A lot of jewelry books make their way onto library shelves.  Simple Soldering: a Beginner’s Guide to Jewelry Making by Kate Ferrant Richbourg is one of the best laid out explanations of an essential jewelry skill. I love to work with my hands and have made simple bead jewelry for years. I plan to expand my skills and soldering is one of the first things on the list. With this objective in mind, I’m mining all the Library’s new metalworking books for ideas and inspiration.  

What I really appreciate about this book is Ms. Richbourg’s emphasis on organization and the setting up of the workspace—all of which is designed for a small space.  Once you get past the basic explanation of soldering and the set up of the workspace, tools and materials, the author has worked out a “sampler” project list with the intention that by the end of creating these skill building projects, the reader would have the ability to try some more creative projects with confidence.

This degree of organization is hard not to admire. The projects—from the toggles through to the rings—feature clean looking, well crafted designs. No more jumping in at the middle and muddling through a project with the often insane belief that it will turn out somehow. I speak from experience.

If spontaneous creation (muddling) still appeals to you, then I heartily recommend Steel Wire Jewelry: Stylish Design, Simple Techniques, Artful Inspiration by Brenda Schweder. Steel wire is inexpensive, easy to manipulate and a great way to loosen up and explore design ideas.

–by Candace

My Cool Shed: An Inspirational Guide to Stylish Hideaways and Workspaces by Jane Field-Lewis is as stated: a real inspiration. 

The author has collated artist and writer workspaces with quiet retreats and gardeners sheds. Who doesn’t yearn for somewhere peaceful to retreat to or to work in? I find it difficult to decide which shed I would most wish for. 

There is an Australian mini cabin on a sheep station in New South Wales and an American tree house by environmental advocate, Peter Bahouth. Both of these buildings are pretty spectacular architecturally. They call to that part of me that wants to spend time alone, far from the maddening crowds. But as with most of us, that appeal is more cerebral than real. 

I need to do things and so my heart is most captured by the gardening sheds (especially as it is getting to be that time of year). The gardening sheds range from the ramshackle (my actual style) to the perfectly organized (my wonderful neighbor). I found the artist’s sheds to be big for sheds, but great for studios.  The writer’s sheds seem a perfect size. Dylan Thomas’ sits on the edge of a cliff in the south of Wales, George Bernard Shaw’s and Virginia Woolf’s nestle at the end of their gardens.

Another intriguing concept explored in this inviting little book is shedworking, a new trend for people working for themselves. Nothing needs to be too big, just big enough for one’s self and your materials and tools. Sigh!

–by Candace

Two new titles explore the many ways to splash your home with joie de vivre.

Happy Home: Everyday Magic for a Colorful Life is the new book by designer Charlotte Hedeman Gueniau. She advocates filling your home with happy colours that make you smile. You see a front door painted cheery yellow and accented with pretty pink scatter mats. Hallways wear a coat of periwinkle blue and are crowned with light fixtures with patterned lampshades. Rooms are adorned with flowers and embroidered fabrics.

Smiles come from kitschy souvenirs and quirky accessories, as well as heirlooms with a family story. She views walls as playgrounds to display lively art and personal collections.

For Jonathan Adler, happy, happy, happy comes with unbridled self expression and small indulgences. In 100 Ways to Happy Chic Your Life, he reveals his favourite tricks for happy living in his trademark cheeky style.

Small indulgences include creating a tea moment, napping in unusual places and watching bad TV. Luxury is a stack of towels on a chair in the bathroom. “Same rules as an orgy: You need at least three as a minimum, then add on as many as you desire.”

Throw a sheepskin on a chair for casual squish and Laplander chic. Embrace the music of wind chimes and make your own valentines. Adler is not afraid to be irreverent or conventional. Although he will cheerfully embellish a staid portrait with mustache and goatee, he will also space out with cross stitch. Above all, his message is to keep an open mind about any domestic activity that brings you pleasure and makes you glad to be alive.

- Jane

The April issue of the World of Interiors offers a profile of renowned Nigerian artist El Anatsui. Working with the detritus of modern culture, such as bottle caps, labels and tin lids, he creates fabulous wall hangings and sculptures. Wall hangings shimmer and undulate; they dazzle the viewer.

