Let's experiment in our art with building up a surface texture, using washes on a sand background, fabric or paper wrinkles, backgrounds with a heavy texture or a still life with a textured gesso background. Using mediums and gels, as modifiers of fluidity, modelling paste, transparency with textures, impasto with a brush or spatula, we can copy or learn for example from the style of Oskar Kokoschka. Add fillers to paint, create a landscape with acrylics or oils over modelling paste and study the style of Julian Schnabel. In the third section Painting Over Textures we look at dripping paint, washes, glazes with acrylics, using newsprint for volume, varnish and wrinkles, wax, a landscape with organic materials, using objects in collage, relief with foam, crackled paint and other atypical textures. The effects are truly stunning and your artworks will definitely be original. Looks great fun as well, with super exercises to follow and a simple text. Packed with colour images, 96pp. One of the excellent Barron's publications.

20+ simple sewing projects and 30+ fresh hand embroidery designs including sweater mittens, a snowflake sweater scarf, floor cushion, clutch bag, sketchbook cover with pencil case, iPad tablet sleeve, drawstring shoe bag and more. The bonus is that this book includes an iron-on transfer sheet with more than 20 unique designs like a kitty and speech bubbles, a sketchbook cover with pencil case, woodland creatures, a feather, a triceratops dinosaur finger puppet, grasshopper, spider, ladybird and butterfly felt brooches, a farmyard moo cow, a bird patchwork tote bag, a turtle and leaves for a playmat among them. They are folded neatly for easy removal under tissue paper at the back of the book. If you love to embroider, the projects in the book will excite rather than intimidate you. Level One skill level involves zero sewing so anyone can do it. Level Two is for sewing beginners and uses primarily straight stitching and only a few steps. Level Three can be completed by a beginner but involves more steps and more complicated skills such as adding zips. There is owl wall art, an octopus quilt, dreamcatcher, an outer space parachute and quirky characters like a tiny hedgehog, a racing elephant for adorable embroidered toys, accessories and home décor items from the quirky Penguin & Fish design company. Large softback packed with colour photos and explanations.

A boho-inspired tassel scarf with a lightweight fabric in a pretty pink and handmade tassels, a stretchy headband, a cute apron requiring just three fat quarters with the addition of a handy waistband pocket, cosy fleece kitties with neck ties and dresses, a chalkboard fabric style bunting banner, a kitchen quilt made with scraps or a touchable textured baby blanket, an appliqué happy cushion, mug rugs (large coasters) with a hexagon design, embroidered flowers on a pretty table runner, a needle keeping case, pin cushions in patchwork and a slightly structured classic shoulder bag with flap and magnetic-snap closure decorated with an Art Nouveau inspired felt flower which could be unclipped to use as a brooch, a go-to tote bag, sturdy and stylish with a zip top, a Cathedral Windows make-up bag or quilted patchwork pouch, here are gifts for everyone on your list, even you. Quick and easy, bright and delightful, thrifty and nifty gifts which can be customised with favourite colours and fabrics and appealing designs for adults and youngsters. 96 page large format softback, colour throughout.

Photographs from the Bluebell Museum Archive from the 1950s and 1960s are collected in this special picture book with extended captions and a special thanks to a gentleman named Chris Turner who first contacted the author about the collection which without his intervention would have ended up in a skip! Around the end of 2007, they opened one of the storage crates to find shoeboxes full of negatives, neatly stored with date and location written on the outside containing over 6,000 negatives, pictures nearly all of trains or locomotives. The photographer was John Smith who worked for British Railways at Croydon in the Divisional Office who had taken many signalling exams and worked for much of his time in the Special Trains area. This was the reason he knew about the interesting workings he photographed, not only superb pictures of the Southern Region era but also many other unusual pictures, never before published. See a Pullman Brake Car no. 80 with fresh paint passing Kentish Town West in September 1955, filming for The Railway Children TV series February 1957, milk trains, new electric locomotives, a Tyneside parcels car, track testing trials, ramblers? excursions, the Merlin which was used in a TV train crash sequence but suffered relatively little damage, a C-Class 060 no. 31297 emerging from the gloom at Holborn and entering a bomb-damaged area September 1956, weed-killing trains which were fascinating if an irregular sight on country routes, a level crossing and a visit to Lewisham one Sunday to photograph the Golden Arrow, 2pm Victoria to Folkestone Harbour. Battle of Britain Class Pacific no.34085 (501 Squadron) is in charge. 5-Bel Pullman Unit no.3051 is an unusual sight leaving Blackfriars in April 1961 with extra passengers in the cab. And there were exhibitions such as Eastbourne in June 1951 and the Modern Railway Exhibition opened 1st July 1957 with a surprising visitor to Southern Metals, the prototype Deltic in company with diesel no. D8000 from Willesden Junction to Battersea for display. Glossy white heavyweight paper has been used to showcase these restored archive photographs to their best possible quality. An album to bring the joy back into nostalgia, finding new photographs of the UK railway seen in the 1950s can be difficult and this is a totally new source. 28 x 22cm, 64 pages, illus.

