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Description and Reviews of the Books Offered by Hand Print Press
 More about Build
Your Own Earth Oven:
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This brand new, completely re-written edition features:
- revised text: updated, expanded, and completely re-organized so as to simplify the making of
- a super-insulated design that holds heat longer and burns less fuel; as well as
- a simplified, 4-step recipe for making really good (wholegrain) sourdough bread - written by Hannah Field,
a former professional baker who has worked in wood fired and organic bakeries on both sides of the Atlantic (also the author's wife).
- Also: a foreword by Alan Scott, grandfather of wood-fired ovens and artisan bread, co-author (with Dan Wing)
of The Bread Builders, and an inspiration to many aspiring artisans;
- an 8-page color gallery of beautiful ovens sculpted both by the author, as well as readers who wanted to share their work;
- innovations and variations, like mobile ovens, super-efficient "rocket" ovens, hay-box cookers, and more.
For an additional word or three from the author, keep reading:
The success of this book has been a (welcome!) surprise. Hand Print Press was launched with a fraternal, good-faith cash loan and 2,500 copies of a book
about mud ovens. I thought I might be able to make some interesting sculpture with the books, if nothing else. 20,000 copies and about ten years later,
Artisan bread is a multi-billion dollar industry, and sales of "artisanal" bread are growing four times faster than the business as a whole, and almost 20
times faster than white bread.*
*Source: www.nytimes.com, market research from Mintel Consumer Intelligence
I suppose in itself that isn't so surprising. Specialty foods are a pretty safe bet, if you're a betting kind of person and looking for faddish things to
bet on. What has surprised me is the reception the book has gotten from all kinds of folks. Maybe it's just a fluke of marketing and good fortune. Maybe
it's
just the crest of the fad. Maybe (just maybe), it's a confirmation of the basic precept of this little press: that what we learn to do, we learn by doing. And
what can shopping teach us except debt and dissatisfaction? Man lives not by shopping alone. Nor does woman. Nor do we learn anything essential by it.
Home-made bread, on the other hand, is a basic (and tasty) antidote to buying. OK, that makes sense. And mud is simple and cheap and makes a good oven. OK.
But it still doesn't explain the kind of pride and pleasure evident in the notes and letters I've gotten from happy oven builders.
When I wrote it, I was mostly concerned about offering a way to make a good, cheap oven; the "art" was just sprinkled in because I'm a sculptor. But now I
wonder? Maybe people want "artisan" bread because a good loaf, like good art, is unique and individual; an event that becomes a part of you.
Perhaps the ovens are real art that anyone can make; perhaps the bread is real food that anyone can make; perhaps, together, they are an antidote to the
slavery of consumption, the endless earning of dollars to buy stuff we don't need to satisfy desires we can't name, understand, or control.
Perhaps artisan bread means more than just "complexity of flavors," but also a complexity of relationships: In a traditional artisan economy,
different artisans each made something essential to all the others. Their trade was true trade, not just an exchange of dollars, but an intimate interweaving
of life and fortune. For example:
"Bernard Clavel, a French writer whose father was a baker, wrote that the bakeshop was on the way to local saltworks, and that his mother would open up
at five in the morning so that the salters could buy bread on their way to work. His father sold bread to the wine-growers, some of whom gave a cask a wine in
exchange, and to the wood-cutter (huge eight-pound loaves), who in return would deliver the wood needed to fire the bread-oven. When the baker ran
out of salt, he would drive up to the saltworks to pick up a sack, paid for - in bread."
[see Clavel's introduction to The Book of Bread, by Jerome Assire, Flammarion, 1996, Cited in
Cooking with Fire in Public Spaces, Friends of Dufferin Grove Park.]
Obviously, we no longer live in such a society, but as much as people hunger for good bread, they also hunger for the kind and quality of relationship
that produces good bread. I'm not saying a mud oven is any kind of answer, but it is extraordinary how the simple act of making an oven can give people a
confidence in their own ability to participate in and enrich their own lives.
Since that first printing, Earth Ovens have been seen in Country Garden Magazine, Mother Earth News, The Chicago Tribune,
the UK's Petit Propos Culinaire
and Permaculture Magazine, among others. I've heard from mainstream, weekend gardeners to "simple living," back-to-the-land,
"fringe"dwellers, Peace-Corps
volunteers, to do-it-yourselfers, third-graders, graduating seniors, and other artists of all ages!
