Craft Focus - Page number 81 - October/November 2021 (Issue 87)

81 BOOKS AT HOME WITH FRAGRANCE Creating Modern Scents for Your Space By Kristen Pumphrey and Tom Neuberger £17.99 9781419746277 Abrams Equal parts design and DIY, this book will teach you the fragrances that work best for each room, how to interpret your distinct design style into fragrance, and (the best part!) how to make candles, room sprays, and incense with your own custom scents. The design and fragrances featured in this book are inspired by the authors’ home state of California: organic and natural elements, as well as scents drawn from nature are the hallmarks of P.F.’s design ethos. Scent is the perfect way to express your design sense – and the art of making your own fragrances and candles offers an affordable DIY approach. Filled with tips and recipes for room sprays, incense, candles and more, the book unlocks the secrets of P.F.’s hallmark style – creating atmosphere with candles and scent – and helps readers make it their own. We say: Gone are the days of overpowering, artificial scents: the focus on natural, complementary fragrances are here to stay. Fragrance RSN ESSENTIAL STITCH GUIDES: BEAD EMBROIDERY Large format edition By Shelley Cox £12.99 9781782219309 Search Press Shelley Cox presents an expert guide to all aspects of bead embroidery, including information on counted thread beadwork, bead embroidery, beaded surface embroidery, and fringing. Here you will find stitches and technique for every sort of needlework that involves beads. Decorative effects are explored too, making this a fantastic source book and an invaluable reference for beadwork. It not only upholds the traditions of English embroidery that go back many hundreds of years, but is constantly taking embroidery forward in new and innovative ways. This series of Essential Stitch Guides has been produced in close collaboration with the RSN with the aim of providing a set of definitive works on traditional embroidery techniques. All of the authors were chosen by the RSN and all are graduate apprentices of the Royal School. We say: The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) teaches hand embroidery to the highest standard and is well respected all over the world, so this book is well worth a read! Bead embroidery SKETCHING FOR THE ABSOLUTE BEGINNER By Peter Cronin £12.99 9781782218746 Search Press Sketching is more than just drawing quickly. It’s training your eye and hand to work together, to respond immediately and naturally to the scene before you. Starting from a clear, simple method to bring all the senses into play, successful author and acclaimed artist Peter Cronin shows the reader how to bring artistry and economy to their sketching; making for swift and impressive results. Whether sketching as the basis for painting, or simply for pleasure, this book teaches the reader all they need to know. Numerous simple step-by-step exercises as well as larger projects lead the complete beginner through the book, building towards more complex and rewarding artworks. The book teaches how to sketch with a range of media, starting from graphite pencil and including information and exercises on charcoal, pen and ink and others. We say: In the best-selling Absolute Beginner series, this book is suitable for absolutely everybody who wants to take their sketching skills further and become an accomplished artist. Sketching THE ECO-CHRISTMAS CRAFT BOOK By Marrianne Miall £12.99 9781782219729 Search Press The Eco-Christmas Craft Book is filled with lots of ideas to create your own stylishly beautiful, eco-friendly Christmas. All you need to do is save up some recyclable or foraged items such as cardboard, newspaper, wine bottle corks, twigs and pine cones. You can choose your own colour scheme to match your home and, because the materials are recyclable, you could make new ones every year! Including all the things that make Christmas special, such as tree decorations, advent items, Christmas cards, table decorations, wreaths and many more, there are 30 fabulous projects to make, and ideas for many more. So start collecting and learn how to make gorgeous, professional-looking decorations cheaply, without harming the planet. We say: If you love Christmas, you’ll love this book! It’s the perfect antidote to the traditional tinsels and glitters that shed harmful microplastics, polluting our oceans and waterways. Crafting