With Tuppence For Paper And String...

 ...sang Mr Banks, in Mary Poppins. He used his purchases to build a kite for his children. I found two craft books in the library about paper and string recently. Here are my reviews

first up -Folded Book Art by Clare Youngs. I rate CY as a brilliant contemporary crafter who generously shares her varied skills and techniques through her books. This volume is no exception. I'm not a great fan of folded books, tbh. Clare demonstrates clearly how you should do it - here's an ampersand and a butterfly

But some of her projects involved sculptures within opened books- the mermaid and the bees are my particular favourites, whilst other pieces involve pages removed from the books and recreated into natural object like fungi or spring bulbs.

The dog is a crazy bit of fun [she advises cutting the strips quickly with a paper shredder' and the sailboats are made from the stiff covers and decorative endpapers of a 50s Girls' Annual.

This book gives you all you need about 'conventional' folded book art - but 35 projects in total and some very diverse ideas - there are also reindeer, mice, sardines [in a can] birds, a village, a castle, a theatre...and even paper knitting. 

Definitely *****

StringCraft by Lucy Hopping was a little disappointing. I'd hoped for something to craft with string which wasn't macramé. This definitely was not that craft - but neither was it string!

Another CICO publication offering 35 projects, it was disappointing to discover that less than 5 used what I would term "string" - all the other items required embroidery floss, sewing cotton or wool.

Lucy has variations on the 'pin and string' designs popular in the 60s, and suggests making 'string' by machining three strands of yarn together on your sewing machine, and then forming it into a basket. There are a number of designs which involve stitching through an already perforated object [like this wpb] Those triangles look good - until you realise she expects you to count the holes in your  basket and do all the calculations yourself to get those triangles [not forgetting that the bin tapers, so the bottom row will have a different stitch count!] This was an attractive book, and an entertaining read, but did not inspire me to make anything, and didn't include enough string to justify the title imho! So I'm only giving **

My Encyclopedia of Needlework [50p in a CS I think] was written by Thérèse De Dillmont in 1884. My edition was a Christmas gift to E O Cole in 1911. It is tiny [postcard sized, 4cm thick] and full of useful facts and techniques.

Last week I was looking up an embroidery stitch, and discovered a whole section on macramé - I learned that it is an Arabic word meaning ornamental fringe, that for centuries this craft was practised by nuns in convents, and sailors. Around 1860 there was a great revival of the art among the craftswomen of Europe - then it was mostly forgotten again till the 1970s. My quiet crafting these last few days has been embroidery [hand and machine] I'll reveal more next month.