I am grateful, and curious to see what happens next.
-- Kiko Denzer
purchase
"Brief, brisk, artful, and well-written....explains
the principles of breadmaking with a few deft strokes.... Graceful,
well-detailed, and empowering throughout." - Permaculture
Activist, August, 2004
"There are really only three books for the would-be
bread oven builder. If you get only one, get Kiko's..."
- John Connell, architect, author, Homing Instinct
"...inspired creativity combined with traditional
wisdom....Get a copy and build yourself an earth bread oven.
It's that simple." - www.walnutbooks.com
"...enjoyable, down-to-earth and sensible....his instructions
are clear as rainwater, his advice...intelligent and sound...."
- Petit Propos Culinaires
"...Appealing to a diverse audience of bakers, outdoor
cooks, traditional crafts persons, and...homeschoolers looking
for a project...should be part of most public library collections."
- Library Journal
"...The illustrations really make it accessible,
and the information is such a good blend of science and love."
- Marc Peter Keane, Landscape Architect, author, Japanese
Garden Design
"Your book is an excellent guide to building an earthen
oven and lots more.... My son-in-law just finished an Italian
bread and pizza oven [that] cost $4,000. I told him I will soon
build a horno of adobe for less than $100." - Clint
T. Colorado
 More
about Dig Your Hands in the Dirt: A Manual for Making Art
out of Earth:
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As you might suspect, a book with this title features many
photos of barefoot kids happily stomping in the mud. Mud huts
and mud pies conjure up pictures of primitive peoples and childish
pleasures. But then you realize that the kids aren't in Africa,
but in Washington DC, Chicago, Portland (Oregon), and Berlin.
And they aren't all kids!
Looking past the pictures of giddy, muddy fun, here is
substantial and serious inspiration and practical lessons for
artists, teachers, students, and designers, as well as builders
interested in natural materials like adobe (and, more recently,
it's British counterpart, "cob.")
The book begins with a color section of stunning murals
based on traditional south African pattern design, a monumental
labyrinth and sundial, a whole earthen park (in Berlin), large-scale
sculpted benches and structures, model villages and even tiny
bird-houses of mud sculpted on woven frames. In Portland, Oregon,
earthen art has become part of a city-wide strategy for building
community. In Berlin, earth-artist Rainer Warzecha has worked
with kids over ten years to fill a whole park with earthen sculptures
as big as small houses.
A comprehensive technical section spells out the details
of finding the right mud and mixing it in more ways than you
can cook eggs. Photos, captions, and illustrations provide many
explanatory examples. Extensive resources offer sources for further
study.
Between the technical and the inspirational is a chapter
on "design as process and pattern" that begins with
the claim that "art is a social activity." Given the
preceding photos and stories, it's hard to argue, but for those
to whom the creative process is a mystery, Denzer offers a simple
approach for building common goals and vision. Then, with illustrated
examples from his own work, he explains how to translate simple,
natural (and easy to draw) patterns into sophisticated and complex
designs that transform bland and anonymous modern buildings into
real places to shelter real communities.
Now the photos take on a new significance. Simple "decoration"
really can change the spaces where people live and work. And
the experience of changing their environment can also change
people - as Denzer relates in several compelling stories about
teaching in institutions around his home state of Oregon.
Here in the dirt is a democratic material by which to make
serious and beautiful art, and a democratic process for creative
collaboration. Rather than "art for art's sake," Denzer
aims at communal beauty, beyond the rarefied atmosphere of galleries
and criticism. Art is, he says, "experience by which humans
learn." Beauty is fundamental principle that connect us
to the world we live in. "Finding and claiming beauty,"
writes Denzer, "is a fundamentally positive act that helps
unite a fragmented world, and makes sense of harsh and confusing
realities....Art helps join us, harmoniously, to a whole."
Brief, elegant, wonderfully and generously illustrated
with drawings and 32 pages of color photos, and very affordable,
at $12.95, this is a book for teachers, parents, builders, artists,
and kids of all ages.