El Anatsui is keen on collaborative process in making art. He works with a team of artists who link the tiny pieces that comprise a wall hanging with copper wire following his design. When he sends work out on exhibit, there are no detailed instructions for installation. Because of this, exhibitors also contribute to the piece with their decisions about how to show them.

I was fortunate to hear him lecture several years ago at the Glenbow Museum and then see a retrospective of his work at the Royal Ontario Museum. The ROM has one of his works on permanent installation and I have gone back to view it again and was thrilled anew.

It is humbling to see what great works of art can be created from materials that we toss aside. I am an amateur artist who has access to a wide selection of art materials with which I produce pedestrian work.

You can find out more about El Anatsui and other contemporary African artists in Environment and Object: recent African art. The book examines the way African artists tackle environmental topics from plastic waste to the ravages of the oil industry in the Niger delta. Incredible works of art with an awful lot to say.

- Jane

I love surprises. Like when a new book offers something more than you’d expect by looking at the cover.

Swedish Antiques displays polished silver and tabletops, stately chairs and crystal on the cover. But the charm of this book is the fresh and modern rooms where many of the splendid pieces live. The book offers advice for designing with antiques that could be applied to any beautiful old furnishings.

Laserow and Berg offer a primer on the major historical periods of Swedish antiques from the renaissance through Gustavian and Empire eras. The focus of the interior design is integrating beautiful historical pieces into contemporary settings. For example:

• Arne Jacobsen’s Myran chairs are paired with Erik Dahlberg engravings

  beneath the dramatic sweep of a modern black-and-white staircase: “1950s Denmark and eighteenth-century Sweden in elegant accord.”

• The gracefully curved frame and rich carving of a Rococo chair contrasts with the crisp lines of a practical modern cabinet.

• A patinated pine table and a Swedish swivel chair are combined with an old

  step ladder used for a bookshelf to create a fresh home office space.

Swedish style is inherently modern, characterized by painted floors and fresh white walls which enhance natural light sources. To learn more about it, try searching “interior decoration Sweden” in the catalogue to find other wonderful books on the topic.

- Jane

On Easter Sunday I talked to my daughter who lives in the west end of Toronto near High Park. She was enjoying a beautiful day in her garden where tulips were up about 4 inches and hydrangeas showing buds. She had just hung a blown-glass hummingbird feeder, purchased for (we agreed amazing) $5. And she was singing the praises of her shed.

Built last year and tucked into the farthest corner of the garden, it now contains all the tools and pots for gardening. Bonus is the space freed up in the basement of a tiny house.

It’s not too soon to start thinking about the benefits of a wee perfect outbuilding for your backyard and I stumbled upon a recent title that is sure to inspire. The Versatile Shed: how to build, renovate and customize your bonus space, by Chris Gleason, shows how to plan and build a shed from the ground up. He also demonstrates the adaptability of the concept to meet many needs.

• A simple shed built out of chip board with plywood siding and covered with a corrugated tin roof houses the equipment of an ardent mountain biker and skier.
• A small batten-board structure complete with French doors on one end and deck and trellis on the side has been turned into a writer’s retreat.
• A shed with wood-shake roof, stained glass windows and purple trim is used as a recording studio.
• A deluxe gardener’s shed features a greenhouse attachment and is lit by transom windows. The owner has added a sink to facilitate wine making.

So many possibilities, so many cool designs.

- Jane

A bevy of new fiber art books from embroidery to knitting will soon grace library shelves, including three new volumes on quilting. Two I find to be rather straightforward and packed with information for the machine quilter: In the Studio with Angela Walters: Machine-Quilting Design Concepts and Beginner’s Guide to Free Motion Quilting by Natalia Bonner.

It is the third quilting book that really caught my eye. 

All My Thanks and Love to Quilts by Keiko Goke is a joy to look through: bright and cheerful, with a great colour sense and a playful imagination.  Keiko decided early on to embrace an independent and individualistic approach to her creations.  Trained as a graphic designer, she found while searching for a job in Tokyo that it was not what she wanted to do.  A chance encounter with a pile of quilting magazines and simple quilted cushions set her on a much different path. 

