Creative Dough Crafts: 100 Delightful Designs to Make in Your Own Kitchen [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Brigitte Casagranda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1999

Dough craft, also called salt dough, is one of the easiest, most accessible and most popular crafts around the world. As well as the more traditional projects, Casagranda also shows how to make doll furniture, Christmas ornaments and a painted tableaux.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The expected wreaths and Christmas ornaments are here, but they play second fiddle to the nursery plaques, dollhouse furnishings, and table decorations that constitute most of this book. Tools and techniques are dealt with in the opening pages, and none of the projects is very difficult. In fact, several are simple enough for older children to do on their own. The country dollhouse furniture (the author includes a pattern for constructing a nine-room, three-sided display "house" out of plywood) is charmingly quaint. Casagranda provides instructions for some of the larger, more complicated pieces, such as a bed, an armoire, and a grandfather clock, and for a few, but not all, of the accessories pictured. Full-color photos of finished products as well as many step-by-step photos fill the pages. A nice addition to well-used crafts collections. Stephanie Zvirin

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Sterling; 1st edition (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887374493
• ISBN-13: 978-1887374491
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,342,306 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The unique designs are great , especially the dollhouse BUT, October 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Creative Dough Crafts: 100 Delightful Designs to Make in Your Own Kitchen (Hardcover)

When I received this book and thumbed through it, I was very excited about the designs that were printed especially the furniture for the dollhouse. I later found that some of the instructions were either incomplete or missing altogether. For instance, the instructions on the mirror on page 22 don't include the base holding the umbrellas. The instructions for the lamp only include baking instructions for the lamp shade...what about the base?? Instructions for the bed say to partially bake a segment....that's fine but at what temperature and for how long?? Another thing that would have been helpful is include templates of the different pieces (or at least the dimensions) to ensure that all of the furniture is in proportion to each other. I find myself having to do alot of guessing on how to make some of the items in this book. Maybe with a little luck I'll figure how to make that cute little basinet on pg 32!!!

As far as the designs go, they are unique which I really do appreciate. I just feel that if a picture is shown of an item in a how-to book, there ought to be full and complete instructions on how to make that item and every item shown.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Take what you can, January 28, 2008

By 

L. M. MACLEAN "If too many books were a crime..." (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Creative Dough Crafts: 100 Delightful Designs to Make in Your Own Kitchen (Hardcover)

The book is cheap, which is a plus; she is also a gifted tole painter, which is inspiring. However, there are no sizes given for the projects; this is a major drawback. The best that I could do for the 3-dimensional pieces that I wanted to make was to measure a full size piece and use it for scale (an eight-foot couch = an eight-inch doll house couch). I also bought a set of cheap playdough/cookie cutters to make pieces uniform. The rectangles make good cushions for the couch; squares are good cushions. A heart with the bottom point cut off is a great chair back.

Some larger pieces (note the hutch on right side of cover) are only 1/4-3/8 inches deep. I would like them as proportionally deep as a real piece. There are no instructions for the cups, saucers, or little cats scattered throughout the book. I do like her idea to score a piece of dough into squares and paint them to look like individual tiles; they look great.

The similar lack of sizes continue throughout the book, so if you want to make her centerpieces or wreaths you'll have to guess! For some of the thicker pieces I would air dry them instead of baking since the baking times are vague or absent.

Still, you can use this and its construction ideas to make some nice doll furniture. To make some nice salt dough dolls for the dollhouse, check out "Making Soft-bodied Dough Characters," by Patricia Hughes.