Book Review
Snowmen: Creatures, Crafts, and Other Winter Projects is a great
resource for families who like to engage in indoor and outdoor activities
in the winter months. The introduction this book to contains information
how to get started, how to get inspired and materials you can use
to embellish and decorate your snow creations. I like their suggestions
about starting small and keeping a photo of your creations so they’ll
live on after they have melted. Following the introduction there
is a chapter on working with snow giving brief but specific descriptions
of what snow is best to use when packing, molding and sculpting,
massing (gathering), packing, carving, molding, rolling, stacking
and framing snow and snow sculptures which is great for beginner
sculptors. I like the approach the authors use because they offer
up their expertise with the techniques mentioned above as suggestions
while still giving credit to your own sculpting methods. I also
really like the inclusion of a list of possible tools to be used
and decorating ideas for your snow sculptures including a list of
natural, found and store bought items you can use.
At the beginning of each chapter (No People Like Snow People, Creatures
of the Snow, Snowscapes and No-Snow Snowmen) there is an index of
all the projects in that chapter. I like this feature because it
gives you the option to look first at the specific projects in which
you are interested or look through the chapter to get a visual likeness
of all the projects from the photos. The full color photos give
the reader a clear idea of the possibilities of the final product.
I like that in the photos you can clearly see all the embellishments
used on the snow creations. Although the instructions for the projects
in this book aren’t in the numbered step-by-step format (except
in the case of the Celebrity Snowmen project which outlines the
basic sculpting steps in photos) they are clearly explained. The
instructions are accompanied by a detailed list of supplies and
tools need to make your creation. Additional parts accompany the
instructions for certain projects such as the Note explaining how
to make Frosty’s broom for the Seven-Foot Frosty snow sculpture.
There is also the diagram complete with measurements to make Rudolph’s
frame for the Rooftop Nick and his Red-Nosed Sidekick.
My favorite part of Snowmen: Creatures, Crafts, and Other Winter
Projects is the chapter on No-Snow Snowmen because it goes beyond
the concept of building the traditional snowman with unique ideas
for snow creations, winter related crafts and recipes. This chapter
contains instructions for making snowman prints, keepsake cards,
frosty’s stocking, macaroon men, marshmallow men, ice cream
man and a meringue man. These are great projects for the days you
can’t get outside but still want to do something winter related.
|
