Domestic handicraft was an extraordinarily popular leisure activity in Victorian Britain, especially amongst middle-class women. Craftswomen pasted shells onto boxes, stitched fish scales onto silk, scorched patterns into wood, cast flower petals out of wax, and made needlework portraits of the royal spaniels. Yet despite its ubiquity, little has been written about this curious hobby. Providing a much-needed history of this under-studied phenomenon, Talia Schaffer demonstrates the importance of domestic handicraft in Victorian literature and culture.Novel Craft presents what Schaffer terms the "craft paradigm" -- a set of beliefs about representation, production, consumption, value, and beauty that were crucial to mid-Victorian thought. She uncovers how handicrafts expressed anxieties about modernity and offered an alternative to the conventional financial, political, and aesthetic ideas of the era. Novel Craft reveals how this mindset evolves in four major Victorian novels: Gaskell's Cranford, Yonge's The Daisy Chain, Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, and Oliphant's Phoebe Junior. Each chapter centers on a scene of craft production that expresses the novel's ideals and also interrogates the novel itself as a form of craft, and each chapter highlights an influential craft genre: paper crafts, pressed flowers, knitting, and hair jewelry. The book closes with a coda on the current resurgent crafts movement of Etsy.com as a fresh version of a Victorian sensibility.Featuring illustrations from two centuries of domestic handicraft, Schaffer deftly combines cultural history and literary analyses to create a revealing portrait of a neglected part of nineteenth-century life and highlights its continuing relevance in today's world of Martha Stewart, women's magazine crafts, and a rapidly expanding alt craft culture.

Craft practice has a rich history and remains vibrant, sustaining communities while negotiating cultures within local or international contexts. More than two centuries of industrialization have not extinguished handmade goods; rather, the broader force of industrialization has redefined and continues to define the context of creation, deployment and use of craft objects. With object study at the core, this book brings together a collection of essays that address the past and present of craft production, its use and meaning within a range of community settings from the Huron Wendat of colonial Quebec to the Girls? Friendly Society of twentieth-century England. The making of handcrafted objects has and continues to flourish despite the powerful juggernaut of global industrialization, whether inspired by a calculated refutation of industrial sameness, an essential means to sustain a cultural community under threat, or a rejection of the imposed definitions by a dominant culture. The broader effects of urbanizing, imperial and globalizing projects shape the multiple contexts of interaction and resistance that can define craft ventures through place and time. By attending to the political histories of craft objects and their makers, over the last few centuries, these essays reveal the creative persistence of various hand mediums and the material debates they represented.

REA's Hobbies & Crafts series will instruct and inspire hobbyists from the novice to the expert. These unique "how-to books" provide comprehensive treatment of materials, tools, and techniques. They are the ideal reference for creating beautiful and lasting projects. Each book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses the history of the craft and the essential tools for creating and building the projects. The second section consists of dozens of beginner and advanced projects with fully illustrated designs and plans. The hobbyist will acquire a working knowledge of materials, a higher level of control over work and tools, and an understanding of basic design principles. Leathercraft & Weaving provides an introduction to these ancient arts carried forward into modern times. Plans and designs for over 200 projects are also included.

Do you dream of spending the day working on your favorite craft? Would you like to make money in the process? If you’re ready to take your crafting to the next level, your favorite hobby can become a fun, lucrative, homebased business. Hundreds of thousands of working artisans earn their entire income from the crafts they produce—selling on eBay, at their own online stores, in retail stores, at carts and kiosks, or at craft shows and street fairs. With this expert advice, you can become one of them. This comprehensive guide is packed with useful information from crafts professionals and dozens of resources, such as helpful organizations, publications, software and websites. It covers all aspects of a crafts business: • Exploring the market and choosing a profitable niche • Setting up a workshop that’s conducive to business success • Making your products available in retail stores, carts and kiosks, craft shows and other local markets • Selling your products on eBay, Half.com, Overstock.com, Amazon.com and other global online marketplaces • Advertising and promotion to get the word out about your crafts • Record keeping, taxes, accounting and other business essentials

Whether you're looking for something to do on a rainy day or making a personalized gift for a friend, crafts are a great way to pass the time. They also provide an opportunity to learn how to draw meaning from technical texts. The activities in this book push readers to read for comprehension, use information gained from the text and illustrations to follow step-by-step directions, determine relationships among steps in a technical process, and build the skills they need to make the perfect crafts for the winter season.

Supplies -- Jewelry & fashion projects -- Projects for the home -- Metric conversion chart.

Thanksgiving has arrived and everyone is ready to celebrate! Help make your Thanksgiving Day fun with these ten unique crafts. Use these easy-to-follow directions and traceable patterns to make your very own rocking miniature MAYFLOWER, a beaded corn pin or magnet, pumpkin napkin rings, and more!

For nearly 20 years, home crafters have turned to the pages of Martha Stewart Living for all kinds of crafts projects, each presented in the magazine’s inimitable style. Now, the best of those projects, including step-by-step instructions and full-color photographs, have been collected into a single encyclopedia. Organized by topic from A to Z, Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts contains complete instructions and brief histories for more than 30 techniques, detailed descriptions of the necessary tools and materials, and easy-to-copy templates. Martha and her team of crafts editors guide readers through each subject, from botanical pressing and decoupage to rubber stamping and wreaths, with characteristic clarity and unparalleled attention to detail. Crafters of all skill and experience levels will appreciate the many variations presented for each technique. For example, candlemaking presents a comprehensive array of poured, rolled, and cutout candles, including instructions for making your own one-of-a-kind rubber candle molds, floating candles, sand candles, and more. Each craft in the book takes on charming new dimensions with innovations that could come only from the team behind Martha Stewart Living. In addition, each entry in Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts is chock-full of tips and advice. Handy glossaries in the entries–such as a comprehensive gem glossary, a glitter glossary, and a color glossary for making tinted wax–are valuable references that crafters will refer to again and again. What’s more, the Tools and Materials section outlines the best essential supplies that every crafter needs to have on hand, and the Sources pages clue readers in to the vendors and suppliers that the magazine’s crafts editors rely on most. Filled with solid technical know-how, and presented with gorgeous color photographs, this handy guide can be read page by page and kept as a lasting reference by crafters and artisans alike.

Have you taught a class and feared participants would forget everything once they left the room? “Crafts with a Christian Message” teaches five easy crafts that will help participants memorize 1Corinthians 13, share the wordless book with an unbeliever, teach the unity of Romans 12, and provide a basket of scriptural encouragement. Each craft requires only basic skills, and can be made in about an hour. In addition the author includes inspirational stories of how God gave her these ideas, and how He used these crafts for His glory. Detailed instructions both pictorial and written are provided on how to make each craft and how to teach each craft. This book is not only meant to give you ideas for enhancing your study group, but it is meant to inspire you to listen to the ideas the Lord is giving you and encourage you to act on them.