* I have received this book for review from the publisher but this in no way affects my review *
Title: Paper Dandy's Horrorgami
Author: Marc Hagan-Guirey
Source: Received from Publisher
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing from Midas PR
Rating: 3/5 stars
Summary of Paper Dandy's Horrorgami from Goodreads:
Paper Dandy's Horrorgami features 20 kirigami (cut-and-fold) designs based around haunted houses and scenes from horror films by the creator of the successful Horrorgami blog and exhibition. Each project features step-by-step instructions and a template that you remove from the book. You then follow the lines on the template, cutting and folding to make your own kirigami model. All you need is a scalpel, a cutting mat and a ruler. Clear cutting tips help you with the tricky stages and give you an order in which to complete your work, while photos of the finished model show you the final design. Suitable for folding experts and beginners alike, Paper Dandy's Horrorgami makes the perfect Halloween activity.
Book Review Summary:
I was really excited to start the Horrorgami book from Paper Dandy however it did not meet my expectations. Although the images were beautiful and had clear instructions, I personally couldn't get to grips with the style but was a hard book for me to enjoy.
I was really excited to start the Horrorgami book from Paper Dandy however it did not meet my expectations. Although the images were beautiful and had clear instructions, I personally couldn't get to grips with the style but was a hard book for me to enjoy.
My thoughts:
This book is quite a complex one to review because there were some good points and some really bad points to this book. So let's get the bad stuff out the way first. The book has it's ambitions asking the reader to obtain things that were quite complex to buy, as I had to buy a knife just to start the book as you can't see things from around the house to do this book. Granted the blade was cheap but it was new. This brings me to my second point, the book states that you need to use paper a similar width to the book itself if you want to keep the book but the blade I bought couldn't cut through the paper very well and it was hard to cut out the pieces of paper, so it resulted in a poor attempt by me. This could be said maybe I had the wrong equipment as a lot of it I didn't purchase so it may be a good idea if you are going to attempt this book to be prepared as things may go a smoother this way. I also had problems with some of the instructions as it doesn't tell you anywhere to cut out the black lines, this is just something hinted at by the artwork or the examples in the book, so it would be nice to see this included. I also attempted the first Horrorgami and for something for a beginner, I did find it quite complex especially with the small tentacles which I found hard to cut out. I may try some of the other beginner one to see if I get others right and I definitely think that it is something that comes with practice. I will also say that the designs are also too thin in some places which ended up breaking. This may just be me being heavy handed by it's still something that could be improved.
So now we have talked about the bad points, it's now time to talk about the good points. This book is more than just Horrorgami, obviously that what you are here to do but I did like the amazing photography in the book as it definitely gave me something to admire to, although my attempts may not be the greatest and they definitely add to the spooky element of the book. I also found it interesting to find out more about the why the author included the scenes that he did and it definitely added to the context of the creation. On this level the scenes themselves are really complex and are ambitious but they are really nice designs although complex to made, they are definitely nice to look at. I also found the instructions of the techniques and the terms included very simple in the book and it was easy to understand. There were good points to this book but it is getting over the first phrases where the problems lie.
My attempts:
So now we have talked about the bad points, it's now time to talk about the good points. This book is more than just Horrorgami, obviously that what you are here to do but I did like the amazing photography in the book as it definitely gave me something to admire to, although my attempts may not be the greatest and they definitely add to the spooky element of the book. I also found it interesting to find out more about the why the author included the scenes that he did and it definitely added to the context of the creation. On this level the scenes themselves are really complex and are ambitious but they are really nice designs although complex to made, they are definitely nice to look at. I also found the instructions of the techniques and the terms included very simple in the book and it was easy to understand. There were good points to this book but it is getting over the first phrases where the problems lie.
My attempts:
The Verdict:
This book has amazing designs for Halloween but was too difficult for a beginner for me to handle, that said I would recommend this book for those who are more experienced in the art world as you will probably enjoy it.
Have you tried Paper Dandy's Horrorgami? How did you find it? Leave them in the comments below.
See you soon,
Amy
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