Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Review of Tim Holtz Publications (part 2)

Yesterday, I reviewed Tim Holtz' new book A Compendium of Curiosities.  Today, I wanted to review some of his other publications.  I've grouped these into three categories:  freebies on his blog and webite; books by Design Originals; and videos by Page Sage.


Freebies on his blog and webite:  Tim Holtz is one of the most generous artists out there.  He publishes, free of charge on the internet, a huge number of tutorials on how to make wonderful projects and how to use his products.  In addition to the 36 Tags of Christmas, which I linked to yesterday, he occasionally posts other tag projects, like this Easter tag tutorial.  These tutorials include step-by-step illustrated instructions. They aren't tagged in any special way on his blog, so you may have to hunt them up for yourself.  In addition, he has 18 video demonstrations posted on his website, covering products and techniques.


Books by Design Originals:  Tim published two books with Design Originals called Distressables (2005) and Distressables 2 (2006).  These short (50 page) books are dense and jam-packed with ideas.  They are not as reader-friendly as Curiosities because they cover many techniques that I would call intermediate to advanced and which assume some amount of crafting knowledge.  They each cover about 15 completed projects, and most projects include several variations.  The products used and projects covered have a much greater variety than Curiosities. . . . things ranging from beeswax collage to altered wooden blocks (in Destressables 2) and tins to minialbums (in Distressables).  They often use older product lines designed by Tim for Design Originals or other producers.  I call these books dense because they are almost like textbooks for many of his classes or for classes which could be taught. In fact, the three pieces of jewelery pictured up top are things I made in a class with Tim. The instructions for each one is in one of these books, but I never realized that until after reviewing the books again.  Overall, the books provide the foundation to make a ton of projects and are a great way to expand your repertoire of altered art a la Tim, but I don't think they are for the meek of art. 


Videos by Page Sage:  Tim has published two videos with Page Sage. . . An Altered Journey (2004) and The Journey Continues (2006).  Each one is about two hours long and is divided into different projects (called Journeys).  Each project lesson starts with a list of supplies needed and then shows how to make it.  There is also a gallery and some extras.   An Altered Journey covers some basic techniques like distressing, brushless watercolor and alcohol ink agates but also some cool, more advanced techniques like faux batik, an altered domino mini book (yes, it's tiny!), and projects with polymer clay and UTEE.  The Journey Continues includes some more advanced projects for distressing, using UTEE, polymer clay, alcohol inks, beeswax and cut-n-dry felt.  The techniques are more adventurous than those found in Curiosities but are clearly illustrated (so easier to follow than the Distressables books) and do result in completed projects.   I"m anxious to go back and watch the videos again, now that I own a melting pot and my skills have gotten more advanced.


After having done this two-part review, it seems to me that Curiosities and Tim's website/blog are a great place for beginners to start and the Altered Journeys and Distressables are great next-steps for the artist who wants to continue to explore various altered techniques and projects.  I'd love to hear feedback from anyone else who owns and has used the Distressables books or Altered Journeys videos.

8 comments:

Sian said...

"meek of art"..what a fabulous phrase! I love it. This is a very nicely thought out and well written review Rinda and I know it's going to be one of those posts your readers will come back to again and again

debs14 said...

I had no idea there were tutorials available, his designs are very unusual, I may have to go and have a blog hop over there!
Thanks for giving such detailed reviews, I'm sure lots of us will be interested in this.

Anonymous said...

i'd missed the Easter tag, thanks for the heads up, Rinda. I have An Altered Journey and used it as my intro to T!m and alcohol inks!\

Mariana in CA

scrappyjacky said...

Another really useful review,Rinda... the videos sound well worth watching.

humel said...

How had I missed his freebies?! Thanks for that tip, I'll be heading there immediately! And drawing on my considerable willpower (*hollow laughter*) to resist buying the other publications - at least till I've actually had a good go at the stuff I've already got! Thanks for your detailed, thorough and helpful reviews x

Sonja said...

Those are great pieces pictured. Did you make them?

julie m said...

i enjoyed your reviews. i have one of the books and one dvd and follow his blog. i also like using ranger products for my cardmaking. but i have yet to actually sit down and learn some of the techniques. this review has renewed my interest in finding the time to do that.

Capescrapper said...

I have both videos and absolutely love seeing him work!! Find them quite humorous too! Love having them here to put in for viewing anytime I need some ideas and inspiration!