This book describes twenty lady-shaped textile brooches to make and keep; and twenty more to make and give away! This entrancing book shows you how to make the basic shapes of these wonderful brooches with a variety of media, then demonstrates how to give each one a personality with a variety of gorgeous embellishments.Have a go - there are twenty to make! This book features twenty great designs. It provides forty variations using the same technique. It offers clear instructions. The brooches are easy and fun to make.

About the Author

Sarah spent some ten years teaching art and textiles in secondary schools in Yorkshire, before leaving to start her family. Sarah has continued to develop her own work, exhibiting widely giving talks, demonstrations and workshops, undertaking commissions and organising exhibitions. Sarah works as a freelance textile artist and tutor. She exhibits her work widely, having taken part in over 40 group exhibitions since 1991, as well as several solo exhibitions. Sarah runs many courses on felting, embroidery, beading and surface construction etc. for a diverse range of groups. Details of which can be found on her website www.sarah-lawrence.com In addition, Sarah owns and runs craftynotions.com and lives in Newark.

Reviews

The Textile Directory: I always look for smaller projects to slot between my bigger art pieces, so when I saw this book, its colourful cover really caught my eye. Sarah Lawrence takes us step by step through 20 wonderful brooch projects that make use of a lot of the items we may already have in our art boxes. Each project is purely inspirational, introducing new and fun techniques to make these 'wild women' and to take them to the next level. Much more than that this book has many transferable ideas - I can see some fantastic possibilities from card-toppers, to artist trading cards and even jewellery. This book is great for beginners and occasional projects for those more advanced. What a wonderful addition to a crafter's library! Reviewed by Sara Millis of Sara's Texture Crafts Myshelf.com: This is a book about making pins and brooches - and about breaking the mold to come up with something fresh and exciting. I've heard about making stitched art jewelry, but had not seen what it looked like before this. This is what your jacket lapels have been waiting for - The title Wild Women refers to the fact that these are, as the reverse of the book says "lady-shaped art brooches". They all feature, or hint at female faces, and many have limbs as well. Between these features the author has gone to town, showing how you can create a mother goddess, mermaid, moon and many others using just about anything you can imagine. Ransack your hoards of beads, sequins, bits of fabric, charms, buttons and more and follow the simple, concise instructions. This book, just like the others in the series features twenty projects, plus another twenty inspired by them. This is the sort of hands-on fun book that got my fingers twitching and my brain spiralling out ideas, and at just under GBP5 (or $10US) it is great value, and makes an ideal present for the crafter in your life - if you can bear to part with it! I always enjoy seeing something different, and this certainly is. Workshop on the Web: This is an inexpensive little book that will inspire you for a long time to come. It gives instructions for making 20 'Wild Women' brooches using face charms or face stamps. Armed with these and four basic templates, the sky's the limit. Sarah gives detailed directions for twenty brooches using hand and machine stitching, beading, ribbons and arm and leg charms but I think you could raid your own stash and come up with lots of ideas for 'wacky women' of your own. Sew Today: Two delightful A5 books from a series of titles called Twenty to Make. "Wild Women" refers to the characters featured and depicted as stitched art brooches. They are all fun, wild and wacky, made from easily accessible materials and open to interpretation. Basic tools include felt, scissors, needles (including a beading needle), sewing and embroidery threads and brooch backs. Some experience of free machine embroidery may be required for some of the projects. "Beaded Felt Jewellery" combines two of today's craft trends. Helen shows how to use the humble felt square to create sophisticated and fashionable jewellery without the need for specialist materials or wet, soapy hands. All designs are based around eight simple methods for binding and decorating felt beads. Bead Society of Great Britain: Another book in the "20 to Make" series. The templates are simple and the subsequent steps are easy to follow. A large supply of buttons, ribbons, sequins are a great help in creating brooches which are in turn zany and attractive. The brooches will appeal to young and old and anyone with a sense of fun will enjoy making and wearing them. The only downside is the difficulty in sourcing the charms - hopefully this will get easier in time. Joan Everard West Country Embroiderers: A unique and intriguing book. The Wild Women designs are very original using many methods of creating these fascinating brooches. If you are looking for something different to make the ideas in this book will certainly arouse your curiosity. Lists of materials and full working instructions are clear and concise and will provide the stitches for these easily made, unusual jewellery items. Barbara Hector, St Stephens-in-Brannel