Sub-titled 'The Changing Face of Aerial Warfare 1940 to the Present Day' defence expert Anthony Tucker-Jones charts the remarkable evolution of aerial warfare and asks can air power alone win a war? That has been a question since the Second World War. Air attacks failed miserably in Vietnam; Operation Linebacker had little effect, while bombing Hanoi just increased hatred for America, yet airstrikes in both Iraq and Libya helped bring about regime changes. No-fly zones may have worked in the Balkans, but they might as well not have been there for Saddam Hussein's Iraq. From the Luftwaffe's massed attack on Britain to NATO's interventions in Libya, the piston engine has been replaced by the jet, and in some cases the pilot has been completely replaced by the microchip and remote control. Carpet bombing is now a global positioning system, and laser pinpointed strikes use precision-guided munitions. Whereas a bomber's greatest enemies were once fighters and flak, these threats have morphed into smart missiles from half a world away. Chapters include Eagle Day, Striking Pearl Harbor, Slaughterer at Kharkov, Typhoons over Normandy, Target Toulon, Death Over the Reich, MiG Alley, Day of the Helicopter, Nam Mud Movers, Niagara, Storm in the Desert and Bombing Tripoli and Rise of the Drone. 220 page softback, 28 pages of illustrations. A History Press publication.

'First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the numerous photographers who had the foresight to record the steam age in Sussex and have permitted me to borrow their cherished and irreplaceable images for publication in this album.' Today Sussex is best known to railway aficionados as the home of the Bluebell Line, Britain's first preserved standard gauge passenger-carrying railway, but at one time the sound of steam could be heard across the country. Many mainline routes had been electrified in the 1930s, but only the passenger services were affected, and well into the BR era, steam traction continued unchallenged on a variety of tasks, ranging from Bulleid Pacifics on long distance and inter-regional expresses, to diminutive LBSCR 'Terriers' pottering around on menial shunting duties. Some distinctive designs such as the elegant Billinton K Class 'Moguls', were closely associated with Sussex and gave the county a special identity. We take a nostalgic journey on the Hellingly Hospital Railway, Hastings to Ashford, Eastbourne to Tunbridge Wells, the East Coast Line, Three Bridges, and visitors to Brighton like the Caledonian Railway 'single' or a GNR no. 1247, the Brighton Line to Hayward Heath, Pulborough to Midhurst, West Grinstead and East Grinstead, Chichester and Shoreham-by-Sea. With reproductions of original tickets, timetables, archive photographs beautifully restored and reproduced, and dozens of colour images on these bright white glossy pages. Large sized, 112pp.

