Mould Making for Glass || Angela Thwaites

You couldn’t exactly call it a series, but this comes as part of a tradition from Black’s which gives us well-produced and generously-illustrated books on what can reasonably be described as niche crafts. To be fair, glass-working is hardly an obscure pursuit, but it’s also reasonable to say that it’s not mainstream either. General craft publishers have largely ignored it. Découpage, anyone?

I’m not qualified to comment on the quality of what the author says, but I can confirm that the book is well up to Black’s usual standard in this field and that it all looks comprehensive and well laid out. What appears to be a slim paperback turns out to have 144 pages, so it would be unfair to suggest that it’s superficial, either.

The form of the book is to work through all the stages of making and casting from moulds and it’s illustrated (in full colour, making its cover price of £15.99 look very reasonable) with pictures that show both the processes and the work of a variety of contemporary practitioners.

All-in-all, it has the look and feel of a solid introduction to, and a survey of, the subject it covers.