Celtic and Old Norse Designs

Book excerpt: Artists, illustrators, designers, and craftspeople in search of exceptionally bold and inventive motifs will find them in this versatile treasury brimming with 125 royalty-free designs. Taken from authentic Celtic and Old Norse sources, they include an amazing array of birds, human figures, and mythological creatures, all ingeniously woven into an intricate network of spirals and interlacings. Meticulously adapted from artwork that graced ancient rune stones and religious symbols, furniture, manuscripts, bronze mirrors, sword hilts, cooking utensils, and other artifacts, the illustrations depict a crucifix; decorative creatures that adorned the pages of the Lindisfarne Gospels; interwoven designs from stone crosses of Ireland, Scotland, and Cornwall; and many other designs and motifs. Convenient and inexpensive, this collection offers inspiration and a wealth of immediately usable dramatic ornamentation rich in character and distinctive in content.