How to Design Stained Glass: With 84 Patterns (Dover Craft Books)

Rating:
Summary: I can sum up the author's advice:
Review: The author does not explain how to design, nor even the basic elements of design. Her instruction boils down to "look at what the professionals have done." For instance, on the subject of designing your own stained glass pieces, she suggests re-drawing any (or all!) of the 84 designs included in the book. Just keep re-drawing them until you get a feel for proper design. And on the subject of reinforcing your pieces, she suggests looking at how professionals have reinforced their works, and then experiment with different methods and products until you figure out what works. This is not helpful advice from a professional, this is the type of advice you might get from a novice pretending to know what they're talking about. Keep looking for a good design book.

Rating:
Summary: I can sum up the author's advice:
Review: The author does not explain how to design, nor even the basic elements of design. Her instruction boils down to "look at what the professionals have done." For instance, on the subject of designing your own stained glass pieces, she suggests re-drawing any (or all!) of the 84 designs included in the book. Just keep re-drawing them until you get a feel for proper design. And on the subject of reinforcing your pieces, she suggests looking at how professionals have reinforced their works, and then experiment with different methods and products until you figure out what works. This is not helpful advice from a professional, this is the type of advice you might get from a novice pretending to know what they're talking about. Keep looking for a good design book.

Rating:
Summary: Review of How to Design Stained Glass
Review: The book covered some of the basic principles of design pretty well. I found the section on shapes that should not be used to be rather helpful. I was expecting there to be more on blending different textures of glass, working with light sources, using color and line, and other principles of design, but this book did not cover these subjects. I also thought the patterns were a little disappointing -- some of them were nice, but others (such as the Spiderman and motocyclist patterns) seemed rather dated.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional book
Review: This book weaves useful bits of knowledge about tools and techniques into its text. It is a substantial leap above the average 'how to' stained glass book.