Description:
Nearly everyone seems to have countless photographs languishing in boxes and drawers or in tired, old photo albums or scrapbooks. The New Photocrafts by Suzanne Tourtillot demonstrates that there are plenty of ways to move beyond using these traditional methods to preserve and enjoy your photos. Forty projects by a team of two dozen talented designers employ photographic prints, photocopies, image transfers onto both fabric and polymer clay, and digital photos, yielding such items as lamp shades, switch plates, frames, pillows, pins, boxes, journals, and tote bags. Background information is provided on each general technique, along with step- by-step instructions for every project. There's also a brief but useful introduction to taking better photographs. Some directions could have used more careful editing (one project, for example, calls for highlighting textured areas of clay with paint but doesn't describe making the textured surface in the first place; the instructions also neglect to specify that the object must be placed in the oven to bake). Nevertheless, the lessons overall are adequate for creating these mostly interesting and sometimes innovative designs, which range from simple to advanced, in styles from childlike to sophisticated. --Amy Handy
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