Product Description

Crafters and stitchers--especially parents, teachers, and child-care providers--will love this unusual, easy, and inexpensive craft. Projects include simple bracelets, hand puppets, stuffed hand puppets, and decorative art pieces for home and gift use. 200 color illustrations.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173929 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-01
• Released on: 1997-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Amazon.com Review
The essential materials of feltmaking are basic--wool, hot soapy water, a pair of scissors, and your hands--yet the results are anything but simple. This attractive book explains how to get started in the craft, then thoroughly explores making ropes, beads, and flat pieces of felt (the three basic feltmaking techniques). From there, the felt you create can become sculpted figures, flowers, butterflies, masks, vessels, puppets, buttons and other clothing embellishments, various wearables, and even a miniature scene with manipulatable figures. All of the techniques and projects are carefully explained in step-by-step detail and supported by clear color photos. Most of the items have a lovely folk-art quality, with vivid colors and handmade charm.

About the Author
An experienced teacher, author, and designer, Anne Einset Vickrey conducts workshops and writes articles about the craft of feltmaking. She has also hosted two videos on the subject and created a line of feltmaking kits. Anne’s work has been featured on The Carrol Duvall Show (Home & Garden TV) and on the Lifetime Network. In addition to The Art of Feltmaking, she is the author of Felting By Hand, a step-by-step guide to Scandinavian feltmaking techniques. She lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York State.

Customer Reviews

Want to know what's inside?? Here's a few more details...
Since my earlier review, we have used this book extensively - kids and mom included. All our children turned out some beautiful artwork, and had a great time in the process.

The layout of the book is well done, and the different methods are covered in a logical order. The pictures are so clear they both illustrate and motivate. It is a pleasure to turn the pages and gaze at the photographs and page designs.

Contents include: getting started-materials and tools,making felt ropes,making beads of many shapes and sizes,rope and bead figures, flat pieces of felt, felt balls, small felt projects such as buttons, flowers and butterflies, masks, felt vessels, seamless wearables, finger and hand puppets, making a felt scene with posable figures, patterns, a source directory (US only unfortunately) and an index. Once you master the basic techniques, it is up to your creativity to reign!

The directions are clear and step by step, making it very "do-able" as a family craft activity. I get the feeling the author must be used to teaching this craft to families and children, as she really spells out each step.

All in all, this was a purchase we are still really happy about - it is a very family-friendly book. It would be great to see further publications by this author showing more advanced techniques, and showcasing her designs.

I'm hooked!
This is a beautifully illustrated, inspiring book. The basics are covered in wonderful detail, as well as more advanced projects,and they are things you really want to make! We found the instructions very clear, and many clever hints are given to make felting straightforward, and lots of fun. Having been a bit scared to try my hand at this craft, in the midst of experienced felters, this book helped me to jump in, and then get hooked! Fantastic!

Better if you're curious about felt than if you are looking for something specific...
This is a good book, wonderfully illustrated, with clear directions. It is definitely a good resource for the beginner. However, I was looking to do something specific (make dolls), so only a small portion of the book was pertinent to my task. I should have realized that from the title - it does say that there are lots of different projects to make. The other thing is that this book only covers a single method of felting - called 'wet felting'. There is also a method called 'needle felting', which is not covered in this book at all. I find needle felting easier, less messy, and more 'airy' looking... all of which I liked better for the project I was doing. That said, wet felting is definitely the way to go with kids. It takes a lot of elbow-grease, but is rewarding and fun. This book would be good for someone experimenting with different wet felting projects and those doing projects with kids.