1000 Motifs For Crafters
By Alan D Gear & Barry L Freestone

      Whatever craft you do, you need inspiration and from past experiences I know that combing the shelves of my local library or surfing the Internet takes time – time I could spend crafting! Glass painting gurus and stars of Ideal World’s Alan & Barry’s Craft Choice show have come up with a bumper book of 1000 line drawings that cover most subjects likely to be portrayed in a craft project.

      The plus point in this book is the way it is indexed – the way a good disk of clipart ought to be and often isn’t. Broad categories such as animals, patterns, celebrations, at home etc are given numbers, and then broken down further into subjects. For example, if you want a picture of a dolphin, just look under Seashore and there it is: 4c seashore/dolphins, page 114. There are four sections devoted to the four continents and lots of folk art patterns to choose from. Some items appear to be lacking, since this is the second design treasury that Alan & Barry have produced. My only complaint really was the small number of Christmas designs. The Celebrations section is limited to Valentine’s Day, Easter and Christmas which is rather narrow. The contents list at the beginning is easy to use and there is an equally helpful index. I defy anybody who are not able to find what they want – unless it isn’t in here of course. Another useful feature for anybody looking for a new hobby is a colored section of techniques briefly outlining definitions such as machine embroidery, decoupage, making rubber (or potato or lino) stamps and stencils to name a few. They have managed to conjure up the basics in a few words, rather like an encyclopedia and make every craft sound manageable which is a great appetite-whetter. The sort of thing anybody might expect in fact, if you have seen their show.

      Take note though that this is NOT a copyright-free treasury, and all the designs are for use solely for one’s own work only. Stencil your walls, make greetings cards and embroidered garments but don’t sell what you make. This aside any professional designer needs inspiration and prior to any future craft projects I do for magazines might well be kick-started by leafing through here. A very useful book.