Customer Reviews

The Arts and Crafts Computer: Using Your Computer as an Artist's Tool

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The potential of the computer in craft has been seriously damaged by the excitement computers have generated. A parallel can be found when the Russian novelist Tolstoy was given a dictaphone to help speed up his writing. After a few weeks he threw it out the window. His neighbor asked if it didn't work. Tolstoy's reply was "It worked fine, but I got so excited using it I couldn't write." For almost two decades a generation of designers have succumbed to the excitement and hype of the computer without significantly adding any real content or substance to their work under the digitized banner. It is time for that to change, and Janet Ashford is a winning harbinger of that change.

It doesn't help matters that most design software seems to be written by the left-brain dominant spouses of craft practitioners...well intentioned souls with no sense of the real kinesthetics of working color, form, texture.

Janet Ashford has navigated through the difficult middle course between technology and entrancement. She draws! She creates custom palettes in her application software! She doesn't hit you over the head or talk down to the reader. Perhaps her experience of designing for and with her daughter has given her the wonderful tone of teaching someone she likes, who is lacking in knowledge but not in ability. That is a prized gift in any teacher, and Ashford has it mastered.

She has maintained her enthusiasm, her innocent pleasure in sharing the joys of color and pattern, line, light and form. She is conscientious in gathering really useful resources together into a book that can pay off in serious fun the first weekend you get to use it, without resorting to false expectations. Buy the book. Use the example. You, and your craft, will be enriched without hype or over-simplification. Serious artists and craftspeople do not expect the tool to do the real work of creation for them. This book is written for the serious artists and craftspeople at any stage of their careers...from about 9 years old on up.

Being an arts and crafts designer from way back, I have always wanted to own this book. I couldn't find it on the shelves a couple of years ago and proposed to write such a book when I found myself inventing paper crafts for PrintMaster, a card design program produced by the Learning Company.

But Janet Ashford beat me to it. And she has the know-how it would have taken me years to acquire. This is a magnificent tome, one that inspires as well as informs the crafts addict. Her expanations are sophisticated but clear to anyone who has passed beyond the basics. Lots of the projects are very artful and have the look of "handmade" without being too cutsy or too advertisingly slick.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves crafts and has access to a computer with the big three type programs: layout, photo adjusting, and drawing. If you are new to computers, an accompanying book or class will set you up for this one.

I teach and write about digital art and computing, and have to read a lot for my work. Janet Ashford's books always stand out because of the quality of the writing, the beauty of the illustrations, and the crispness of the editing. This author has a wonderful gift - that of making complex ideas simple, and reducing so-called expert tasks to the few steps guaranteed to yield great results for everyone, regardless of skill level.

If you are already using your computer to make art and craft items, you will find real inspiration on every page and soon come to rely on the technical aide memoires within, including the comprehensive lists of art materials and their stockists. If you have never used your computer in this way, or have only dabbled, you'll wonder what's been keeping you. Ashford's selection of crafts is broad, appropriate, and impressive. She'll show you how to make some exceptionally cool things - stationery, candle holders, boxes, gift bags, and enchanting games, among many others. You'll love making them, people will admire them, and others will love to receive them as gifts.

How ironic that the computer, that icon of mass-production, should present such an easy way to achieve individualism in all areas of learning and living. Janet Ashford is fascinating on this subject, too. Her blissful, intelligent chapter on using your computer as a kind of propaganda machine was my personal favourite!

If you buy this book you'll learn how to fill your house with beautiful, unusual objects and decorations. You'll be able to publish your own, uniquely designed, documents - from letters to leaflets. And if you want to, you'll never have to give another mass-produced card or gift ever again.

This is a masterclass in fun and creativity from someone well respected in various artistic fields. The professional tips and tricks alone are well worth the price of the book. Janet Ashford is sharing a lifetime's experience here. I so admire her commitment to empowering the amateur or enthusiast, as well as motivating the tired professional :)

Note: this is a superb companion to her previous, excellent book with John Odham, "Start with a Scan".

I can't say enough great things about this book. It's full of interesting projects to try, and the design of the book itself is great, light and airy, despite being packed with useful information.

You'll need some software to try the projects in it, an image editor of some kind and a printer. But that's all you need for most of the projects described. Janet Ashford has really creative ideas for transforming every day objects like metal tins and boxes, using computer designs.

I can just about guarantee, if you're artistic at all and you buy this book, you'll not only enjoy it, but you'll wind up designing some really amazing things as a result!

This is a good reference for general information about using a computer to enhance or create art. The author mainly uses Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator for editing images and graphics. Before you will be able to create these projects, you have to be familiar with your software AND have software to create some of the effect (image editor, paint and graphics program). If you are looking for a book that specifically tells you how to do these things, that will not be found here. You have to be "computer-literate" and software-literate to get the most from this book.

There is a lot of good information provided and several projects are shown using illustrations and photographs, not in a step-by-step format.

Ashford knows the art of computer craftmaking and provides the reader with very good starting points for crafts that intertwine computer and manual art. Regarding hardware/software she clearly favors Mac/Adobe, so her recommendations reflect this. In spite of this slant, she gives some helpful overviews of the technological side of various formats, graphic standards, etc.
Want to intermingle computer graphics with your arts and crafts? Here's a good starting point.

My wife picked up this little gem and it has been given a berth right next to the monitor. My wife is a costume designer and originally got this for herself, but I and my three daughters have each found good information on a variety of techniques, hardware and software. It is consise and very well illustrated. I highly recomend it.

Janet Ashford's books about using computers for designs have provided my high school students with a wide variety of inspirational ideas. The information allows them to thumb through the book for visual ideas, then read sidebars for unique information, and finally read the finer details that guide them through a particular process. My photography students have been motivated by both of her books titled Start with a Scan. As the high school yearbook teacher, I also appreciate her sense of layout design. Last year the yearbook students used several ideas from her books that were then published in our yearbook. Anyone with an artistic eye, or a love of creating on the computer, will find her books a wonderful resource.

I'm interested in doing arts and crafts using computers and this book is giving me a incentive to get started. Any kind of artwork is possible using computers. She is an inspirational person. A Martha Stewart-like gura in digital art. I love it.

I had a copy of this book as a gift from my son. I loved it. I let someone borrow it.. Never got it back. I was so happy I found it and thanks so much for sending it so fast!!