She is self taught as a quilter and perhaps, as a result of this, freer in her approach to her craft.  Her life revolves around a simple lifestyle, filled with sensitive observations and an execution of craft that echoes the gifts she feels she has received through the practice of quilting.  

She shares a story of how she gathered indigo fabric scraps destined to be burned from Ayano Chiba’s trash box and used those scraps in quilts.  Here was the tie between the centuries old craft of indigo dyeing and a modern interpretation of quilting. The quilts where Keiko used Ayano Chiba’s scraps stand as a testament to the expertise of both women.  Keiko’s quilts are very painterly: a masterful link between craft and art.

 It could not get any better.

~Candace

I love to recommend new interior design books to friends who enjoy them. Three of my friends have very different styles and consequently get recommendations for different books. Every now and again, a new book comes in that has a lot to offer anyone interested in design, no matter what their style preference is. A Living Space by Kit Kemp is a new title that does just that.

Kemp has an unusual resume. She is an interior designer who, together with her husband, owns a chain of hotels in London and New York. Her design work for these hotels has received international acclaim. The book features rooms from these hotels as well as their homes.

Kemp has an outstanding flair for colour and pattern mix. She creates rooms that are lively and inviting for the large-scale hotel settings as well as domestic interiors. Her spaces feature customized furnishings, many commissioned art works and fabric from collections she has designed for two companies.

She shares her sources of inspiration which are often textiles and objects collected while traveling.

“My aim as a designer,” she says, “Is to make surroundings a joyful thing – to bring in elements of intrigue and curiosity that create a sense of adventure and fun.”

It is one of the freshest new interior design books I’ve seen.

- Jane

Since painting the entire interior of my house white over a weekend this summer (don't ask!), I have been searching for ideas to add visual interest to the empty wall space. As I have been thinking about using pattern somehow, maybe in the form of wallpaper or a stencil, I was thrilled to come across this new addition to the library’s collection: 2000 Pattern Combinations: A Step-By-Step Guide for Graphic, Textile and Craft Designers by Jane Callender.

It is a wonderful book of patterning fundamentals and samples, perfect for those who enjoy adding their own touch to design elements in any form. The pattern basics and combinations she has included can be used in practically any application from embroidery and ceramics to engraving and stenciling.

We have many other pattern sourcebooks throughout the library collection which can be found by searching for keywords like Repetitive Patterns or Pattern Books. If you want even more try the phrase Decoration and Ornament Themes, Motives. You will come across literally thousands of images from different cultures and historical periods. In particular, the series Dover pictorial archive and Dover electronic clip art (includes CD-ROM with images) cover an incredible array of copyright-free images, designs, and patterns ready for manipulation.

But that doesn’t begin to cover all the possibilities. We have many books on specific topics, such as wallpaper or Mehndi, which could also be great for pattern inspiration (see Wallpapers: An International History and Illustrated Survey or Henna Sourcebook for example).

Happy patterning!

–Chelsea

Today's blog comes from David Ramsay, Central Library staff:

OK, spring is coming, but it's not quite here yet. What better time for crafts? And, if what you make is useful, gives new life to old stuff and keeps it out of the landfill, that’s a bonus.

In Recycled Home, Rebecca Proctor helps us escape our weather whines and make us productive. She demonstrates how to make something useful out of material we probably already have or can pick up for a song.

There are so many things we hold onto, just in case. Do you have any fabric stored away, just waiting for a project, or maybe a seldom used piece of clothing or bedding? Are scraps of wood taking up valuable work space? The author shows a variety of ways to exploit these materials. This is a repurposing/upcycling book that shows how to change one old thing into something new and better without too much trouble or expense.

You can learn how to recover old oven mitts, build a wall cabinet, a bird house or a wheeled crate. There are instructions for sewing Roman blinds, making an egg cosy and adding colour to old china. Your home will start looking country fresh in no time at all.

It helps if you can sew. The wood projects are simpler. All told, there are both outdoor and indoor projects (for every room in the house) geared for every member of the family. The length of time needed to do the projects varies from 15 minutes to a weekend, with many of them clocking in at about 2 hours time.

By the time you’ve finished a few of these, spring will be here.

- Dave