It is always based on what I see, what is touching me.' For more than fifty years, Klaus Moje devoted his life to the art of glass. He called it the 'most seductive' medium, and in his hands it had the power to delight and amaze collectors around the world. His lifetime's work changed the practice and appreciation of contemporary glass. Moje's philosophy of 'working into the hopeful' and his passion for the colour and geometry he saw in the natural world shone through his kilnformed glass works, a technique he pioneered. Moje was both artist and educator. After an apprenticeship in his father's small glass-cutting and glass-grinding business and a masters degree at the Glasfachschule Hadamar, Moje established his Hamburg studio. In 1982, he moved to Australia to set up the Glass Workshop at the Canberra School of Art, one of the most successful glass education programs in the world. Following 10 years teaching, Moje returned to full-time studio work. His life and art inspired many who chose to work with this medium. In Glass: The Life and Art of Klaus Moje, art historian Nola Anderson celebrates the creativity and artistic spirit of this remarkable artist.

Exploring some of the world's eeriest places, Abandoned Islands features American civil war forts, Europe's last leper colony and South Atlantic whaling stations, along with once grand mansions and colonial settlements and churches, and much more. Arranged geographically, the book takes us from New York's East River to islands off Alaska, from a French Napoleonic-era fort off the coast of Normandy to deserted villages on remote Scottish isles, from Venetian sanatoria to Croatian penal colonies, Japanese mining colonies to Sudanese deserted ports and abandoned atolls in the Indian Ocean. Leafing through these pages, the reasons for abandonment are revealed: climate change sealing off fresh water or river channels, shifting economic forces making life too hard, religious conflict, or wars disrupting daily life - or the absence of war rendering a military settlement unnecessary. With more than 180 outstanding colour photographs and fascinating captions, Abandoned Islands is a brilliant pictorial exploration of lost worlds.

This fully colour illustrated work covers the most artistically progressive period for British table cutlery between 1870 and 1940, and maps its evolution through a series of artistic periods, including Art Deco and the Arts & Crafts revival, to the present day. For the humble spoon, the Arts & Craft period brought in new and exotic styles developed from the changing taste that sprang from the Great Exhibition of 1851. The artistic styles were largely based around natural form and many makers turned against the mass production of the industrial age. The golden age for Liberty & Company provided a platform for designers such as Archibald Knox, Oliver Baker, Bernard Cuzner and the Silver Studio with their bold, and often-colourful, designs for spoons. The rise of women who rivalled their male counterparts in design and craft, particularly in the fields of jewellery and small silverware, was particularly significant at this time.

Anyone with a little persistence and the desire can learn to draw well--this is the starting point of "The Fundamentals of Drawing," a practical and comprehensive course for students of all abilities. Opportunities for practice and improvement are offered across a wide spectrum of subjects--still life, plants, landscapes, animals, figure drawing, and portraiture--and supported by the demonstration of a broad range of skills and techniques, including perspective and composition.

This is the true story of a robin who lives in my garden among fences, hedges, shrubs, trees, stacks of pots and bricks and the vine on my balcony. Lickel Bird or LB, responded to human company and showed remarkable trust and attachment. During my daily contact with him I watched him perform many tasks. These observational snapshots have given me a window into his world and allowed me to share some of his busy life in all its ups and downs. He watched me in my garden long before he trusted me enough to see I was on the side of small birds and that I would be there for him in his hour of need and what he needed most in his life was food.