The Craft & Art of Bamboo: 30 Elegant Projects to Make for Home and Garden

by Carol Stangler

The hottest material around for gardens and home dcor also is one with a rich and ancient history: bamboo. Long used in both Eastern and Western cultures, it looks graceful and brings a touch of nature to any space. From harvesting to assembling projects, this photo-filled introduction to bamboo fundamentals gives advice on preparing and buying, tips on drying and weathering, hints on preventing and dealing with insect damage, and instructions for cleaning the bamboo. Follow the directions on cutting, splitting, joining, attaching, bending, flattening, finishing, and preserving. Construct lovely fences, gates, railings, screens, furnishings, accessories, and more for landscape, garden, and home. Picture a curved bamboo handrail along a walkway, a low trellis for climbing plants, a charming porch swing, a simple Japanese flower container, even an outdoor shower stall. Lush photography and abundant illustrations make this easy to use...and a treat for the eyes.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1579901913
• ISBN13: 9781579901912
• Release Date: December 2001
• Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 1.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.8" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Crafting with bamboo

This excellent publication provides detailed instructions and guidance for thirty projects for your garden and home. Highly recommended.

Good intro to what you can do with bamboo

I took this book out of the library purely out of curiousity. We're doing a lot of home improvements, and our once-indoor pot of bamboo got big enough that it had to be moved into the atrium. Since bamboo is a renewable resource... hey, how could we put it all to use? The Craft & Art of Bamboo is subtitled "30 elegant projects to make for home and garden" but it provides a little more than I expected. If you haven't worked with bamboo before (and I certainly haven't), two of it chapters (harvesting, purchasing and preparing bamboo; and tools, materials, and techniques) probably make this worth the purchase price. Most of the projects are small scale, geared for beginners who just want to complete something in a weekend -- a bamboo doormat, sushi trays, teppo screen -- though there are a few big projects, such as coffee tables and fences. If you're a purist, you'll be offended by the author's use of drywall screws rather than cordage, but he does talk quite a bit about lashing and show the traditional ties, complete with illustrations and a photo of the result. If I were serious about "woodworking" with bamboo, this probably wouldn't be the only book I acquired. Because of the tools and materials section, it would, however, be one I'd enjoy having in my library.

Excellent bamboo craft book!

I was given an entire truck load of bamboo and had no clue what to do with it. This book really gave me some great project ideas! Has projects for large and small bamboo... I definitely recommend this book!

The Craft & Art of Bamboo

Anyone who is interested in bamboo will want The Craft & Art of Bamboo by Carol Stangler readily at hand! She looked North and South, East and West for her resources and inspirations. And she knew who to include, some of the greats in the field of working with bamboo -- among them, David Flanagan (the Bamboo Fencer), Yucatan Bamboo, and Doug Lingen and Reed Hamilton of the Bamboosmiths. The reader may not need or be attracted to each project (with 30 in all, she offers a BIG range to choose from!), but there is a great deal of information to be gleaned from each one. The chapters on harvesting and tools alone are sufficiently full of information to make the very reasonable purchase price worthwhile. This would be a great gift, for yourself or for any woodworker-crafter.

GREAT!!!

this is a great book.if your interested in building with bamboo,get this.lots of info and list of suppliers.