by Rachel Strauss

This is a short and basic book about the art of woodburning. It starts with information on safety, which is good, then goes over tools, techniques, ways to add colour and finishes. It mentions different material a pyrography tool can be used on besides wood, including canvas which was a surprise!

The book does provide patterns to follow, but there is a section on project ideas and it does tell how to transfer patterns. Anyone can Google graphic designs and line drawings that can work well.

It does go into how to add texture, but I didn't see a lot on using different line sizes to add shading and other expert techniques. I'd say this is one for the beginner.

by Sarah Thompson

The cover picture of this book is enough to see that it's for the more intricate and polished end of wire jewellery making. This is not one for beginners!

Having said that, the basics are still covered. Tools, Materials and Techniques are the first chapters, followed by Weaving and Sculpting before it gets into Symmetry and Transformation.

There are a lot of full color pictures of some very impressive jewellery pieces. The chapter on tools is straightforward enough and would be useful at any level of experience. It goes into more detail than I've seen in other books on wire weaving. Materials is slanted towards working in silver, though other craft wires are mentioned.

The chapter on techniques seems short, yet it's mind boggling. How can something look easy and complicated at the same time? As I said, this one isn't for the beginners. Weaving and sculpting are similarly simple yet complicated. Then instructions for the pictures pieces give the reader a chance to apply the information and find out just how easy/complicated putting it all into practice can be!

I'll be honest, this book scares me. It also intrigues me! I want to be able to make the sort of amazing jewellery that is shown but I know it's not as easy as it looks. I think practice is in order, but I'm not ready to invest in silver to the extent that making the really cool pieces would require.

The pieces are gorgeous though and the instructions are clear and detailed, so maybe someday.

by Carson Eddy, Rachael Evans, and Kate Feld

This is a craft book that focuses on teaching how to string beads on wire and to work with tools and wire. Unlike most books about this kind of activity, the book focuses almost totally on the technicalities instead of giving a lot of design patterns.

The first chapter is all about types and sizes of wire, followed by a chapter about working with chains. Then we learn all about findings, followed by tools. During all of this we learn the relevance of types of metal used and what gauges are good for what purposes. The book goes through basics and far more detail of different types of wire than I ever imagined, so it's very informative. There is also a conversion chart for working in imperial or metric measurements.

The chapter on techniques is very thorough and has detailed illustrations to show how basic wraps are done. The book finishes with a glossary and some information about different qualities of precious metals that are used for wire.

Though the book is very basic, it would be very useful for the person new to working with wire wrapping or bead stringing.

by Michael Dobrzycki, , Bob Berry, Cynthia Knox, Meredith Dillman

A look at the beautifully shaded drawings on the cover is enough to tell me this is above my drawing level, but I thought I would give it a try anyway and see if my perspective might improve.

Like many drawing books, it goes over tools and materials first. I noted the inclusion of tortillions, used for smudge shading. This is followed by a section on shading techniques, so a lot of possibility there for improving my skills. Then we get to the construction of creatures using basic shapes. They make it look so easy!

The creating textures section goes into more detail than I've seen in a lot of books. I can see this becoming the key, along with the shading, to making the drawings have that detailed finished look. The details on claws, horns and especially wing positions was extremely well done.

The creatures shown in the instructions include the western dragon, eastern dragon, wyvern (perhaps a good starting project as it has fewer fiddly bits), wyrm, water dragon, hydra, sui riu (Japanese rain dragon), centaur, fairy, minotaur, satyr, griffin and unicorn. The fact that it's weighted towards dragon-related creatures is part of the appeal of the book to me.

There is another section on tools and materials, this time for adding colour. This goes into using marker for an alternative dragon design, a pegasus in pencil and marker and another fairy in coloured pencil. Then a detailed drawing of a wisteria fairy is provided for working in water colour, though there are no instructions for drawing this one.

Overall I think the book is wonderful, but it's going to take some real practice to get to a level that looks as good as the pictures provided.

by Maia Toll

There's an immediate connection with spirituality in this book, even before the Introduction. It's very much a modern shamanism perspective and featuring popular animal totems or endangered species. The book is a companion for a deck of cards for animal spirit meditations.

The full color illustrations are very well done and probably translate well to the cards, which I don't have and couldn't actually find for sale anywhere, even the author's site.

Each animal has a section with general information about the animal followed by a ritual and reflection. The emphasis is on spirituality rather than science and gives the reader a reference for animal symbolism and possible meanings.

Quite honestly there isn't a great deal of substance, but despite that, I can see the cards working well as a meditation device and really the pictures in the book would do if the cards can't be found.