Jo Packham

A godawful careless mess of a book. It can't seem to make up its mind whether the authors are mocking or celebrating kitsch, or simply reprinting tedious pages of technical instructions about crotcheting. I think I could have used their source material to create a better book with one hand tied behind my back and a fever of 101.

I am about to design a craft studio, so I wanted to see what other people had done. I was glad to see in this book that studio spaces could be organized. I was also reminded that you can never have enough bins and labels. Unfortunately this book covers several different crafting spaces. The one on needlework includes knitting and crochet and does not feature a specific artist. So the suggestions for needlework are fairly generic and sometimes even just flat out wrong. The section on design show more (color and decorations) was both simplistic and endless. I cannot truly recommend this book and yet if you need a motivation to get your crafts in order, it does have some tips and pictures that might inspire you. show less

There is a subtitle to this book that is " In The Studio and Behind The Scenes With Extraordinary Women". The list of the creative women included in this book is impressive: Vickie Howell, Pam Garrison, Alisa Burke, Danita, Theresa McFayden, Joanna Figueroa, Angela Cartwright - as well as Jo Packham and jenny Doh - to name a partial list of the included amazing talent in the book!

Sometimes I tend to stay away from books and magazines that feature beautiful work spaces because I get jealous - show more I can't stand up in my own sewing area. Then I realize I am being childish and decide to have a look at the awesome places that people put together that allows them to create their art that makes us all so happy to look at!

What I especially like about this book is the way it is set up. There are sections devoted to each artist; and the first two pages, aside from the utterly glorious photographs, described something about the artist and their view of their art-full lives. The following pages are filled with tid-bits like organizational tips,, how they stay inspired, what their choice of palette colors tend to be, where these creative personalities find inspiration, memories from their early childhood (or later) that recollect their first feelings about the joy to found in creating art. All of this information happily ensconced among glorious photography (think of how Stampington magazine photography look).



When I first looked at this book I was not certain how I would feel about it - but it only took a few minutes to fall in love with it . There is so much to be learned from the artists that we admire. They "made it" because of the way they think and the way they work - so there is much to be gleaned by reading their personal stories and having a look into their private creative spaces.

This is another winning Lark Books publication that I think belongs in the library of any creative person who wants some inspiration, some new ideas - or to learn something from from other amazingly talented, creative artists. I had to give this 5 stars - which I seldom do - because it really is a lusciously illustrated, very well done book! show less

This book was recommended to me by the most friendly librarian after I asked about a good book to teach me how to up my friendship bracelet game. This book has lots of pictures and the diagrams are easy to follow. The common problem with craft books, which was also an aspect of this book, was the lack of common supplies. So my bracelet options are limited but still cute.