BOOKWORKS: Making Books by Hand

Look for breadth rather than depth in this arts-and-crafts idea book. Though Swain confines herself in this primer to simple artists' books of a few leaves and soft paper covers, she still introduces a vast array of techniques (some in historical context): papermaking; marbling; several kinds of sewn and folded bindings; scrolls; printing with potatoes, pasta, and carved erasers; general illustration and layout; pop-up effects--as well as background history for some of these; even some advice about writing. Whew! Produced in collaboration with the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and illustrated with full-color photos of young people participating in workshops (with plenty of supplementary black-and-white line drawings), this is less a book of specific projects than a springboard for experimentation; the author frequently suggests alternate methods or materials, and leaves readers to find out for themselves that some arts are harder to master than others. Aside from some imprecise language (the ""wooden frames"" needed for paper molds are actually picture frames, and the caution that ""skinnier pieces [of pasta] next to thinner ones won't print"" is a head-scratcher), her instructions are clear enough. Appropriate safety notes are offered, and materials needed are fairly common in art supply stores.