- a book for teachers, parents, builders, artists, and
kids of all ages
- synthesizes craft, beauty & inspiration with practical
ideas that build awareness, skills, knowledge, and confidence
- instructions make lo-budget art into a practical option for
anyone
- real world insights demonstrate how beauty can make things
better
- simple, lo-tech methods open the border between art and architecture
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Advance Praise for Dig
Your Hands in the Dirt: A Manual for Making Art our of Earth:
I love this book! Kiko Denzer is an imaginative teacher
with a great sense of design who clearly inspires children to
create beauty from the humblest of all art materials--mud! Just
reading his exercises makes you want to get right down into it.
Every grade school teacher should seize on this book to enrich
their students' lives.
- Dr. Betty Edwards, Professor Emerita in art, California State
University, & author of Drawing on the Right Side of the
Brain.
This is a manual on how to create low budget public art
with earth. Rather than a cookie cutter approach, it offers a
fascinating process to help you see and understand pattern in
nature. The resulting designs are utterly consistent with the
process of natural design. It's an invaluable and unique tool.
Use it to involve kids, families, and schools in positive change.
- Ianto Evans, author of The Hand Sculpted House, co-owner/founder
of Cob Cottage Co. and N. American School of Natural Building,
landscape architect, and teacher.
This book...teaches practical skills that empower children
to create everything from playgrounds to school walls using the
simplest of methods.... [A]dults will be inspired..., and will
find the technical information useful.... With engaging text
and evocative photos and drawings, Kiko shows us how to build
with nature and community. ...the best book on doing art with
community that I have ever seen. I found it an inspiration.
- Joseph F. Kennedy, architect, teacher, & editor of Building Without Borders & The Art of Natural Building
...an excellent tool for anyone who is interested in the
design and creation of ecological art and places, in natural
building, and in working creatively with children of every age.
- Mark Lakeman, architect, founder/director of City Repair
...Everyone becomes an artistin a creative group process
that teaches design, application, architecture, and cooperation
using the first art we all love: MUD PIES!"
- Ann Wiseman, teacher, & author of Making Things
[T]he mud wall mosaics....are stunning, transforming hostile
barren school walls into somewhere you might actually want to
spend time.... [Earth] is a remarkable material, and Dig Your
Hands in the Dirt is a very useful resource of ideas and possibilities....
I recommend it wholeheartedly.
- Rob Hopkins, The Hollies Centre For Practical Sustainability,
Ireland.
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 More
about Make a Simple Sundial: Measure the Earth, Discover
the Cosmos:
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This book shows how to make an accurate sundial with just
a bit of simple materials, geometry, and a map with information
about your longitude and latitude. It also shows how a sundial
is really a model of the relationship between the earth and the
sun - and, by extension, between you and the cosmos.
A few experiments help to see what's happening
as if you were looking at the earth from outer space. Starting
with a stick and its shadow on a sunny day, the books shows how
to locate true north, how to feel the earth turning under your
feet, and how to turn the stick into a small scale model of the
axis on which the earth turns.
So your sundial not only tells you the time,
it also tells a story about how you are related to the sun and
the stars - "geometry," after all, means "to measure
the earth." As you, the sun, and the earth all move in your
related orbits, a sundial will not only tell you the time, it
will remind you that you have a place in a much bigger picture.
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 More
about The Best of Making Things: A Handbook of Creative Discovery:
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Children everywhere will welcome this new edition of a
classic activity book - as will their teachers and parents (especially
those seeking to simplify). A "best of" compilation
of two volumes, it is a unique, affordable, and child-sized handbook
that doesn't talk down to anyone. In fact, it is mostly pictures
drawn in a simple and elegant style clear enough for anyone to
follow, whether or not they read (though some projects, like
paper making or batik, ask for adult supervision).
Thirty years later, author Ann Sayre Wiseman says "I
still meet people who say 'Making Things was (or is) my bible.'"
What's the appeal? The elegant line drawings certainly make each
page its own composition and work of art. They also convey crucial
information in a way that's as close as a printed page can get
to "show me how." Many of the projects are unusual
or unique, such as the "cardboard racing turtles" and
"box horses;" but even the old standards, such as soap
carving and paper sculpture, are presented in such a way that
creativity is invited not promoted. Rather than a "create
by numbers" kind of book, here is a delightful invitation
to the innate, creative artist in each of us. As the author says
in an introductory note to "beginners and late starters":
Remember, you know more than you think you know...
