Today we begin a monthly post series. Each month about this time, I will share a book with you that I found particularly interesting and educational. I have an extended library of art,craft, decorating and cookbooks. And that's only part of it. I have thousands of crafting magazines. I treasure each and every page of theses books/magazine's and I think I have reread each of them a dozen times. As most of you know already my favorite craft magazine of all time is "Where Women Create" a magazine published by Stampington and Co. So on that note my first book review will be on a book called "Kitschy Crafts" written by no other than Jo Packham ( Editor of Where Woman Create and my 'Rockstar", of the crafting world) and Matt Shay. I found this book in southern Georgia at a wholesale bookstore and was so excited when i saw that one of the authors was JO !
"Kitschy Crafts" is a celebration of overlooked 20th century crafts from the past. You'll find inspiration on every page! You'll see crafts you had forgotten about. The book is loaded with quality crafts that will dazzle your hubby, delight the kids and amaze your friends.
So you ask, What is kitsch? Kitsch was once a derogatory term used to describe art that was low quality, thrown together, repetitive, cheesy, inferior and tasteless. But don't let the name fool you, this book is a wonderful collection of craft fads from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Paging through it you can't help but fall into the past.
Who can forget the classic "Wine Bottle Candle Holders" from the 70's. The hours of endless conversation that took place while candle after candle was burned creating colorful layers of wax.
And what about the sophisticated and stunning craft of paper collage. Crafters of all ages and abilities can create in blending papers to create beautiful works of art. Today we call it "mixed media art" but I still prefer the word "collage".
My all time favorite dates back from the 1950's. But became most popular in the 1960's and 70's. No room was complete without a "Resin Grape Cluster". Your coffee table just wasn't presentable without a gleaming bunch of resin grapes resting on it!
The individual articiles and instructions are fairly short, so there are a whole lot of them. There are five chapters, each relating to a certain craft. And every page loaded with beautiful vintage photographs.
I could go on and on about this book! I highly recomend you go out and purchase a copy for yourself. I know most of you can't travel to southern Georgia but you can buy the book through
http://www.amazon.com/
Well that does it for the book review for the month of January. If anyone has a book that they would like to be reviewed here at
http://www.creativechickscafe.com/ please drop me an e mail at
kate@creativechickscafe.com or just post a comment below. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this review.
As always, "Keep Creating"!
-Kate
