How to Build with Bamboo: 19 Projects You Can do at Home

Bamboo is just as versatile outside the house as it is inside the house. Building a fence, creating a waterwheel, and designing your own garden gate are fun outdoor projects with bamboo. Getting started is a snap-the book's simple color reference coding allows you to pick a project from easy to advanced. Tools and materials needed are clearly noted before you even begin, and diagrams with easy step-by-step directions make crafting simple. How to Build with Bamboo will delight the imagination and intrigue the mind.

Bamboo will surprise and delight you with its many uses. Easy-to-create projects include:

Fountain

Burmese ball

Porch swing

Jewelry box

Outdoor fence

Once hard to find, bamboo is now readily available at local home and gardening centers.

Library Journal

To most North Americans, bamboo is a fairly exotic material, but in many parts of the world it is common. Surprisingly, many varieties can be successfully grown in temperate climates, while others are available via mail order. This is fortunate for do-it-yourselfers who may want to experiment with bamboo, which has a number of attractive properties, e.g., its lightweight strength and interesting appearance. Scheer, who has been working with bamboo for 20 years, presents techniques for working with this grass and instructions for 20 projects of varying difficulty, including lamps, a box, a rain stick, earrings, a screen door, a bed frame, a water wheel, and a fence. Common woodworking tools can be used, but owing to bamboo's unique structure and tendency to split, specific techniques are needed to cut, drill, or join it together successfully. The instructions are clear and should help readers master the quirks of working with bamboo. Larger public libraries should consider, especially if bamboo grows nearby or is readily available. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Jo Scheer has been designing, producing, and marketing his bamboo creations for almost twenty years. With a thorough background in science, he has been a teacher, researcher, technician, and inventor, as well as a builder, contractor, sailor, and artist. He has built, furnished, and now markets a bamboo-appointed vacation home in Rincon, Puerto Rico.