Crafty Compendiums

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Pile of vintage craft booklets | H is for Home

The Homemade Home was the subject of our most recent Bookmarks book review.

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing carved wooden animals

It brought to mind this pile of vintage craft booklets we picked up at Huddersfield Fleamarket recently.

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden bull pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden fox

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden rhino pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden elephant

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden ram pages from a vintage craft booklet showing hand carved wooden seal

They’re from the Leisure Craft series.

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to do batik

page from a vintage craft booklet showing batik composition

There seems to be about 40 titles in the set…

page from a vintage craft booklet showing a cartoon type illustration of a person crafting

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do batik

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do batik

…covering a vast array of crafts & hobbies.

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to decorate glass bottles

page from a vintage craft booklet showing decorated glass jars

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to decorate glass bottles

…from familiar subjects such as fabric printing, enamel work and collage…

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to make clay items

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make clay candle holders

page from a vintage craft booklet showing handmade pot page from a vintage craft booklet showing handmade teapot

…to more obscure topics such as coconut craft & pipe cleaner figures.

page from a vintage craft booklet showing collection handmade pots

cover of a vintage craft booklet on how to do collage

page from a vintage craft booklet showing felt lions

There’s been quite a resurgence in the upcycled, recycled, reworked & handmade in recent years…

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to do collage

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing an illustration of a parade of shops

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing how to make hand made jewellery

…but we’re yet to see throngs of people queueing up for the local coconut craft classes!

page from a vintage craft booklet showing crafting tools

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

The booklets are lovely actually…

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

cover of a vintage craft booklet showing how to use fabrics

…all dating from the late 60s & early 70s.

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do block printing

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing how to do block printing on clothing

page from a vintage craft booklet on showing an illustrated book cover and red lamp with shade

There are lists of materials and clearly illustrated methods & techniques.

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'How to paint with Lacquer

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

page from a vintage craft booklet showing enamelware boat

The photographs of finished results are also fab…

pages from a vintage craft booklet on how to make handmade jewellery

page from a vintage craft booklet showing enamelware jewellery

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'Paper, Scissors and Paste

…with a very distinctive period feel.

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing an alphabet illustration

pages from a vintage craft booklet showing two figures for hanging keys

page from a vintage craft booklet showing peacock and three wise men illustrations

Our particular favourites are the Paper, Scissors & Paste and Batik booklets…

page from a vintage craft booklet showing nativity scene illustrations

page from a vintage craft booklet showing train and countryside scene

…oh, and that gorgeous little fabric booklet with the pram on it has to get a special mention!

page from a vintage craft booklet showing greeting card illustrations

cover of a vintage craft booklet 'Tinfoil Decorations

So, no excuses now… time to get crafty!

page from a vintage craft booklet showing tinfoil starbursts

page from a vintage craft booklet showing tinfoil decorations

P.S. Compendiums… compendia… we looked them up, both versions are usable however, our spell-checker doesn’t like the latter!

One lump or two?

'One lump or two?' blog post banner

Vintage J & F Bell Three Nuns tobacco tin | H is for Home

We often find these small tobacco tins in the mixed boxes we buy at auction. Usually they’re full of nails, pins, screws or tap washers. But this one contained a more colourful surprise…

Vintage 'Three Nuns' tobacco tin showing 8 different paper-wrapped sugar cubes | H is for Home

…lots of old, paper-wrapped sugar lumps!

They look to date from the 1960s – someone had obviously started a little collection – quite rare survivors probably.

Old paper-wrapped sugar cubes including Harrods, Sunny Southport, Kent and Ravenglass | H is for Home

Some of them have lovely period graphics… very sweet!