Summary
Current Price: £10.29 / 12.27 Number of Pages: 80 Size: 28 x 25cm Paper colour: Ivory Paper surface: Smooth Paper thickness: Very Good Linework: Bold, sketchy Perforated: No One sided: Yes Binding: Glue Drawings go into the spine: No Waterbased pen bleed: None
I love olde worlde stuff so the covers of these books appealed to me instantly but I found I was surprised by the style of illustration inside, though not unpleasantly. These books feel very vintage and nostalgic, both in the physical feel of the book and the type of drawings it contains.
The Curiosity Shoppe is described as "A Magical & Mad Exploration of a Most Amusing & Unexpected Assemblage of Novelties & Oddities" -- quite the introduction! And indeed it is full of old-fashioned curio from days gone by, like stepping into an old dusty shop you've never noticed and discovering a menagerie of treasures inside. The Sweet Shoppe harks back to the days you could visit your local confectioners after school and spend a few pennies on your favourite toffee chews and caramel-filled chocolates. With beautiful glass jars full of sugar-coated goodies, colourfully wrapped sweets glinting like jewels atop the balance scale, luxuriously rich truffles and tooth-cracking jawbreakers, this book will get your mouth watering with memories of more carefree times. Here are my video flip-throughs of each book.
The books open from the bottom and fold up as opposed to the more standard side-opening A4 portrait style. The covers both feature foiling to the titles in gold and pink respectively, and the cover stock itself is a thick watercolour card texture which adds to the luxury feel.
The paper is an ivory stock that is thick enough to take waterbased markers with barely a shadow on the reverse, not that it is an issue as all the illustrations are one-sided. It has a very smooth surface and quite a flat tooth, so pencils should lay down well. The line art is the biggest 'make or break' factor in these books as I think it's a bit like Marmite (or Vegemite for my Oz readers) -- you either like it or you don't. The artwork has a very darkly shaded, graphic print nature, which I'm not convinced is the ideal linework for a colouring book but certainly appropriate for the subject matter in this case. Here are my finished pictures from the books.
I was given these books in exchange for an honest review. You can find them on Amazon here:
The Curiosity Shoppe Coloring Book The Sweet Shoppe Coloring Book
3 Comments
Karma Lewis
8/10/2016 03:35:50 am
OMG! I just love the Sweet Shoppe coloring book!! I will have to find that one for sure. I was totally sold on the Curiosity Shoppe as well until one particular picture was shown. I am deathly terrified of a particular creature, PTSD related fear, and had that one page not come up, I would be adding that book to my wishlist as well. The only way I could do it would be to have my husband find the page and rip it out. :( I do love your flip-throughs and I appreciate that you did one for this book in particular so that I would not buy it and find myself terrified upon receiving it.
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Angela Gray
27/1/2018 04:19:58 am
I just found both of these books in the US in a discount type store called Ollies Bargains. I paid $2.99 American dollars. I am in love with the feel of the paper.
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