Make Your Own Tipi (Spiral-bound)

~ James E. Jones (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"My husband can get his own copy, I won't let him have mine. I especially loved the diagrams and drawings." -- Marlis Simms, Publisher of The Rendevous Report

"We've been making tipis for many years and we learned a lot from Make Your Own Tipi." -- C&S Tents

I am a professional circus model maker and as such have been making miniature tents for over 30 years. I borrowed Make Your Own Tipi from Pete True. This book is really easy to follow and is just the kind of craft instruction book a beginner needs to make a tipi. Even as a professional I found it to be extremely helpful and am now going to make a tipi using Make Your Own Tipi. -- Allen Bratton, Newberg, Oregon

I have been tipi camping for around 20 years. I own probably just about all the books on tipis. This is absolutely the best book on making tipis I have seen. Its really easy to follow. I recommend that anyone wanting to make a tipi or even those who like to collect books should have one for their collection. I read it cover to cover several times -- Pete True, Newberg, Oregon

Product Description

Book Description: Second Edition; 8.5 X 5 inches format, comb bound to lay flat. Complete tipi making and instructions for child and adult tipis. Includes list of supplies & tools needed. Tells how to save hundreds of dollars. Easy to follow text. Step by step instructions for making tipis. Plans for both children and adult tipis. Includes 27 tipi photos including many photos of painted tipis. Canvas selection, waterproofing. Setting up a tight tipi & smoke free fires. Craft secrets never revealed before. Tips on gathering & preparing poles & painting. Detailed drawings explain each step. Summary of steps to completing the tipi. List of supplemental reading and canvas suppliers. Includes a coupon for a free plastic laminated setup card, a $4.00 value. Includes a tipi making record and check list. Includes a summary of all steps to making a tipi.

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 104 pages
• Publisher: Living History Publishers, Inc. (August 1, 1999)
• ISBN-10: 1893394107
• ISBN-13: 978-1893394100
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,597,907 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not for the casual tipi builder!, July 9, 2002

By	"mec30" (Ithaca, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This has got the be the weirdest book I have ever encountered. The writing is awful; the organization, weird; the editing, non-existant; and the physical construction, homemade (ink-jet printing with spiral binding). Perhaps the best thing about this book is that it reminds the reader that you too can write a book and sell it on Amazon!

The intended audience for this book appears to be tipi affecianados with considerable background experience in tipi living and vocabulary. (Indeed, there is an assumption here and there that your tipi may be making the journey to a "Mountain Man" primitive gathering, whatever that is, and carefully judged by snobby tipi experts. (Who are these people?))

The book may do well by them, but as for me, I was making a tipi with a bunch of five to ten year-olds as part of summer camp festitivies. While I had read a bit about tipis before getting this, I found this little handbook to almost impenetrable (E.g. "Step one: Mark your spirit line!" Excuse me?)

That said, however, we were able to build a pretty nice tipi (by my standards anyway--I'm sure Jim Jones and pals would be entirely unable to restrain their giggles and snorts if they saw it). This required reading the book a few times, leafing back and forth a lot (e.g. the design of the "lacing strip"--yet another undefined term--is covered in three different parts of the book), and supplementing with some other, more simplistic overviews from the children's section of the public library.

However, a tipi was built, and this book had more of the details covered than the other ones I had found. (Note: I never did get the Laubin book, but maybe you should.)

I might also note that the first third of the book is low-quality, black and white scans of various tipis at these primitive gatherings. The photos seem to be more about patronage than information: it's the same darn view over and over, but at a different site, with a different paint job, featuring different pals, whatever. It would be far more useful to have photographs of the various steps of construction, and perhaps the inside, outside, front, and back of a completed one. And, Jim if you're reading this, how about a diagram labeling the parts of the tipi???

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making a Tipi Made Simple, April 24, 2000

By A Customer

Make Your Own Tipi is a "connect the dots" type of craft book. Not only that, but, the Publisher was thoughtful enough to make a craft book which lays flat. Most books are made for the convenience of the book stores with a binding which breaks when you want to make it lay flat. This craft book is bound with a comb binding so it will lay flat on any surface or even in your hand when you are working on your tipi...

Make Your Own Tipi is written for the person who has never sewn before. You don't have to be a seamstress or tailor to follow the instructions in this book. Ask for a demonstration on basic sewing such as how to thread the machine, forward, backward and serving a bobbin from a sewing store and and you're ready to make a tipi. You can learn enough to make a tipi without previous experience. The author obviously draws from a great deal of experience showing you how to eliminate common mistakes in all aspects of making a tipi including; painting a tipi, gathering & preparing tipi poles & setting up the tipi. You will not need to hunt for your favorite picture as the author put them all in the front so you can find them easily. And, all the drawings are located in the back of the book for easy referral. There is even a check list of materials and steps to making the tipi. And, drawings of parts for you to record the important dimensions for the size of tipi you want to make. The author has shown that making a tipi is fun and very easy if you follow his guidance. It is really just large pieces of canvas with simple stitches. I give this book an Amazon 5 Star Rating and recommend this book to anyone who wants to make a tipi or just learn more about the art of making one.

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Little research and much missinformation, September 23, 2000

By	Linda Holley "tipis" (Jax., Fl USA) - See all my reviews

This book gives very little information to the first timer on how to make a tipi. You will find it very hard to make a tipi from his instructions. There are few diamgrams to help you and what pictures there are, are very grainy. There are also some very strange terms given such as Spirit Line and hurricane rope. The particurlar rope he talks about is called the tri-pod rope and is used for putting the tri-pod up that supports the poles and then the cover. They have "Hurricans" on the Plains? His research examples are very lacking. In his text he states that he has done a great deal of research on how to make tipis and could find nothing in "unnamed books and author's memory", but there is much historical information he did not bother to look for or at. However, he does state that this is a craft manual on how to make tipis and not historical in research. It is too bad he didn't have more experience at making lodges, cloth or leather, before writting this book. It could have been better for the beginner. The "Indian Tipi" by Laubin is still the best bet for the first time tipi maker.