Myshelf.com:If you pride yourself on being a green crafter, iris folding is the papercraft for you! Save up all the envelopes you receive that have patterned insides, as well as any other paper that comes your way and you have most of the materials needed for this enjoyable hobby. You will also need some patterns, which is what this book contains and maybe some sets of toning papers to eke out your existing collection, which is also what this book contains.Iris folding was invented in Holland, like many other papercrafts and the name comes from the appearance of the work which resembles the iris of a camera. But there is more to this craft than that, and this book might be subtitled A"book twoA" for it builds on the existing spiral form and goes one further, appealing to anybody who is a wee bit tired of the original formula. Here papers are transformed into the elegant art deco creations of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, origami papers become beautiful geishas, and a whole variety of the type of papers found in crafters' collections are made into lush and lovely landscapes. There are cards and tags in here, but also gift boxes and bags, pictures and Christmas tree decorations. If you are a novice at this craft it might be a good idea to check out a book that shows the original iris style form first, as some of the patterns are not really aimed at beginners. Think of this as a book for improvers instead, with excellent staged instructions for some pieces, but just the patterns for others. There are no gallery pieces in this book, but at the back where some books might have these are something far more useful - eight sheets of perforated paper designed by the author. Each features several toning papers aimed at reproducing one of the models in this book, including the Mackintosh projects, pretty fairy and handbag. I love it!As a companion to this book there is also Michelle Powell's Iris Folding Papers, which are acid and lignin free and with this book of 24 sets you can make practically everything in the book and more. I was a little disappointed to discover that no Christmas papers are included, but you can't have everything.
