A candle, a light bulb, or natural daylight illuminating a translucent sheet of paper can create surprises by casting a shadow through holes onto another surface, illuminating a subtle pattern in the paper, or showing off a batiked design. As the popularity of handmade paper grows, this unique book takes the paper crafter beyond stationery, cards, and journals to innovative designs for using colored and textured paper to make striking three-dimensional home furnishings: luminaria, lanterns, room divider screens, sconces, lampshades, nightlights, window shades, and more.
This book includes inspiring full-color photographs of the projects, as well as the works of a variety of talented paper artists. Line drawings illustrate the step-by-step instructions. Paper decorative techniques include piercing, layering, collage, crayon batiking, fold and dye, marbling, nature printing, rubber stamping, stenciling, embossing, and weaving. Also included is easy-to-understand information on lamp basics and safety, wiring and rewiring lamps, and creating interesting lamp bases.
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Rated By: wiredweird "wiredweird"
From: Earth, or somewhere
Rating:
Comments: Great, practical projects This book succeeds at two levels. First, it does what the title promises to do. It shows a dozen or more projects, all centered on the common theme of paper and light. There are window shades, lanterns and screens, laid out in plenty of detail for the skilled reader to follow. The projects differ in complexity, from kid-friendly simplicity up to tasks requiring some light carpentry and electrical wiring. There are no exotic tools or materials required - any good craft store would have just about everything, except for some of the unusual papers. Even they aren't compulsory in most cases, lots of alteratives will work well.
The second level is where this book delivers its real value. You'll get past the fixed recipes for defined projects in a hurry, then want to experiment on your own. Hiebert offers dozens of techniques that can be applied in ways limited only by your imagination. There are "marbling" techniques based on soap bubbles or chalk, coloring processes like tie-dye and batik, and lots of others. She gives tips on testing materials and light bulbs for safety, and a few pointers about combinations likely to cause problems. She also hints at some of the issues in turning your craft into a business.
There's somthing here for every level, from the rainy Saturday crowd to the professional artisan looking for something new to try. It's good fun - try it.
A candle, a light bulb, or natural daylight illuminating a translucent sheet of paper can create surprises by casting a shadow through holes onto another surface, illuminating a subtle pattern in the paper, or showing off a batiked design. As the popularity of handmade paper grows, this unique book takes the paper crafter beyond stationery, cards, and journals to innovative designs for using colored and textured paper to make striking three-dimensional home furnishings: luminaria, lanterns, room divider screens, sconces, 
