, and here she shows beginners—and more-accomplished weavers too—how that philosophy can transform what you weave. Enjoy learning the basics of both heddle loom and frame loom weaving and succeed at six guided projects you'll enjoy adding to your home and wardrobe, while also learning how Sigma has built her practice on sustainability.

Stitch a modern crochet garden with this adorable project book from popular pattern designer Amy Gaines!  If you love flowers, succulents, cacti, and crochet, this is the book for you! Inside, you’ll find 22 beautifully designed projects that are simple enough to make in a day and stylish enough to display or give as gifts.  The book is organized into two main themes: ...

Once ideas and images come to mind, the next step in weaving your tapestry—interpreting these into effective compositions—may be challenging. Learn here, in ways that relate specifically to tapestry art, the design basics you need to make your best work.

Explore the reaches of your imagination by combining art, craft, and mathematics to create the age-old geometric form of the polyhedra. More than 50 projects use just one center point to create shapes that are folded symmetrically and build upon each other.

Ready for a haunting good time? Want to learn to make your own tombstones and cemetery, turn your child into a mummy, create Monster Mud, and more? You’ve come to the right place! When the living set out to haunt houses, they scream for a unique look and feel. They want to create a spooky memory for visitors coming to party or trick or treat.

This yearlong workshop guides you through 52 weekly lessons that not only improve your technical skills but refine your personal style, preferences, and expression. The first half of the year focuses on learning and polishing the building blocks—such as line, perspective, and shading—while the second empowers you to make choices and question “methods.