Initiating readers in the fascinating and complex history of witchcraft, from the goddess mythologies of ancient cultures to the contemporary embrace of the craft by modern artists and activists, this expansive tome conjures up a breathtaking overview of an age-old tradition. Rooted in legend, folklore, and myth, the archetype of the witch has evolved from the tales of Odysseus and Circe, the Celtic seductress Cerridwen, and the myth of Hecate, fierce ruler of the moonlit night. In Witchcraft we survey her many incarnations since, as she shape-shifts through the centuries, alternately transforming into mother, nymph, and crone-seductress and destroyer. Edited by Jessica Hundley, and co-edited by author, scholar, and practitioner Pam Grossman, this enthralling visual chronicle is the first of its kind, a deep dive into the complex symbologies behind witchcraft traditions, as explored through the history of art itself. The witch has played muse to great artists throughout time, from the dark seductions of Francisco Jose de Goya and Albrecht Durer to the elegant paean to the magickal feminine as re-imagined by the Surrealist circle of Remedios Varo, Leonora Carrington, and Leonor Fini. The witch has spellbound through folktales and dramatic literature as well, from the poison apples of The Brothers Grimm, to the Weird Sisters gathered at their black cauldron in Shakespeare's Macbeth, to L. Frank Baum's iconic Wicked Witch of the West, cackling over the fate of Dorothy. Throughout this entrancing visual voyage, we'll also bear witness to the witch as she endures persecution and evolves into empowerment, a contemporary symbol of bold defiance and potent nonconformity. Featuring enlightening essays by modern practitioners like Kristen J. Sollee and Judika Illes, as well interviews with authors and scholars such as Madeline Miller and Juliet Diaz, Witchcraft includes a vast range of cultural traditions that embrace magick as spiritual exploration and creative catharsis. About the series The Library of Esoterica explores how centuries of artists have given form to mysticism, translating the arcane and the obscure into enduring, visionary works of art. Each subject is showcased through both modern and archival imagery culled from private collectors, libraries, and museums around the globe. The result forms an inclusive visual history, a study of our primal pull to dream and nightmare, and the creative ways we strive to connect to the divine.

Art & Fear is about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Drawing on the authors' own experiences as two working artists, the book delves into the internal and external challenges to making art in the real world, and shows how they can be overcome every day. First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic, and word-of-mouth has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity. Written by artists for artists, it offers generous and wise insight into what it feels like to sit down at your easel or keyboard, in your studio or performance space, trying to do the work you need to do. Every artist, whether a beginner or a prizewinner, a student or a teacher, faces the same fears - and this book illuminates the way through them.

This powerful and insightful work offers a bold celebration of the innovative, brilliant artists reclaiming the idea of 'women's work'. In the history of western art, decorative and applied arts - including textiles and ceramics - have been separated from the 'high arts' of painting and sculpture and deemed to be more suitable for women. Artists began to reclaim and redefine these materials and methods, energizing them with expressions of identity and imagination. Women's Work tells the story of this radical change, highlighting some of the modern and contemporary artists who dared to defy this hierarchy and who, through, experimentation and invention, transformed their medium. The work of these women has helped underscore the ongoing value of these art forms within the history of art, championing 'women's work' as powerful mediums worthy of celebration. With biographical entries on each artist featured, as well as beautiful images of their artworks, Women's Work raises up the work of these visionary and groundbreaking artists, telling their stories and examining their artistic legacies.

This 'multi-tasking' book provides 18 art glass designs including birds, flowers, geometric, southwest and oceanscape motifs. Each of these designs is shown in colour, accompanied with 4 illustrations revealing alternative shapes and configurations. But the innovation doesn't stop there A 7-page instruction section includes headings such as: Customising Your Patterns; Colour Decisions; Pattern Making; and Pattern Enlarging (5 methods). Plus crafters are offered basic training on using the designs for Fused Glass applications as well as systematic instruction for traditional Mosaic assembly techniques. Clear directions, step-by-step photographs, and a variety of alternatives for each design combine to make this book a top value for every glass craft enthusiast, no matter where their interests may be located.

