The Craftsman


Richard Sennett - 2008
    The computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen all engage in a craftsman’s work. In this thought-provoking book, Sennett explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world. The Craftsman engages the many dimensions of skill—from the technical demands to the obsessive energy required to do good work. Craftsmanship leads Sennett across time and space, from ancient Roman brickmakers to Renaissance goldsmiths to the printing presses of Enlightenment Paris and the factories of industrial London; in the modern world he explores what experiences of good work are shared by computer programmers, nurses and doctors, musicians, glassblowers, and cooks. Unique in the scope of his thinking, Sennett expands previous notions of crafts and craftsmen and apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things.

Positively Crochet!: 50 Fashionable Projects and Inspirational Tips


Mary Jane Hall - 2007
    In addition to trendy garments and accessories, you will discover pairings of design tips with inspirational insight, useful for improving crochet skills and making the most of every situation life delivers.

Amy Herzog's Ultimate Sweater Book: The Essential Guide for Adventurous Knitters


Amy Herzog - 2018
    This essential guide details every aspect of sweater knitting, starting with instructions for four basic sweater types: yoke, raglan, drop shoulder, and set-in sleeve. Patterns are offered in multiple sizes and yarn gauges for broad appeal. Following the basics for each of the four sweater types are a diverse range of customizing options, including how to add a hood, cowl neck, turtleneck, pockets, and zip or cardigan front, just to name a few. Amy's clear instruction and expert tips expand the many knitting possibilities, creating the essential knitting resource for knitters everywhere"--

Make: Analog Synthesizers


Ray Wilson - 2013
    If you’re a musician or a hobbyist with experience in building electronic projects from kits or schematics, this do-it-yourself guide will walk you through the parts and schematics you need, and how to tailor them for your needs. Author Ray Wilson shares his decades of experience in synth-DIY, including the popular Music From Outer Space (MFOS) website and analog synth community.At the end of the book, you’ll apply everything you’ve learned by building an analog synthesizer, using the MFOS Noise Toaster kit. You’ll also learn what it takes to create synth-DIY electronic music studio. Get started in the fun and engaging hobby of synth-DIY without delay.With this book, you’ll learn:The differences between analog and digital synthesizersAnalog synthesizer building blocks, including VCOs, VCFs, VCAs, and LFOsHow to tool up for synth-DIY, including electronic instruments and suggestions for home-made equipmentFoundational circuits for amplification, biasing, and signal mixingHow to work with the MFOS Noise Toaster kitSetting up a synth-DIY electronic music studio on a budget

We Have Never Been Modern


Bruno Latour - 1991
    But if we were to let go of this fond conviction, Bruno Latour asks, what would the world look like? His book, an anthropology of science, shows us how much of modernity is actually a matter of faith.What does it mean to be modern? What difference does the scientific method make? The difference, Latour explains, is in our careful distinctions between nature and society, between human and thing, distinctions that our benighted ancestors, in their world of alchemy, astrology, and phrenology, never made. But alongside this purifying practice that defines modernity, there exists another seemingly contrary one: the construction of systems that mix politics, science, technology, and nature. The ozone debate is such a hybrid, in Latour’s analysis, as are global warming, deforestation, even the idea of black holes. As these hybrids proliferate, the prospect of keeping nature and culture in their separate mental chambers becomes overwhelming—and rather than try, Latour suggests, we should rethink our distinctions, rethink the definition and constitution of modernity itself. His book offers a new explanation of science that finally recognizes the connections between nature and culture—and so, between our culture and others, past and present.Nothing short of a reworking of our mental landscape, We Have Never Been Modern blurs the boundaries among science, the humanities, and the social sciences to enhance understanding on all sides. A summation of the work of one of the most influential and provocative interpreters of science, it aims at saving what is good and valuable in modernity and replacing the rest with a broader, fairer, and finer sense of possibility.

