Tuesday 26 October 2021

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.










10 comments:

  1. Have you ever been to A La Ronde? (Now a National Trust property near Exmouth - lots of photos on the net.) Apart from being the quaintest building I've ever been in, it has beautiful examples of how women with lots of leisure time had to fill it. I partifularly remember the hair pictures and the shell gallery.
    A warning - macrame is great fun, but involves working with very, very long pieces of string. My best piece was made by hanging it to an upstairs stair post and working on it from a step-ladder down in the hall!

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    1. Sadly ALaRonde was on my "visit during summer 2020, before we move to Norfolk “ list... Maybe one day. Some of those old crafts were amazing.

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  2. I love crafting of all sorts, but am not the most patient of folk.
    Therefore when Husband, on our ninth Wedding Anniversary, presented me with a kit to make a Macramé Owl, I was a tad surprised.
    After getting my knots wrong for the umpteenth time, he was told that if he ever bought me anything Macramé related again, I would strangle him with the string and bury him under the patio!
    I was joking of course, he's a good'un, and I love him to bits!
    I've never received anything remotely resembling Macramé in the twenty seven years since though!
    The owl was eventually finished, and lived on the porch wall for many years, before he was well washed and sent to a charity shop! X

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    1. Great story. I'm glad you've repurposed it to a Charity Shop!

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  3. Such wonderful paper work. I fell in love with the mushroom!

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    1. I like the mermaid among the waves, and the colourful yachts best

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  4. The. dog is so cute. I am impressed with all this amazing artwork but I wouldn't want to display any of it if I did make it. Using our wood furnace means that we do tend to get more dust in winter.

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    1. You're right, these items would be real dust magnets. I guess that's why the Victorian with all their coal fires were so fond of glass cabinets, and glass domes for display ornaments.

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  5. I like seeing all the wonderful things people have created with book folding. I have only tried it once, making a Christmas tree, which was a fairly uncomplicated fold. I learned to do macrame back in the 1970s; haven't done any recently, though.

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    1. The first book folding I ever saw was some years ago, turning a Readers Digest magazine into a Christmas Tree. I tried it but was very bored after about page 37!!

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