Contemporary craft, art and design are inseparable from the flows of production and consumption under global capitalism. The New Politics of the Handmade features twenty-three voices who critically rethink the handmade in this dramatically shifting economy. The authors examine craft within the conditions of extreme material and economic disparity; a renewed focus on labour and materiality in contemporary art and museums; the political dimensions of craftivism, neoliberalism, and state power; efforts toward urban renewal and sustainability; the use of digital technologies; and craft's connections to race, cultural identity and sovereignty in texts that criss-cross five continents. They claim contemporary craft as a dynamic critical position for understanding the most immediate political and aesthetic issues of our time.

With a mix of illustrated step-by-step guides for beginners and more pared-down pattern profiles for advanced carvers, this compilation is perfect for carvers of all skill levels. The featured patterns and projects are from some of today's leading carving experts, including Shawn Cipa, Floyd Rhadigan, Chris Pye, Don Dearolf, Rick Jensen, Robert Biermann, and Sandy Smith. With step-by-step instructions and colour photos, readers are guaranteed a very merry carving experience.

Thomas Hennell (1903-45) said his aim was to 'surprise his subject' - to capture the transient quality of the moment. In watercolour he found his perfect medium, producing work which was, as his fellow artist Edward Bawden said, 'fully expressive and technically perfect'. During an idyllic childhood in rural Kent Hennell discovered his love of the English countryside. He explored its fields, farms and woods, and later, travelling on a rusty old bicycle, developed an appreciation of England's traditions and crafts. Much of his work records the countryside in a state of change, imbuing his sense of loss with poetic intensity. In the early 1930s, Hennell suffered a severe breakdown and later described the three years he spent in mental hospitals in his memoir The Witnesses (1938), an astonishing document in a period when stigma still attached to mental illness. Hennell's remarkable talent for friendship survived his years of mental turmoil. Jessica Kilburn's new biography brings Hennell the man vividly to life through extracts from his letters to friends and personal accounts by people who knew him. As this richly illustrated book shows, the artist's final years were exceptionally productive. In 1943 Hennell was appointed an official war artist, yielding commissions in Iceland and northern Europe. After the pastoral evocations of inter-war England, his portrayal of war's brutality is shocking: devastated French towns, emaciated prisoners of war. At the war's end, Hennell received a final posting to the Far East. Tragically, he was caught up in the struggle for independence in Java and in late October 1945 disappeared in circumstances which Jessica Kilburn recreates more fully than in any previous account. Thomas Hennell was born into a remarkable generation of English artists that included Eric Ravilious, John Piper, Graham Sutherland and Barbara Hepworth. His peers regarded him as one of their finest creative talents; Jessica Kilburn's sensitive and deeply researched new biography restores this unjustly neglected artist to his rightful place in the history of twentieth-century English art.

Defining Decadence The legacy of Gustav Klimt A century after his death, Viennese artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) still startles with his unabashed eroticism, dazzling surfaces, and artistic experimentation. This monograph gathers all of Klimt's major works alongside authoritative art historical commentary and privileged access to the artist's archive with some 179 letters, cards, writings, and other documents. With top quality illustration, including new photography of the celebrated Stoclet Frieze, the book follows Klimt through his prominent role in the Secessionist movement of 1897, his candid rendering of the female body, and his lustrous "golden phase" when gold leaf brought a shimmering tone and texture to such beloved works as The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, also known as The Woman in Gold. Through luminous spreads and carefully curated details, the monograph traces the repertoire of Japanese, Byzantine, and allegorical stimuli that informed Klimt's flattened perspectives, his symbolic vocabulary, and his mosaic-like textures. Drawing upon contemporary critics and voices, the book also examines the art world's polarized reception to Klimt's pictures as much as his own stylistic trajectory. From his landscape painting to erotic works to the controversial ceiling for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna, we see how Klimt's admixture of tradition and daring divided the press and public, becried by some as a pornographer, hailed by others as a modern maestro.

Ages 6 to 12 yearsMake your very own bracelet!The BRAZILIAN BRACELET is the South American cousin of the traditional FRIENDSHIP BRACELET. When a friendship bracelet is tied on the wrist of a friend, that friend can make a wish. Then, the bracelet must remain on the friend's wrist until it falls off on its own. At that moment, the WISH comes true. Some believe that the charm will be broken if the bracelet is taken off before it falls off on its own.But you won't have to wait for your beautiful BRAZILIAN BRACELET to fall off. Complete with the SEED BEADS and RIBBON, it can easily be removed using the magnetic clasp!