Crafts & Hobbies

Since its limited release just after the turn of the twentieth century, this American Tobacco cigarette card has beguiled and bedeviled collectors. First identified as valuable in the 1930s, when the whole notion of card collecting was still young, the T206 Wagner has remained the big score for collectors who have scoured card shows, flea markets, estate sales, and auctions for the portrait of baseball's greatest shortstop. Only a few dozen T206 Wagners are known to still exist. Most, with their creases, stains, and dog-eared corners, look worn and tattered, like they've been around for almost a century. But one—The Card—appears to have defied the travails of time. Thanks to its sharp corners and its crisp portrait of Honus Wagner, The Card has become the most famous and desired baseball card in the world. Over the decades, as The Card has changed hands, its value has skyrocketed. It was initially sold for $25,000 by a small card shop in a nondescript strip mall. Years later, hockey great Wayne Gretzky bought it at the venerable Sotheby's auction house for $451,000. Then, more recently, it sold for $1.27 million on eBay. Today worth over $2 million, it has transformed a sleepy hobby into a billion-dollar industry that is at times as lawless as the Wild West. The Card has made men wealthy, certainly, but it has also poisoned lifelong friendships and is fraught with controversy—from its uncertain origins and the persistent questions about its provenance to the possibility that it is not exactly as it seems. Now for the first time, award-winning investigative reporters Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson follow the trail of The Card from a Florida flea market to the hands of the world's most prominent collectors. They delve into a world of counterfeiters and con men and look at the people who profit from what used to be a kids' pastime, as they bring to light ongoing investigations into sports collectibles. O'Keeffe and Thompson also examine the life o more...

Price: $11.99

Are you a dyed in the wool needle crafter? Do you have a velvet touch with business and people? Fabric, sewing and quilt store owners do, and you might even say each is cut from the same cloth! In their stores, these careerists sell fabric and notions, as well as sewing tools and equipment. Quilt, sewing and fabric store owners set up shop in converted turn of the century homes, in modern malls, even online. more...

Price: $15.00

The only career series to match the right job with the right personality. Vital information in each book includes: Suggested jobs in a wide range of settings, from the office to the outdoors; A selection of jobs with different levels of educational requirements; Advice on competing in hot job markets; Tips on transforming hobbies into job skills more...

Price: $14.95

The third edition of Carpentry and Joinery 1 is the first in a series of three books which together provide an authoritative but thoroughly practical guide to carpentry and joinery for students following City & Guilds and CITB courses, NVQ candidates, and a wide range of amateurs and professionals.Carpentry and Joinery 1 deals with the fundamentals of the subject from topics such as timber and wood preservation and protection, to a detailed outline of the tools available and information on the basic woodworking joints, adhesives and fixing devices. Books 2 and 3 show how to apply this fundamental knowledge. Details of craft theory, associated studies and practical procedures are integrated throughout each text.In this new edition chapters have been reorganised to produce a more coherent, student-focused course. All references to the Building Regulations and current legislation have been updated, and developments in current best practice have been incorporated. more...

Price: $40.95

A comprehensive study that traces the craft of pottery making among the Catawba Indians of North Carolina from the late 18th century to the present. When Europeans encountered them, the Catawba Indians were living along the river and throughout the valley that carries their name near the present North Carolina-South Carolina border. Archaeologists later collected and identified categories of pottery types belonging to the historic Catawba and extrapolated an association with their protohistoric and prehistoric predecessors. In this volume, Thomas Blumer traces the construction techniques of those documented ceramics to the lineage of their probable present-day master potters or, in other words, he traces the Catawba pottery traditions. By mining data from archives and the oral traditions of contemporary potters, Blumer reconstructs sales circuits regularly traveled by Catawba peddlers and thereby illuminates unresolved questions regarding trade routes in the protohistoric period. In addition, the author details particular techniques of the representative potters factors such as clay selection, tool use, decoration, and firing techniques which influence their styles. In assessing the work, David G. Moore, of Warren Wilson College, states, "This book represents an enormous body of work concerned with a significant topic the persistence of the Catawba Indian pottery tradition. Using his extensive fieldwork and a narrative presentation, the author juxtaposes the evolving ceramic technology with a fascinating discussion of the role of pottery in changing Catawba economy from the 18th and continuing into the 21st century." Thomas John Blumer is a retired ethnohistorian and author of Bibliography of the Catawba. William Harris is a respected leader of the Catawba Indian Nation. more...

Price: $27.96