Harvey Daniels (2) (1936–)

This book was part of a body of works produced by Hamlyn during the mid 1970s under their 'Hobby Horses' series, intended to give middle school children an idea of different pass-times they could explore. I have only ever seen three books in this series however. This one on Printing by Harvey Daniels, Collecting by Jennifer Curry, and Modeling and Sculpture by Dennis Huntley. I know of no others, so I assume that this publishing project reached a premature dead-end due to poor reception. If that is truly the case, then I can guess why. Whereas the books are beautifully produced, with full colour printing and illustrated with plenty of photographs and illustrations; the text itself is somewhat lacking in both quantity as wall as quality. There are brief descriptions of the various processes and a few ideas for potential projects thrown at you, but very little in the way of any great detail, which a novice to the craft would certainly require.
If the Hamlyn Hobby Horses series produced a similar book in driving a car, there would be lots of photographs if different cars driving through country roads and on motorways; they would show you the four wheels, how to lower the window glass, how to keep it clean etc. Then they would tell you what the three peddles did, how the gear stick worked, and how to start the engine on a cold day. You would then be expected to know how to drive a car.

Likewise, this book is divided into two parts and covers the main processes of printing, flat and also raised. These are:
Stencils, rubbings, potato cuts, wood cuts, spray prints, glue prints, string prints, transfer rubbings, collage blocks, transfer, drawings, roller offset, lino cuts, card prints, stamps, monoprints.

It was expected that from this information a child should be able to work through this book on their own - especially if they use the glossary at the back for explanations of any unfamiliar words.
For example:
Intaglio A print taken from indentations lower than the surface of the plate or block being printed.
Planographic Printed from a flat surface (i.e. lithography, screen printing).

This was exactly the type of book aunts would give their little nieces and nephews as a present.
As an adult with some understanding of the processes involved, I think that there are a lot of great ideas in this book and it does inspire me to want to try stuff out. As a parent, I would not expect my child to feel the same way.
Perhaps in the hands of a very gifted child, or as a home schooling resource where an adult is taking charge of the lessons and already has some aptitude to crafts in general, I think that it may work better.
I expect the other books in this series on 'Collecting' and 'Modeling and Sculpture' may be more suitable for independent working; but something which requires a fair amount of set-up, a lot of mess involving sticky oil based inks, turpentine/white spirits, sharp knives and carving tools is not something most 10 year olds could be trusted in doing without total supervision, which most parents would simply not have the time to do regularly enough to allow this to become a child's hobby.
It is not a 'bad' book, just poorly marketed I feel.

Having said all that; I'm an adult with a fair aptitude for general art and crafts, who has not done lino cutting in 35 years. I picked up this book for 30 pence; so, I'm fairly happy with my purchase. It's all a matter of perspective.

Found typos:
page 37, line 15: "try cutting 'directley' into lino" not 'firectley'… (meer)