Good source of information.

[GuestD]

Hope I've posted this in the correct place.

I was brought up, and spent most of my working life using traditional skills passed on by "old men in flat caps". A good source for a lot of these old skills are old books, found at boot sales, library sales, etc etc. Old agricultural encyclopedias, and "home mechanic" type of books are the ones to look out for, especially anything pre 1940. These books were the "YouTube" of the period and have a lot of genuinely useful info. Such as "how to build a canoe" "make your own shoes" and other such things, when hand tools were norm.

 

[Woody girl]

I'm lucky enough to have a second hand bookshop which is a fantastic place to while away a rainy afternoon. I have picked up several gems in the countryside section . Books on everything from homemade soaps and cosmetics, medicines, and a book called the forgotten crafts of yesteryear. Absolute mine of info. You tube is great but books are better. They don't buffer or go offline.

 

[GuestD]

. I have picked up several gems in the countryside section .

I got a set of 12 "The Standard Cyclopedia Of Modern Agriculture" from around 1910/11, at a library sale for £1. They are an invaluable source of information. I also got some old leather work books from the 1920's which I passed on to a friend.

 

[Robson Valley]

abeBooks.uk is a part of the CDN business. Very economical. They have never failed me.
AND, they peddle rare first editions to those with obese bank accounts.

Used book shop in this village buys estate collections.
I have scored some unbelievable finds on Pacific Northwest art and carvings.

 

[Corso]

Have you got any specifically worth mentioning?

 

[Robson Valley]

I inherited a 4 figure totem pole. The carvings are fantastically well done by a master of the Kwakwaka'Wakw (mid coast) people.
Apparently, I am supposed to know why the pole is important and also to know who the artist was (pre-1954).
I spent several winters in dead-end searches. All the elders are dead. I am the old one now.

Learning By Designing. J Gilbert & K. Clark volume I. Study the 4 different styles of art and carvings.
Do all the drawing exercises, over and over. Make and use templates as is still done.

Then you can appreciate anything written and illustrated by Hilary Stewart.
Begin with Cedar. Then, Looking At Totem Poles. Looking At Indian Art of the Northwest Coast.

Bill Holm's volume Northwest Coast Indian Art is a deadly dry clinical dissection of the art form designs.

Nothing is very expensive, even new. So, I pick up books here and there. My kids in big cities keep an eye out as well.
What I have managed to accumulate are enough volumes to illustrate all 4 styles here in the PacNW.
They have been very useful to answer questions about Tlingit and Tsimshian (Alaska) art and carvings.
They have been very useful to a silversmith commissioned to make a massive carving for a First Nation elder.

The local bookshop people know my categories of interest. That's a big help in their shopping.