When you have tried most of the activities in this book, you
will have taught your hands lots of useful skills for fun, for
necessity, for leisure, and for survival.
- These skills and concepts can set your imagination free and inspire
you to try your own variations.
- As you train your eyes to see and your hands to know, you will
strengthen your belief in yourself.
- Don't be afraid to ask questions and go beyond the rules.
Her philosophy of "learning by doing" is older
than Aristotle, and the ethic of using odds and ends to "make
something out of nothing" should provide refreshment and
relief for today's stressed out, over-scheduled, and mall-weary
parents.
Each project is part of a broad curriculum that explores
the roots of culture. Starting with making the paper itself,
we can explore sculptural folding and cutting projects, aeroplanes,
puppets, potato and other kinds of printing, and, finally, how
to make books. Projects like mobiles and salt pendulums explore
the science of gravity; zoetropes and animated flip cards make
a study of motion; various toy and play ideas make for fun, absorbing,
and creative entertainment. Fiber and cloth projects offer basic
lessons such as weaving grass hats and shoes; all kinds of simple
looms; sewing and dyeing clothes; as well as macrame and twining.
There are even "sweet sounds from found objects," bread
and bread sculpture, and "stained glass cookies" made
from melted lollypops.
Though diverse, it's not random. Ms. Wiseman developed
the material during her tenure as Program Director at the Boston
Children's Museum Visitor's Center, and selected the projects
to "develop natural curiosity and self-esteem" and
to teach a range of "simple and important concepts that
have shaped the cultures of the world." Also an exhibiting
artist with work in the Rockefeller and Hirschorn collections,
she later pioneered the field of Art Therapy at Lesley College
in Cambridge, and has authored a dozen other books, including
Nightmare Help, and Making Music, among others. Now a 78-year
old grandmother, she conducts workshops, teaches, paints, and
travels widely.
So when a child asks, "what can I do," share
this book and say: "Let's make things! Paper from laundry
lint! Chocolate pudding finger paintings! A cardboard box loom
[that also teaches weaving and math]! Stocking masks, a braided
wig, and a grass hat!" Budget priced at $8.95, with over
50,000 copies in print in English and foreign language editions,
it's a good bet for any parent or crafter, and would make a great
gift.
First published in the 70s by Little, Brown, it won a Scientific
American Young Reader's Award, the 1997 Parents' Choice Silver
Honor Award, and was featured by the Book-of-the-Month Club.
It has sold tens of thousands of copies. This revised edition
combines the best selections from the original two volumes.
purchase
Reviews for The Best of Making
Things: A Handbook of Creative Discovery:
"...consistently the most useful book I've used with
kids...[it] has been and still is my bible" Cathy
Wilson, author, mother of 9 home schooled kids, and a teacher
of youth in custody.
"Fresh and inspiring...Parents and teachers will delight
in this creative book. The majority of the ingenious projects
are not found in other craft books." - Library Journal,
starred review.
"...classic...a popular manual [with] simple but thorough
directions for everything from...paper-bag puppets to decorating
your own window shades." - Boston Globe, "The
Young Reader"
"Excellent and innovative...helps it audience become
real artisans." - Horn Book.
"...one of the most exciting play and workbooks to
come along.... Particularly invaluable for the teacher of children's
craft or the parent on a rainy afternoon...brimming with the
wonder of discovery and creation..." - San Francisco
Examiner & Chronicle.
"This book belongs on the shelf in every home where
a child has ever asked, 'What can I do now?'" - Princeton
NJ Lawrence Ledger.
"Now that I've seen [it], I know why these customers
thought so highly of it...using words like "special"
and "sense of wonder."...an extraordinary book."
- Chinaberrry Book Service.
"Fun, painlessly educational, handy to leave lying
around for a bored child and you'll enjoy watching him spring
to creative life!" - South Shore Mirror.
"The best book of its kind I have ever come across."
- Jane Yolen, Northampton Gazette.
