Creative Woodworks & crafts 2002-04, страница 60

BERRY BASKET'S "PATTERNS ON CD™"

Reviewed by Bob Ford

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Its time has come, and what a great idea! 1 knew it was just a matter of time before someone in the scrollsaw pattern industry would come up with a CD pattern catalogue, and Rick and Karen Longabaugh of The Berry Basket have done just that.

Now you have the convenience of accessing hundreds of quality scrollsaw patterns right in your own home. You can print these patterns off the CD from your home computer and be cutting out your project within minutes. No more running to your local copy center each time you want a copy of a pattern. The quality of the printed patterns is terrific; I even tried printing some patterns on an old pin-type printer and the quality of the patterns was better than I expected. Each CD comcs with a wide variety of patterns, and Kick and Karen have also included colored photos of many of the completed projects.

Rick and Karen have done a nice job of making then CD's very user friendly, requiring only the most basic computer skills. Simply insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive on vour computer and it will automatically open to the beginning of the CD. From there, simply "point" and "click" on the different menu items on the bottom of the page to navigate through the well-organized sections. They have made the CD's compatible with both PC and Mac computers. We ran the CD's on an older 233 MHz PC computer and found that it was neither

loo slow nor uncomfortable to move around and view the information. It will take a while the first time you view a CD to get an overview of all the information and patterns therein; however, once you have done that it bccomes very easy to pinpoint the patterns of your choice as they arc listed by name and "page" number.

Rick and Karen have also included in each CD very detailed "How-To" instructions for completing the patterns, with topics ranging from material selection to applying the pattern to your material, to cutting tips, to finishing techniques. They have left nothing uncovered so that even the beginner should have no problem attempting these patterns.

TO sum up: great product, excellent value, very well done, and something that I think will be an asset for anyone to add to their pattern library. Rick and Karen have seven CD's currently available and are planning to release several more over the next few months. I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before other pattern designers follow in Rick and Karen's footsteps!

For more information, contact The Berry Banker, P.O. Box 925, Ceniralia, WA 98531; 800-206-9009; www.be.riybasket.com; E-mail: bbasket@berrybasket.com Also see their ad on page 15 of this issue. Srj

IB • Creative Woodworks S. Crafts April S002