The book says:
Unfurling is a workshop in book form, offering a unique mix of inspiration and technique exercises to get your creative juices flowing. This book is for any creative person who wishes to open up more to the process of making art.
The book begins with art exercise in drawing, backgrounds, layering and working with a still life, followed by collage and image transfer techniques.
The second section offers exercises and projects in stamp carving, paper pottery, sculpture, origami, paper doll making and surface design. These tactile explorations offer an enjoyment of the process as well as wonderful handmade projects.
The last section shares a variety of approaches to visual journaling. There are instructions for binding your own journal, prompts and ideas for working on your pages, and a variety of exercises using photography and poetry as ways to inspire and inform your journal keeping.
Also included are a set of gift book plates and a beautiful paper doll designed by the author and printed on perforated cardstock in the back of the book.
I say:
Although the author is very well known online, I have to admit that before laying hands on the book I had never heard of her. I will say this - this is another beautiful, beautiful book from the Quarry publishers. Every page is laden down with beautiful images overlaid on a background of texturey, painty goodness - no white pages here.
I love the idea of a workshop in book form. I have signed up to so many online classes and am yet to complete a single one. So to have a whole workshop residing within easy reach on my bookshelves, handy to snatch a quick read here and there - well that's enticing indeed.
However, because the book does encompass so much I think that many people who do art or craft are going to find at least one or two sections of the book a bit irrelevant to them - they will already know certain bits or be further ahead in experience. Most of the explanations are from a beginners perspective. For example, when I started reading, my heart sunk a bit because almost the entire first section; Art, which encompasses drawing, painting and collage... well, I already do most of the techniques set forward. If you've done any drawing for any period of time, or an online class you will already have had a more comprehensive tutorial than you will get from the opening section here. However - this is just one chapter, it can't hope to compete with a whole online workshop dedicated to one subject. It's meant to stimulate inspiration - which it does.
Moving onto sections two and three; Craft and Journal, it's a whole new ball game, at least for me. These sections talk about stamp carving, paper pottery, paper crafts and journal making, photography, poetry... well these things I've dabbled in but have no real knowledge. These sections blew my socks off. Each section comes in the form of exercises that you are encouraged to carry out from sketching to making paper cranes, modelling a clay doll to taking self portraits, writing your own poetry, creating awesome backgrounds, incorporating images into those backgrounds, carving your own stamps... all in a straightforward "you can do this, we can all do this" manner. No shmaltzy, shmaltzy.
So - all in all. If you come to this book realising that probably, a bit of it you are already going to know but embrace the rest, you'll love this book. I do.
I will put this book up as a giveaway... but not yet. I intend to work my way through it and treat it like it is - a workshop. I'll let you know how I get on.
Thank you to Quarry for sending the book for review.
Thanks as always for stopping by :)
My darling little monsters looking all cute and zombified. Proud Mama Monster here :) If you'd like to know how the page came together then please shamble on over to Gauche Alchemy where I spill my guts. Bwaaahaaahaaahaaar!
Big Cook wants to work in childcare eventually - I think she'll be brilliant!
More bargainous loot! This time from Poundland. They are selling their Halloween bits at 6 items for £5.00 so I got this swag...
(The pockets go all the way around, net pockets on the back and a few straps inside which I presume are to store hammers and other tool type junk but are perfect for paintbrushes and artistic stuff!)
My gorgeous model who has no business looking so grown up...
Off for a casual artistic stroll round the neighbourhood...
Of course Craig has a cunning plan up his sleeve and is hoping you all want one as much as I did. He wants me to let you know he can get hold of these for £23.95 which is inclusive of P&P for the UK people. Just email me if you are interested.
I've had an amazing UK blogger *just* miss the sign up. As we are in the early stages of the swap I thought I'd put a call out to see if anyone else wants to partner up. Either a new player or even if you are already playing and don't mind another person to stalk (and be stalked in return.) I wont put up the bloggers name so as to still try and keep it sort of secret.
Hi everyone :)
This was my very first ATC! Aww!
On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. It's also an event that you can join in with too - Mr Linky is always at the ready for you to link your own 'On My Wishlist' post. Want to know more? Click here. 
Goodreads summary: It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn? In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths—for good and evil—of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?
Goodreads summary: Being new at school bites. But at least it doesn't kill you. Mostly.
Goodreads summary: In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human.
Goodreads summary: As tattoo artist Star begins to ink her first client on a spring Sunday morning, something goes horribly wrong with the world... Belfast's hungover lapse into a deeper sleep than normal, their sudden deaths causing an unholy mess of crashing cars, smoldering televisions and falling aircraft. In the chaotic aftermath a group of post-apocalyptic survivors search for purpose in a devastated city. Ageing DJ Sean Magee and shifty-eyed Barry Rogan find drunken solace in a hotel bar. Ex-IRA operative Mairead Burns and RIR soldier Roy Beggs form an uneasy alliance to rebuild community life. Elsewhere, a mysterious Preacher Man lures shivering survivors out of the shadows with a promise of redemption. Choked by the smell of death, Ireland’s remaining few begin the journey toward a new life, fear and desperation giving rise to new tensions and dark old habits. But a new threat--as gorgeous as it is deadly--creeps slowly out of life’s wreckage. Fueled by feral hunger and a thirst for chaos, the corpses of the beautiful are rising…
Love it when nature surprises you when you least expect it. Felt like a little reward after struggling up two flights of stairs with my dodgy swollen ankles. Don't ask - think I knackered them completely when I tried jogging a while back! That'll teach me to try something that is obviously completely and totally wrong!
It's her first ever sewing project to include a zip... and she sent it to me! I love it! See Wendy, I told you it was the perfect size for a little sketchbook and pencils for my bag. Thank you again, love it!
In the package was a lovely surprise Christmas bunting. Isn't it beautiful?
Love this gold holly leaf...
Look, look... I am going to make it my mission to slowly phase out all the cheap crappy decs that someone (Craig) bought last year and replace it with stuff like this!
This is going over our fireplace this year - just above the altered Christmas cabinet I made last year! Thank you Jan :) (Seriously go check out her blog, she does magic with a sewing machine. I have one of her totes and it's like the tardis inside! My favourite bag ever!)
Enjoying the unseasonal heat today.
This is in no way a 'how to' book. The front of the book calls it "Inspiration, Impact & Technique in Fantasy Art". Oodles and oodles of glorious full colour art work, both full pages and smaller images interspersed throughout the text fill this book. The text itself covers the origins of folklore and myth surrounding dragons, to Tolkien and Lovecraft, to the dragons of Africa and Wales... there is so much to read and soak up and be inspired by.
Flame Tree Publishing
