There ~are~ reasons to commend this book, like the bountiful illustrations, the charts showing the evolution of Chinese characters, etc. What I fault is that at many points the author departs from accuracy and injects over-Europeanized interpretations of Chinese mythology and symbols (for instance, characterizing Tibetan Lamas as "devil-worshippers" and calling the Chinese place of the dead and its god, "Hades" - repeatedly). To be truthful, some of the illustrations are so poorly drawn that you cannot really make out what they are. The text is easy to read and the topics covered numerous. I would use this book with caution, however, checking Williams' interpretations against other, more recent sources. For the record, I am giving this book a two because the only other reviewer to write about it gave it a five and that is far too high for it. I think this should yield an average of three, which is about right for this book.

This book is an A-Z listing of hundreds of Chinese names and symbols, with a brief explanation of the items relevance and importance in Chinese culture and history. Want to know the symbolism behind a bat, or a peach, or a mandarin duck, or other more abstract concepts, this book is for you. A very valuable reference tool for those interested in things Chinese.

i bought this book and barbara brabec's book. They both have the same kind of information, but spend the extra $ for her book as she dedicates a few hundred more pages to these subjects.

This book covers the A-Z of starting and running a craft business. It does not cover how to make crafts but it does give a long list of the types of crafts people can market. This book has helpful suggestions for beginners who want to start a craft business, as-well-as, seasoned professionals who want to expand or improve their craft business. The information in the chapters on production, getting loans, and market research are extremely helpful. Also included are helpful tips on how to pick the best craft shows. The author, William Hynes, shows his extensive knowledge of the craft business and shares his knowledge in an easy to read, straight-forward manner.

I was disappointed with this book. Most of the designs are variations on one style of wire-wrapped cabuchon, and I thought they were rather gawdy and dated. The designs were probably innovative and stylish in 1995, but they aren't anything like current trends in wirework.

Specialized designs, mostly with twisted gold wire. Designs range from wire-wrapped cabochons to airy pearl drop earrings and chain-link bracelets. Easy to follow, step-by-step instructions with photos or illustrations allow anyone with minimal experience to follow thru and create a beautiful piece of jewelry. Twelve designs are included in this book, some with variations on a theme. Basic techniques and tool information start off the book. Wire gauges and wire-wrap sources are also included.

This book is not for a complete beginner but rather for someone who has worked with wire before. Wire wrapping cabs has been one of the things that I struggled with until I got this book and then all of a sudden I got "IT". This book has some wonderful projects using some common sized stones available through many mail-order sources. The back of the book has a section on planning your own projects. I find that I can't read this book before bed because it makes me want to get up and get to work on one project or another.

This book was not very helpful to me. It had some good ideas for decorating, but what I was wanting was a book to give me ideas for different brides maids and bridal bouquets. It did not give any ideas as far as different flowers for different arrangements. It is a good book if all you are looking for is a book to give you decorating ideas. Not different flower ideas.

This book offers the bride history behind customs along with fabulous photographs. I always let my brides peruse this book looking for new ideas. One bride absolutely adored the boa of astilbe and roses. It was perfect for her.

Ms. McBride's style goes unsurpassed both in her presentation and the way her creative ideas together with an excellent photographer unfold. Move over Martha is what I have to say about this little gem. She is right on and I reccommend this book for anyone planning a wedding. Dont miss it. Nancy Cohn wedding photographer

While I found this book informative, considering that this edition purports to be the "revised 3rd printing" and its author is apparently the founder of a magazine, it's an absolute publishing travesty. There are several misspelled words, pages 3 and 4 are duplicated in part, and silly errors such as "by 1989, Aurora stopped producing new figure kits" abound(Aurora folded in the 1970s). Spacing problems, captions that don't correctly identify illustrations -- the whole gamut of what constitutes poor proofreading and slipshod publishing can be found here. Hire a good editor -- or even a marginal one! A pity that what could be a very good book is made almost unreadable by errors. Color pictures, such as one finds in some other books of this type, would be nice too -- this volume is entirely in black and white. Overall, a real disappointment.