Stamped Metal Jewelry: Creative Techniques and Designs for Making Custom Jewelry


Lisa Niven Kelly - 2010
    Using purchased metal stamps and sterling silver blanks, you can personalize your metal jewelry designs with words, textures, and creative designs. Lisa Niven Kelly, creator of the online Beaducation workshops and website, specializes in the technique and has been teaching stamping for more than six years to enthusiastic students. Although stamping is a simple technique, the right tools and skills will help you create professional and exciting results.Stamped Metal Jewelry teaches multiple metal stamping and texturing techniques, and the projects incorporate wirework and metalsmithing to create fabulous necklaces, beads, charms, bracelets, cuffs, and earrings. The book opens with an extensive section on stamping, wirework, and metalsmithing tools and techniques. With these skills, you can begin the inspiring jewelry designs with confidence.Nineteen projects cover a variety of techniques and designs such as creating charms, incorporating stamped links into beaded projects, making stamped links from flat wire and wire-wrapping them together, stamping on blanks and layering them, riveting, texturing metal, oxidizing, and more. In addition to Lisa's projects, the book features contributions by nationally known guest artists Tracy Stanley, Kriss Silva, Lisa Claxton, Kate Richbourg, Janice Berkebile, and Connie Fox.

Subculture: The Meaning of Style


Dick Hebdige - 1979
    Hebdige [...] is concerned with the UK's postwar, music-centred, white working-class subcultures, from teddy boys to mods and rockers to skinheads and punks.' - Rolling StoneWith enviable precision and wit Hebdige has addressed himself to a complex topic - the meanings behind the fashionable exteriors of working-class youth subcultures - approaching them with a sophisticated theoretical apparatus that combines semiotics, the sociology of devience and Marxism and come up with a very stimulating short book - Time OutThis book is an attempt to subject the various youth-protest movements of Britain in the last 15 years to the sort of Marxist, structuralist, semiotic analytical techniques propagated by, above all, Roland Barthes. The book is recommended whole-heartedly to anyone who would like fresh ideas about some of the most stimulating music of the rock era - The New York Times

Boho Crochet: 30 Hip and Happy Projects


Marinke Slump - 2015
    Whether you're new to the crochet scene or already an expert, you'll be inspired to create original pieces featuring vintage motifs in contemporary color combinations. Express yourself with cool and unconventional projects Make blankets, pillows, coasters, bags and fashion accessories, and much, much more Learn the basics with step-by-step photos; then find your crochet groove with easy-to-follow patternsAvailable to customers in the U.S. and Canada only.

The Better Bag Maker: An Illustrated Handbook of Handbag Design Techniques, Tips, and Tricks


Nicole Mallalieu - 2014
    In this how-to book accomplished bag maker, Nicole Mallalieu, reveals her high-end techniques, shortcuts, and secrets for professional design and finishes. The 10 featured projects teach a range of expert skills from adjusting the proportion of the pattern to constructing pockets, straps, flaps, and bases.. By the end of this book, you ll have a closetful of polished bags and most likely sew better than you ever imagined you could."

Vogue® Knitting The Ultimate Hat Book: History * Technique * Design


Vogue Knitting - 2012
    It covers everything from global traditions and classic styles to key techniques, blocking to achieve the best shape, design advice, and 50 remarkable patterns from some of today's top knitwear designers.

10 Secrets of the Laidback Knitters: A Guide to Holistic Knitting, Yarn, and Life


Vicki Stiefel - 2011
    With humor and insight, authors Vicki Stiefel and Lisa Souza illustrate how to become a laidback knitter--one who enjoys the process as much as the product. Join in and be inspired by the mix of people, patterns, and places in their knitting world; follow the steps they took; and discover the secrets that set them along this path. 10 Secrets contains a wealth of other valuable and fun information including profiles, websites and other resources the authors can't live without, information on fibers, spinning, and crochet, and much more!Additionally, an amazing collection of twenty-seven patterns--complete with instructions and charts--fills the book with elegant shawls, chic sweaters, and colorful scarves from a spectrum of designers, all beautifully photographed in full-color.This is a book that gives knitters permission to relax and have fun; to see that knitting can be as much about process as about the finished product, and know that the stitches they knit can express the inner joy they feel. The exciting patterns--aimed at knitters from beginners to experienced--complement the books exuberant purpose and style.

