Book Review
If there ever was a book that would inspire the whole family to
get back to nature and be creative, this is it! For a small
book, it is packed with information on a wide variety of printing
techniques and different materials with which you can create fun,
useful and decorative projects. When first leafing through
the book, one may find some of the projects a bit daunting. Have
no fear, the author breaks you in slowly starting with the basics
of collecting and preserving the natural materials to be used, and
follows up with a Printing Supplies & Equipment chapter to educate
the reader about the materials required to make the projects listed.
Once you have reviewed the first two chapters, you are ready to
get started. In the chapter on Basic Nature Printing Methods
you begin by learning how to make a print (i.e. Leaf Stamping) before
attempting to include the technique in a project. If you
are interested in the more complex printing projects, there are
ideas such as using watercolors to make vegetable prints for your
kitchen, creating nature prints that resemble artwork and instructions
on designing, mounting and displaying your prints.
In the final chapter, there is a section I think is really important
called Printing Projects for Children because it contains techniques
and a few projects that will open children's eyes to the wonders
of nature. I was especially interested in a project called
a three-dimensional free-standing frieze (p. 87) that the author
created with her children. I would have liked to see full
instructions for it because it is really creative but there was
only a brief description of how it was made.
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