This book is not only very informative, but was enjoyable to read and easy to read. The pictures of both what boxes the model came in what the completed model looked like was great. Pick this book up if you are a model collector, BUY IT!

This is yet another book in a long list of bookwork books and it is basically without merit.The projects are below juvenile level and many of the so-called simple processes [like using PVA glue with a small brush over a large area] are risky for the un initiated. The vertical instruction format is hard to follow. Bookbinding is a REAL craft and this book does it no service. The dumb photographs are staged and dopey. Why cannot anyone take a photo of a craft process without putitng in a bunch of logs or ribbons or leeks?? It is a marvelously weird book.

Mary Maguire strikes another homerun with her latest book, _Bookworks_. While the photographs are gorgeous and the instructions are -- as usual -- easy to follow, it is the projects themselves which make this book outstanding. Maguire takes the reader from simple to complex bookmaking, using materials as easy to find as paper, cloth, and string. From fabric notepads to wedding albums, suede writing journals to portfolios, Maguire shows step-by-step how to create elegant yet simple gifts or everyday items and throws in some interesting tips as well, such as using foamcore to create sturdy covers.

Other cool projects include a binder which holds treasures such as rocks and seashells, a book shaped like a cloud, a book which uses the shiny side of the CD as its focal point (hey! something to do with all the internet cds we get in the mail), and books for the baby to chew on.

I love this book, and I've already made a book based on Maguire's instructions. I've read a lot of bookbinding books, but I've always found the projects either too weird or too difficult. This book is perfect for someone looking to make really lovely and really simple books that don't require arcane equipment or supplies.

The original article by Ellis in the National Geographic was excellent and accurate as well. It seems most unfortunate that the detailed checking of facts that was used there was not applied to this book. Just two examples of many that could have been chosen: Ellis has Nefertiti looking into a glass mirror more than 2000 years before glass mirrors began to replace mirrors made of polished metal (page 9); in discussing fiber optical communication (page 96), he states that amplifiers are needed "to give lift to the light and prevent it from reverting back to electricity..." - of course the light merely weakens from absorption, leakage, and scattering, but always remains light. The color picture of the hanging Cage Cup is printed upside-down. And there are several places where he discusses so-called important break-throughs in fields where the discoverers have then gone on to do other things for various stated reasons. The real reasons were, of course, that these were not break-throughs but either dead ends or only self-advertised claims that did not really work. It is most unfortunate that experts in the field of each of the many and important topics covered were not asked to proof-read it, for then it would have been an excellent and accurate account.

An excellent book about glass and glass making. The reference to tektites--natural, extraterrestrial glass stones--is all too brief however (and inaccurate in scope). Author William S. Ellis fails to tell the whole story of the on-going--and most certainly unresolved--mystery of tektite origin! Oddly, both sides of the constroversy consider the problem solved. Reading "Glass," one would assume the "impact" side has won the debate. Not true at all! Ellis fails to mention one of the most credible theories of tektite origin: That is, that tektites appear to some geologists and astronomers (and some ceramic scientists)to be extraterrestrial volcanic glass, probably ejected during ancient silicic eruptions on the Moon. Also, the author fails to mention that tektite glass is far too "fined" to have been made in the near-instantaneous force of terrestrial meteorite impacts, as the mainstream "impact" scientists contend. The chemical trends in tektites are clearly igneous, not sedimentary as noted here and stated by the impact people.

I bought this book solely to build the adirondack chair which I recently finished. Lots of Cut List info makes buying the lumber easy. However, once into a project the pictures/illustrations and descriptions of precise placement of key parts leaves much to be desired. I have built several other chairs from different plans and based on this experience, I sadly cannot recommend this book.