The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950


Roderick Kiracofe - 1993
    The American Quilt shows how these virtuoso textiles, long appreciated for their bold graphic appeal and naive charm, are also a fascinating reflection of cultural and social attitudes, painting an indelible portrait of our nation’s history and the remarkable women who lived it. America of the 18th and 19th centuries developed at a breathtaking pace, and the changes that marked each era were inevitably mirrored in the prevailing quilting styles of the period. The American Quilt marks the first time the evolution of quilting has been traced chronologically, identifying the fabric, design, and construction hallmarks of each period and showing the genesis of beloved patterns and styles. A thorough discussion of America’s textile history, complete with a fabric time-line, provides further insight into antique quilts, offering important clues to their age and provenance.The American Quilt charts the course of quilting in America, from the earliest whole-cloth and broderie perse quilts through the emergence of the block style in all its regional and popular permutations. Special sections are devoted to quilt subgenres, including Amish quilts, Baltimore Album quilts, mourning quilts, and African-American quilts, that are highly prized by collectors today.Quilt collectors will also find helpful information on displaying, storing, and caring for quilts, as well as an exhaustive directory of dealers and quilt collections that have been updated for this edition.Filled with more than 250 photographs of rarely seen quilts and delightful evocations of quilting’s colorful past, The American Quilt is a thought-provoking and important step forward in our ever-expanding knowledge of this remarkable folk art.“[The American Quilt] offers a profusely illustrated survey that ingeniously weaves the threads of America’s social, political, economic, and industrial history into the evolution of the quilt-making arts.” —New York Times“A longtime dealer of antique quilts, Kiracofe has given us a guide to evaluating and dating old quilts, and has included methods of tracking down the makers, and advice on their cleaning, storage, hanging, and restoration. A pleasure for the generalist, this book will be indispensable to serious students and collectors.” —Washington Post“A must for any serious student of quilts.” —Quilter’s NotebookA “classic quilt tome.”—USA Today

Journal It!: Perspectives in Creative Journaling


Jenny Doh - 2012
    The featured work ranges from lettering expert Jill K. Berry's beautifully calligraphied travel journals to Jeannette Sclar's whimsical gardening books, and the techniques include everything from toner-based transfer to stitching with fabric and paper. With over 200 inspirational photos to guide them, even beginners can create works of art right from the start.

Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700


Peter Dear - 2001
    In this book, Peter Dear offers an accessible introduction to the origins of modern science for both students and general readers.Beginning with what was worth knowing in 1500, Dear takes the reader through natural philosophy, humanism, mathematics, and experimentalism until he can describe what was worth knowing by the eighteenth century. Along the way, he discusses the key ideas, individuals, and social changes that constituted the Scientific Revolution.For all of its economy and broad appeal, Revolutionizing the Sciences never sacrifices sophistication of treatment. Dear questions triumphal ideas of scientific progress, unravels the connections between scientific knowledge and power over nature, and distinguishes between the scientific renaissance that characterized the sixteenth century and the more fundamental revolution that occurred in the seventeenth.This is an ideal textbook on the Scientific Revolution for courses on the history of science or the history of early modern Europe. The text is chronologically arranged and fully covers both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, standing alone as an up-to-date, complete general introduction to the origins of modern science in Europe.Revolutionizing the Sciences is the best available choice for teaching or learning about the developments that came to be called the Scientific Revolution.

Mend!: A Refashioning Manual and Manifesto


Kate Sekules - 2020
    "For Fans of NBC's Making It, Bravo's Project Runway, or shopping vintage: A sweater gets a hole? Sew it closed... Part history and part how-to, Mend! traces the task's evolution from a 1950s chore to a DIY sustainability movement." -- Marie Claire For thousands of years, mending was a deep craft that has for too long been a secret history. But now it's back, bigger and better than ever. In this book Kate Sekules introduces the art of visible mending as part of an important movement to give fashion back its soul. Part manifesto, part how-to, MEND! calls for bold new ways of keeping clothes and refreshing your style. Crammed with tips, fun facts, ravishing photography, and illustrated tutorials, MEND! tells you exactly how to rescue and renew your wardrobe with flair and aplomb--and save money along the way.Whether you've never owned a needle or are an aspiring professional, MEND! gives you clear instruction and witty advice, with over thirty techniques, from classic darning and patching to cheeky new methods invented by Sekules, to help you turn every garment into a unique fashion statement. Including interviews with menders, shameful fashion industry facts, a ten-step closet mend, cheat sheets, stitch guides, moth elimination, museum conservator and vintage dealer tricks, and more, this is a book to inspire, delight, and galvanize. Sharp, funny, and incredibly timely, MEND! leads the slow fashion revolution into its next phase, where getting dressed is a joyful, creative experience for all.