Hello, friends.
There are a few craft ideas I'm working on now, but since they are still works in progress I will share this book with you today instead: Forgotten Household Crafts, by John Seymour.
Printed in 1987, this book, "...demonstrates in beautiful details and illustrations a range of traditional skills that show you how to produce what you need for yourself...Part manual, part a celebration, this treasury of ageless techniques gives readers step-by-step advice on how to master each craft."
Despite its description, I wouldn't say this book is a how-to manual for anything — more like a coffee table book for the homesteading enthusiast to show off when company comes over. But Seymour does provide fascinating historical accounts of how each craft was used in daily life, and the sketches are amazing. As a writer, it's a useful manual, because it provides descriptions of tools and how they were used that are hard to find online if you don't know what you're looking for. If you already have technical know-how for certain crafts, it also provides some inspiration for projects and organization.
Whenever a passage applies to something I'm working on, I'll probably share an excerpt with you. Once in a while I might also experiment with some of the descriptions Seymour provides concerning common activities such as tea-making, cooking, canning, etc...stuff people think about sometimes but never really bother to try.
I think you'll find it interesting, and I can't wait to get started.