Within an hour of receiving this book, I was on my way to the shop! Hylton has combined a great collection of projects that cover a nice variety of outdoor sytles, with hints that make the construction and finishing process easier. If I could make this book perfect, I would have included a few more details, drawings and measurements, but with some practical math application, you get exactly what you need. The best part is that you don't need a dedicated shop to produce fine results. Ah, those of us with the handheld powertools can rejoice.

This pricy but slim volume (126 actual pages of text and photos), is written like a freshman essay. There are facts, but little that illuminates or gives insight into this unusual personality who founded the silver industry in Taxco. It is neither insightful or clever and a biography must have one of these characteristics. Much research seems to have been done, but with little result.

Don Guillermo, as he was known in Taxco, was an American architect who came upon an impoverished if beautiful Mexican village in the mountains of the state of Guerrero. Stimulated by financial desperation and a challenge from a friend, he hired a silversmith from nearby Iguala and kicked off the renaissance of Mexican silverwork- initially from a table in his house, and ultimately a large workshop turning out exemplary tin, copper, weaving, furniture and, of course, silver. Almost all the smiths who carried out the Taxco tradition were trained in the Spratling workshop.

This eminently readable book tells the tale, though it is certainly not one of those comprehensive 600-page biographies, nor does it become overly speculative about a man who was respected and loved for his creativity and for giving impulse to a craft that made the community relatively wealthy, but also made some mistakes and enemies. (Yep, he was special, and very human!) That is, in my opinion, part of its charm.

This book is a bit topical, yet it manages to convey the excitement of the resurrection of a Mexican village that became an entrepot of artists, writers and would-be revolutionaries, and- for good and for bad- a huge tourist destination. It gives more than a glimmer of the many facets of Don Guillermo / Bill Spratling, a man who intended to find respite and refuge, resuscitated a community and gave many livelihood, and largely withdrew from that same community in his last years.

This is written from a perspective of someone who was privileged to know Taxco, since as a youngster I hung around the talleres- especially of Hector Aguilar and the Castillo family- developing a love of Mexican silver and some rudimentary smithing skills of my own.

William Blake's prophetic poems, "America" and "Europe" were both written almost twenty years after the American Revolution began, and about five years or so after the start of the French Revolution in the late 1700's. Both poems exhibit Blake's intense engagement with the socio-political atmosphere of his time. Both address contemporary figures: King George III of England, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and so on. Over this layer of response to history, Blake mythologizes the spirits of the age with his own pantheon of fantastic, complicated personalities, like Orc, the fiery spirit of revolution, and his primary opponent, Urizen, the spirit of rationality, order, and law.

"America" deals with the American Revolution in retrospect, and meanwhile Blake is thinking about recent developments in France in the early 1790's. Blake questions the persistence of African slavery, both in America and in the British slave trade (note the reference to Bristol towards the end). He also looks critically at the pervasive and often perverted influence in the British Empire of law, both religious and political. "Europe" looks at the after effects of the American Revolution, and how the spirit of rebellion, spreading already in "America" to Ireland and Scotland, advances through Europe, especially to France. "Europe" tries to explain the history of conflict in the world since the time of Christ. "Europe" is much more abstracted from human history than "America," depending more on the conflicts between Blake's mythical personages.

This edition of "America" and "Europe" published by Dover is of a decent quality. The prints of Blake's illustrations are in full color, and page-sized to allow for close perusal of his intricate designs. The copies of the poems seem to have been chosen for the least background color contrast, making Blake's script readable. However, there are more brilliantly colored versions of both than we get in this edition. The poems themselves are included in plain text following the illustrated versions. Each poem is prefixed by a moderately helpful explanation, though too simplistic in both cases - many of the plate descriptions do not even mention all the figures or objects in each plate, which can detract from the fullest enjoyment of the Blake novice. On the whole, the poetry will always be phenomenal - however, in this Dover edition, the presentation leaves something to be desired.