Town and Country Crafts: Victorian Crafts Video, Vol. 1

"Seven different Victorian heirlooms to craft," states the video box, and that should give viewers pause. How can someone in 1997 "craft" a Victorian "heirloom"? What producer and demonstrator Kathy Peterson does instead is whack up, glue down, and embellish historic artifacts in order to make "wonderful, wonderful" doodads. Recycling an old tablecloth by applying doilies on top doesn't seem too bad, but making a framed arrangement using old letters as a background for doilies and ribbons is another matter. One can only hope the letters which are cut, burned around the edges, glued down to unarchival backing and covered with glued-on froufrou are not great-great-gramps' missives from Gettysburg. Like the decoupage craze of the 1970s, when people glazed heirloom letters under permanent layers of (now very yellow) varnish, one sincerely hopes viewers will consider their family's "old letters" as something more valuable than mere decor. When the "country/Victorian" fad of lacy, ribbony furbelows has passed, these doily pictures will be chucked out just like the decoupage and macramé crafts of the '70s. Aside from errors in judgment, this program has other, more immediate, weaknesses. While too basic for anyone conversant with craft making, it is not readily accessible for beginners. Materials and tools are mentioned without explanation of what they are or where to find them, and some major details of construction are not demonstrated. How will a beginner manage to follow Peterson's order to finish a project ("just whipstitch the sides closed") if he or she has never threaded a needle? Not recommended. Aud: P (R. Reagan)