A large sized volume almost entirely pictorial in content with captions, there are rainy day parades, royal visits, a busy day at the Quadrant Bus Station in the early 1980s, a landward view of the city centre from the top of the Meridian Tower 2015, blue sky and sunshine around the Ferris wheel in the grounds of the National Waterfront Museum, rugby players celebrating in style, fire and rescue vehicles, Weaver's Flour Mill before the construction of the river barrage in 1990, the erection of the Liberty Stadium, the steep Constitution Hill, children dressed in period costume, gasholders, a fascinating panorama of the mouth of the River Tawe and Swansea Docks, the original Mumbles Road stand of St Helen?s Rugby, lifeboats and helicopters. The book salutes the city in celebration of the passing of 50 years since Swansea was granted city status. When Charles, then Prince of Wales, declared just two days after his investiture in July 1969 that Swansea was to become a city, he couldn't have realised what an adventurous journey he was launching it on. This is reflected in this fantastic gallery of archive and very nostalgic images, mostly in black and white but with one colour section of 16 pages. 176 very large pages in a Golden Jubilee salute.

A car seat cover, felted clutch bag, cushions, fingerless gloves, beanie hat, scarf, all using the same cable stitch and working narrow sections of ribbing in between two cables along each edge, each of these projects is sure to become a favourite, adding to your wardrobe and making gifts. There is a classic belt which is a cinch to knit and a confidence builder for a beginner. Follow the chart and instructions to knit the six-row repeat until your belt is the correct length. Buckle and go. Knitting basics are given and projects lead up to a spectacular wrap which features a slightly different kind of cable called Twist that are worked with a purl stitch and three knit stitches. Follow the detailed stitch guide and chart, last but not last a classic cable knit sweater. 96 page large softback.

Covering Swansea and the beautiful Gower peninsular, the book includes 20 walks of up to six miles chosen to give you an enjoyable day or half day, and suitable for all members of the family. The first walk of three miles begins in Laugharne, the part of Wales that gave Dylan Thomas to the world, 'the ugly, lovely town' of Swansea. Visit the house in which he was born and brought up and then explore the green oasis of Cymdonkiin Park where he played as a boy. In Margam Country Park, fans of Torchwood and Doctor Who will experience a deja vu as they come across a replica of the TARDIS. Neolithic Chambers testify that while an artificial warren is evidence that it was the Romans who were responsible for unleashing the rabbit upon us, they then introduced it as a source of meat. There are strategic locations including Iron Age Forts and stories of Norman invaders defeated and beheaded, and the barbaric murder of the female hero Princess Gwenllian, whose death resulted in The Great Revolt when all of Wales rose up. In more recent history, the famous female aviator Amy Johnson used Pendine Sands as a runway for one of her record attempts which was later used for the world land speed record attempt. Includes OS style colour maps blown up to a large size, colour photos and very clear steps through each tour to Llandeilo, Llanelli, Pembrey, Rhossili and Gnoll among the 20 chosen walks. 96 page pocket size paperback, colour. Last sold at

Welsh troops fought with great courage in every theatre of war - the Western Front, Aden, China, Gallipoli, Egypt, India, Italy, Salonika and in Palestine, as well as suffering casualties during these campaigns, many men gain recognition for acts of gallantry. The book chronicles the events and battles they took part in together with stories of many individual casualties and compelling photographs of the men and their last resting places. The book records the stories of the Welsh troops involved in the Third Battalion of Ypres, from the Welsh Battalions of the 19th (Western) Division at Messines Ridge, through the storming of the Pilckem Ridge by the 38th (Welsh) Division and the Guards Division, and the Welsh troops who fought in the final offensives at Passchendaele Ridge. The actions of Welsh troops during the Battle of Cambrai carry through to the final winter of the war and the volume records the suffering of Welsh troops during the desperate German Kaiserschlacht offensives of the spring of 1918, and carries through the summer of 1918 when the 38th (Welsh) Division moved back to the Somme, to the actions of Welsh troops during the 100 Days Offensive that finally ended the First World War. The volume covers the stories of the final battles in Italy, Salonika and Palestine which saw Welsh troops play a large role. The units cover include regular regiments the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, South Wales Borderers, Welsh Regiment and Welsh Guards, as well as the Territorial Monmouthshire Regiment, the Yeomanry Regiments - the Denbighshire Hussars, Pembroke Yeomanry, Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, Glamorgan Yeomanry and Welsh Horse Yeomanry - and their amalgamation into service battalions for the regular regiments during 1917. A heavyweight Pen & Sword publication packed with archive illustrations reproduced as best as possible and maps. 328pp.