My first bit of holiday reading was this library book
The book has five chapters – To Decorate, To Hang, To Nest, To Wear and To Use. There are clear instructions for all the crafts, and lots of delightful photographs. The author, Willow Crossley, lived in France for years, and is obsessed with vintage textiles from the markets. She clearly hangs about with the rich-and-famous judging by the testimonials.
Nothing requires any great skill to produce – but my main disappointment was there were few new ideas***. Fabric covered books and pinboards, washi clothes pegs, bath salts,button pictures, lavender sachets and teacup candles …and the inevitable bunting…these are hardly revolutionary projects.
Sadly I found many of her projects would be quite expensive to make – with constant suggestions to buy your vintage ribbons and Scrabble tiles online! Most have us have little access to antique French linen sheets. However this is a lovely book to look through, and to dream about all those projects you’d love to do if you only had the time and cash! And the photography is great.
***The final project involves twigs wrapped in embroidery silk, and then balanced in groups on mantelpieces and bookshelves. I am afraid I couldn’t quite see the point.
So I judged this to be an interesting read over my morning coffee, with inspiring artwork - but not a book I would give shelf space too. Out of 5, I would award it just *** [sorry, Willow]
Ah but Ang, we're all waiting for YOUR craft book to come out. We all have space on our shelves for that!
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