This thread was inspired by seeing the book info posted by Ginger Art in the Thanksgiving Turkey thread.
I am always on the hunt for new gingerbread designs and books, almost everything I get comes from overseas (Australia for some reason doesn't seem to get into gingerbread, or Halloween all that much).
I love looking at all the patterns and pics here for inspiration, as well as making them, but also would love to have a library shelf full of gingerbread books to call upon
Can anyone here recommend their favourite/go to books?
I already have Teresa Layman's Gingerbread for all seasons and love it to bits, and have ordered her other book too, but I'm sure there's more out there if you know where to find it, or get some helpful hints from people already in the know
Cheers
KT
Hi again...I have about 40 gingerbread books and I think Teresa's are by far the best. If you need anything...just ask and I will scan some for you.
Lol! Somehow I knew you were going to have a bazillion books to go with all those Good Housekeeping magazines G.A!
Glad I hit the nail on the head with Teresa, I certainly found her book to be quite brilliant. As a relative beginner her techniques and designs were extremely well implemented and easy to follow, and yet the finish had a very professional look to it, and I find myself using a lot of her techniques as substitutes in other projects. In fact the lighthouse in my avatar is from her book and was my very first GB project that went beyond my annual Gingerbread house party with friends and the generic cut/bake/build/decorate houses we made for Christmas fun.
I've also found books by Allen Bragden (as you mentioned in the other thread), Aaron Morgan, Susan Matheson and Nonnie Cargas, of which only the newest Allen Bragden is readily available in Australia.
Any comments/reviews/recommendations on or related to the above books? Since I have to ship them in I can't get a feel for their content and pattern styles very well (internet shopping lacks the charm of standing in a book store and flipping through a book to see if it's what you're looking for).
I hate to see you spend money on books that aren't worth it...and all that you named in my opinion are not! LOL
They are mostly photos of other people's houses...they lack patterns, and if they have them you must still design your ow templates from their measurements. I have every cake/gumpaste/gingerbread book known to man, and sadly disappointed by almost all of them.
With that said...nonnie cargas book and the gingerbread architect do have patterns for most of the structures.
the architect one you have to resize every single pattern though.
I think with both of teresa's books you can combine the template pieces and come up with just about anything as far as basic houses go.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the feedback GingerArt. You make excellent points. While books are fantastic, and I do have many as well, you are correct that most of them require enlarging the pattern pieces, they are not ready-to-go-as-is. This is why for many many years now, I have been providing ready-to-use gingerbread patterns.
Thanks to both of you for your excellent advice. I am so glad I didn't buy the (rather expensive) books, based on your comments I suspect I would have been very disappointed.
G.E - I fell in love with your patterns back on Ultimate Gingerbread, and loved making Effingham house last year. You've done a wonderful job of preparing patterns for us to download.
G.A - is there anything in particular that is awe-inspiring in the Nonnie Cargas book, some style of object that isn't already covered in the patterns here and in Teresa's books?
No, they are all just the basic houses already covered time and time again...LOL
The Gingerbread Architect book has some rather odd yet interesting houses in it though.
But not worth retail. All patterns must be resized. Try half.ebay.com or one of the online used bookstores like alibris or abebooks.
Thanks for the info GA. I'll look into second hand options
In the meantime, I've got enough work to go on with, just from the patterns here!