"An excellent resource book...[for] elementary [and]
high school.... Highly recommended.... Ms. Wiseman's approach
encourages individual freedom for creative expression and pride
in acccomplishments." - Curriculum Advisory Service, in
Fine Arts.
"Truly, a document of 'revelations and adventures,'
Making Things ...is an answer to the child's perpetual
question, 'what can I do?'...encourages the reader to become
adept in many skills and to gain a measure of self-understanding
as he develops latent talents for creativity." - Tallahassee
Democrat.
"I love your Making Things ...there's
warmth and care...and how to and excitement and mood and all
the way till morning. 'Doing is contagious' ... and so are you
and what you do." - P. Cardozo, Director, Bantam Books
"I haven't even finished reading your book...but I
must hurriedly write and thank you for such a creative and simple
book on art and all it includes...What else is there to say?
I only want you to know I am one of (hopefully many) peoples
using your book and its damn honest attitude." - A.
Bandenieks, Thunder Bay Ontario
"Making Things is absolutely great!"
- F.M. Trace, Director of Elementary Education, City of Rochester,
NH.
"That lovely, fascinating book! ...It should help...teachers;
and day care centers; and those who work with mentally or physically
handicapped children; and families both prosperous and poverty-stricken."
- K. Taylor, educator, former head of Shady Hill School (MA)
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 More about The Hand-Sculpted House
(Excerpted from www.cobcottage.com .)
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A Cob Cottage might be the ultimate expression of ecological design, a structure so attuned to its surroundings that the authors refer to it as "an ecstatic house." They build a house the way others create a natural garden, using the oldest, most available materials earth, clay, sand, straw, and water and blending them to redefine the future (and past) of building. Cob (the word comes from an Old English root, meaning "lump") is a mixture of non-toxic, recyclable, and often free materials. Building with cob requires no forms, no cement, and no machinery of any kind. Builders sculpt their structures by hand.
Cob houses (or cottages, since they are usually efficiently small by American construction standards) are not only compatible with their surroundings, they ARE their surroundings, literally rising up from the earth. They are full of light, energy-efficient, and cozy, with curved walls and built-in, whimsical touches. They are delightful. They are ecstatic.
The Hand-Sculpted House is theoretical and philosophical but intensely practical as well. You will get all the how-to information to undertake a cob building project. As the modern world rediscovers the importance of living in sustainable harmony with the environment, this book is a bible of radical simplicity.
You won't want to miss The Hand-Sculpted House:
- The definitive guide to Cob and Natural Building.
- Authors Ianto Evans, Michael Smith and Linda Smiley are top authorities in the field.
- 346 pages, 8 x 10, 8-page color section and almost 100 black and white photos, plus 230 drawings by Deanne Bednar. Source lists, bibliography, the only full glossary of Natural Building, seven appendices including Codes and Permits, Earthquakes, Research Needed and Training Opportunities.
- 10 chapters of step-by-step how to do it, 9 chapters of background, including design, siting, budgeting and site preparation.
- Explains how to make a durable, snug, fireproof, bugproof house with cob, a handmade composite of earth, sand, straw and water.
Join the hundreds of people who are already building their own earthen greenhouse, courtyard walls, sauna, oven, cottage or house with cob, the easiest and oldest hand-building system.
 More about Rocket Mass Heaters:
Superefficient Woodstoves YOU Can Build
purchase
This book is the second edition to Rocket Stoves to Heat Cob Buildings published by Cob Cottage
Company.
Drawings, descriptions and photos are improved and added to. This time, they provide more
clear instruction on the brick assembly, the part of building rocket stove that is all
in the design, and mechanically somewhat baffling until you actually do it a few times.
The case studies and color photos will get you
thinking about the possibilities, and there are extended Troubleshooting and Question-and-Answer sections.
The Glossary is still practically non-existent, testament to how simple this is.
From the Introduction, by Ianto Evans:
"Here is a superefficient wood fired heater you can build for yourself in a weekend for
less than a hundred dollars. This book explains in detail exactly how to build one, then how
to use it in a range of applications.
We discuss materials: where to find them, what to pay and how to make use of found and
recycled parts. The section on fire and fuels is thorough but simple; we tried to keep away
from numbers wherever possible.
