New Books for Inspiration & Ideas

This book is tasty enough to eat!

Amazon said that this book was out-of-print when I bought it in January.
"What?" It just came out in October 2007!
At the time, no US Libraries listed ownership in WorldCat. I wound up ordering it directly from D4Daisy in Great Britain. It only took 1 week to arrive at my door.

This is a BEAUTIFUL mixed media book, with lots of bling. Even better, Maggie Grey, the author, includes extra online lessons, free with the purchase of the book.



Another one by Maggie Grey and Jane Wild. It's full of bling--another feast for the eyes.
Who would have thought you could sew through metal? There's just something about the way Maggie Gray puts together colors and textures ... everything comes out rich and interesting. I wonder what some of her not-so-great pieces look like? Everything she touches seems to turn to gold.

It also includes a good description on how to make your own cast paper (Though I think this might work with some of the paper clays available these days ...)



Mixed Media Nature Journals by LK Ludwig
Apart from it being about books and book-making (another one of my interests), this book contains all kinds of interesting and new (to me) techniques that I want to try ... like :
1) Mono-printing with gelatin
2) Dye and Salt nature printing
3) Nature printing onto metal mesh
4) Printing natural texture onto metal foil
5) Image transfer
6) Mica ( I remember seeing bits of mica on the ground in Nigeria when I was there in 1993)


Shibori for Textile Artists is another beautiful how-to book for Shibori.
It's even got me inspired to fire up my Indigo dye pot this summer.

My interest in indigo-dyed cloth stems from West Africa's Adire cloth. Most people think of Japan with this tradition of dyeing. This book does give a nod to the African tradition, as well.