cover image Brandywine Critters: Nature Crafts from Brandywine Christmas

Brandywine Critters: Nature Crafts from Brandywine Christmas

Brandywine Conservancy. Good Books, $16.95 (96pp) ISBN 978-1-56148-178-1

Brandywine Critters were born in 1971 at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadd's Ford, Pa., when volunteers transformed woodland materials such as pine cones, teasel pods, milkweed cases and dried flowers and corn husks into a variety of cute animals, angels, historical figures and storybook characters. Critter construction, according to this down-to-earth manual, takes little more than a hot glue gun, good dried stuff and a roving imagination. Directions for making the 27 figures here come with detailed instructions, an illustration and a ranking of its level of difficulty: beginner (reindeer, koala, musical notes) intermediate (elephant, camel, duck in eggshell) or advanced (Santa Claus, hedgehog choir, Goldilocks and the Three Bears). An opening chapter counsels on how to collect and preserve the natural materials needed to create critters. (Oct.)