There are success stories, case studies, references and where to find further
information, all heavily illustrated. Home heating can be expensive both in capital
equipment and in running costs. If we heat by gas, oil or electricity we are supporting a
big corporation and impoverishing ourselves.
The new woodstoves are no longer craftsman-made locally. When we buy them, we are paying
a distant corporation which sometimes ships them in from Europe. Wood for heating usually
supports the local economy and it is completely renewable energy.
By building an extra efficient heating system you will be one more big step off the
treadmill and your move to self-sufficiency and true wealth. Good luck with your stove!"
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 More about A Handmade Life:
In Search of Simplicity
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Winner of The Nautilus Award 2004 in Ecology/Environment, Honoring Distinguished Literary Contribution to Conscious Living and Positive Social Change.
If you believe in “learning by doing,” here is my personal recommendation for an important book to add to your Library.
-- Kiko Denzer
William Coperthwaite lives in one of the most beautiful houses I’ve ever stepped into – it also happens to be the only round house I’ve ever been in that really works.
He has filled it with many wonderful things he has made, by hand, or books about things that others have made. Perhaps most surprisingly beautiful was the hand made scotch
tape dispenser that sat on his writing desk. When I admired it, he said: “why must I have some large ugly plastic thing on my desk?” His book asks and answers similar questions
about everything in our lives:
“Can you have ‘culture’ without violence?”
“Is beauty useful?”
“Are justice, democracy, and peace possible if most all of our technologies require violence?”
For the past 47 years, Coperthwaite has walked the same mile and a half trail from the road to his home – or has canoed the waterways to town.
When he has to carry heavy stuff down the trail, he uses a hand-made wheelbarrow with a Chinese-inspired shoulder strap that makes the load almost effortless.
Why don’t all wheelbarrows come with such straps!? He cooks and heats with wood, which he cuts by hand (he uses just a cord and a half a year). His most basic,
useful, and important tools for daily living – his wooden house, bowls, and spoons – he made himself, by hand. Last winter he made brooms, several examples of which
stand at the ready in various corners.
When someone gave me his book, I was at first suspicious. It was big, with large-format, glossy color photos of beautiful landscapes, tools, and buildings. But then I started to read,
and found the thoughts, experiences, stories, and designs of a (now) 77 year old man who has spent the better part of his life working by hand and with others. He knows
why he does it, and it was nourishing to find someone who could carefully and lovingly explain many things which I have felt, and known, but not often heard (much less said myself):
“The quality of a thing comes from the knowledge and beauty it carries more than from its expense.”
“The home is the center of education and emotional security, two of the essential elements of a healthy society. More and more, the functions of the home have been taken over by the
school, but a school is no substitute for family, no matter how fine the instructors or expensive the equipment…. There is no foundation more crucial than the sensitive care of the
young in building a sane society. What mental insolvency has overtaken us that we can allow the core of our culture to be so denigrated and weakened? What a failure of design!
He also gave me practical directions for the simplest shaving horse I’ve ever come across; a crook knife that I could make with nothing more than a hammer, a vise, a file, and a drill;
and a “democratic axe” as well as numerous toys and games that have made handy games and/or lessons for both kids and adults.
Here is a wise voice to remind you that life is personal, intimate, beautiful and passionate; that the beauty of nature is, despite science, still miraculous; that the singing of the birds is
more important than asking why they sing. So consider all the “stuff” you take for granted as “essential” to life: car, house, plumbing, wiring; glass, steel, and concrete; paper, ink, and
printing. What would it be like to undertake the adventure of living in such a miraculously beautiful world with tools that are equally beautiful and miraculous?
William Coperthwaite is a Maine native who has spent much of his life researching folk-art and subsistence skills around the world. In addition to designing, adapting, and building
hundreds of yurts, he has also helped to illuminate and inspire uncounted numbers of trained and untrained builders. He has a doctorate from the Harvard School of Education, and
has taught in a variety of innovative settings. His Yurt Foundation promotes sensible and economical self-reliance through workshops, lectures, and publications. They publish a
beautiful calendar that is available for $12 from The Yurt Foundation, Dickinson’s Reach, Machiasport, ME, 04655.
Peter Forbes is a long-time leader in the American land conservation movement, both through his work with the Trust for Public Land and his talks, writings, and photography.
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