From the beginning of human history, individuals across cultures and belief systems have looked to the sky for meaning. The movement of celestial bodies and their relation to our human lives has been the central tenant of astrology for thousands of years. The practice has both inspired reverence and worship, and deepened our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. While modern-day horoscopes may be the most familiar form of astrological knowledge, their lineage reaches back to ancient Mesopotamia. As author Andrea Richards recounts in Astrology, the second volume in TASCHEN's Library of Esoterica series, astronomy and astrology were once sister sciences: the King's Chamber of the Great Pyramid at Giza was built to align with constellations, Persian scholars oversaw some of the first observatories, and even Galileo cast horoscopes for the Medicis. But with the Enlightenment and the birth of exact science, the practice moved to places where mystery was still permitted, inspiring literature, art, and psychology, and influenced artists and thinkers such as Goethe, Byron, and Blake. Later movements like the Theosophists and the New Agers, would thrust the practice into the mainstream. Edited by Jessica Hundley, this vibrant visual history of Western astrology is the first ever compendium of its kind, exploring the symbolic meaning behind more than 400 images, from Egyptian temples and illuminated manuscripts to contemporary art from across the globe. Works by artists from Alphonese Mucha and Hilma af Klint to Arpita Singh and Manzel Bowman are sequenced to mirror the spin of the planets and the wheel of the zodiac. With wisdom from new interviews with astrologers like Robert Hand, Jessica Lanyadoo, and Mecca Woods, Astrology celebrates the stars and their mysterious influence on our everyday lives. About the series The Library of Esoterica explores how centuries of artists have given form to mysticism, translating the arcane and the obscure into enduring, visionary works of art. Each subject is showcased through both modern and archival imagery culled from private collectors, libraries, and museums around the globe. The result forms an inclusive visual history, a study of our primal pull to dream and nightmare, and the creative ways we strive to connect to the divine.

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!

Rob Kesseler works in the liminal space between fine art, design, craft and science. He moves easily between disciplines to engage fully with the art and science of the world around us. From ceramics to furniture and drawing to photography, Up Close presents his most thought-provoking and beautiful works in a creative collage, arranged thematically, mixing images and texts that have inspired him, especially the exotic forms and luscious colours of the plant world.

Capture the wonders of nature in watercolour with this quick guide to wildlife painting, packed with techniques and inspiration. Bestselling author Hazel Soan demonstrates how to paint a variety of wildlife, from garden favourites to exotic wild beasts. With easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step exercises, it has never been easier to capture the likeness of an animal, in your chosen medium, in a few quick strokes. The book covers all the key skills you need, including techniques for speed, capturing pose and proportion, advice on painting fur, feathers, hair, hides and markings, working with colour and light, and adding background and setting, as well as further work that can be completed in the studio. From cats, big and small, birds and foxes to magnificent elephants, lions and zebras, Hazel's simple tips, practical demonstrations and beautiful paintings can be applied to any moving subject and will help you master the art of capturing animals - in watercolour, oils, pencils or pastels - in no time at all.

Francine Prose's life of Caravaggio evokes the genius of this great artist through a brilliant reading of his paintings. Caravaggio defied the aesthetic conventions of his time; his use of ordinary people, realistically portrayed-street boys, prostitutes, the poor, the aged-was a profound and revolutionary innovation that left its mark on generations of artists. His insistence on painting from nature, on rendering the emotional truth of experience, whether religious or secular, makes him an artist who speaks across the centuries to our own time. In "Caravaggio", Francine Prose presents the brief but tumultuous life of one of the greatest of all painters with passion and acute sensitivity.

The artist Mark Hearld finds his inspiration in the flora and fauna of the British countryside: a blue-eyed jay perched on an oak branch; two hares enjoying the spoils of an allotment; a mute swan standing at the frozen water's edge; and a sleek red fox prowling the fields. Hearld admires such twentieth-century artists as Edward Bawden, John Piper, Eric Ravilious and Enid Marx, and, like them, he chooses to work in a range of media - paint, print, collage, textiles and ceramics. Work Book is the first collection of Hearld's beguiling art. The works are grouped into nature-related themes introduced by Hearld, who narrates the story behind some of his creations and discusses his influences. He explains his particular love of collage, which he favours for its graphic quality and potential for strong composition. Art historian Simon Martin contributes an essay on Hearld's place in the English popular-art tradition, and also meets Hearld in his museum-like home to explore the artist's passion for collecting objects, his working methods and his startling ability to view the wonders of the natural world as if through a child's eyes.

Drawing On Anxiety is a beautifully illustrated, interactive, timely and friendly art therapy journal to draw out, draw on and draw through in anxious times. Part memoir, part self-help and self-care, this creative journal full of guided prompts and grounding affirmations is a mindful, positive tool for exploring your body's natural response to stress. Illustrator and author Kate Sutton draws on her own personal experiences of dealing with anxiety to create a warm and friendly journal that encourages you to be kind to yourself, take a moment and explore your feelings through the act of drawing. Built on art therapy principles and filled with prompts to help you express yourself on the page, as well as affirmations which help remind us that it will all be okay, this diary will help give you the resilience and strength needed to make it through those difficult moments. This book is part of the Drawing On... series, a collection of creative guided journals which help readers explore difficult topics including anxiety and grief. Also available is Drawing On Grief, which explores the delicate and difficult subject of loss, and how art therapy can help us navigate this painful time.

A rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, by "our best chronicler of the rewards and pitfalls of present-day faith" [PHILIP PULLMAN] "A novel that probes any number of aggressive varieties of moralism, while testing the reader's own moral alertness for rigour, realism and generosity. An engrossing, three-dimensional, grown-up narrative." ROWAN WILLIAMS "An irresistibly readable, thoughtful and characteristically witty examination of the quandaries and compromises faced by the Church of England in an era of decline . . . I loved this book for its lightness of touch about serious subjects and for dialogue that glitters like clashing rapiers." MIRANDA SEYMOUR As a woman in the early 1980s, Clarissa Phipps is unable to pursue her vocation to the priesthood. Instead, she joins the BBC's religious affairs department, where she is sent to interview celebrated artist, Seward Wemlock, about the panels he is painting for an ancient Cheshire church. "A serious and important writer" ROSE TREMAIN Thirty years on, Clarissa, now rector of that same church, chances upon Brian, the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling fifteen-year-old David. Dismissing David's claim that they are in love, Clarissa is obliged to act. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her official duty of care? The fallout from that choice forces her to reflect on the original controversy over Wemlock's panels and her concerns about his relationship with the teenagers who modelled for Adam and Eve. Had she acted on the whispers that reached her at the time, how many lives - her own included - would have turned out differently? The Choice is a rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, questioning whether it's possible, let alone prudent, to separate the art from the artist. It examines the fault lines in both religious and secular society, from the AIDS crisis and the struggle for women's ordination in the 1980s to the culture wars of today. Richly comic and deeply compassionate, The Choice is a remarkable synthesis of the sacred and profane. "At a time when British fiction has never been more timorous about tackling novels of ideas, Michael Arditti has produced one worthy of Iris Murdoch and Graham Greene. Brilliantly ambiguous, waspishly witty and thoroughly enjoyable, this is Michael Arditti's own masterpiece to date" AMANDA CRAIG

Taking a closer look at the fundamentals of the green and wild life forms that exist around us. With a photographer's eye, viewing the very things that we take for granted and easily dismiss as an abundant source of the natural world. But could this be construed as disposable? This book does not shy away from the hard realities of, or attempt to glamorise, the climate discussion. It modulates the voices, pensive, concerned, engaged or ignoring, from which is created the colours within a silent world of nature. The Colour of Silence is about mindfulness and a clear-focused look at life on Earth, contemplating the curious truth about nature. This widely respected photographer artist, Clare Newton uses her intriguing and unusual photographs to explore the wonders of nature. "Art has a vital role to play in our sense of well-being through immersion in the natural world by enhancing our awareness of the diversity of life that abounds there." The perception of the superiority of one life form over another, and in particular of humanity over the remainder of the natural world, may well have contributed in no small way to the environmental predicament that confronts us today. Alongside Newton's images, runs another narrative: Could there be a different way of perceiving nature and our human place within it with fresh eyes, untainted by past preconceptions? Can her unassuming photographer's eye help to show life as it actually is, not as we might imagine or desire it to be? Kate Humble BBC Wildlife and Science Presenter says 'A beautiful & thought provoking book.'

This unparalleled and wide-ranging book surveys the history of applied arts and industrial design from the eighteenth century to the present day, exploring the dynamic relationship between design and manufacturing, and the technological, social and commercial contexts in which this relationship has developed. In this extensively revised and expanded third edition, David Raizman addresses international questions more fully with the addition of six Global Inspiration sections that examine the contributions of non-Western traditions, rendering the very notion of a 'national' design debatable. The text also pays closer attention to issues of gender, race, and climate change, and their impact on design. With over 580 illustrations, mostly in colour, History of Modern Design is an inclusive, well-balanced introduction to a field of increasing scholarly and interdisciplinary research, and provides students in design with historical perspectives of their chosen fields of study.

Collected for the first time in a new translation: two of the most important and far-reaching biographies of an artist ever written, and our principal sources for the life of Velazquez. Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) is for many the greatest painter ever to have lived. His astonishing naturalism had an immediate and lasting impact on his contemporaries, inspiring both awe and fierce debate. Most of what we know about Velazquez' life and incomparably successful career comes from these two biographies. Francisco Pacheco, a second rank painter, was Velazquez' teacher and eventually father-in-law - possibly the closest relationship between a painter and his biographer in all art. This Life, part of Pacheco's theoretical work, the Art of Painting, has never been translated before, and it reveals the scale of the challenge to traditional painting presented by Velazquez' insurmountable talent. Antonio Palomino, the Spanish Vasari, was born just after Velazquez died, but knew many of the painter's friends and colleagues. His biography, precise and detailed, is an incomparable source, but like Pacheco's text, also tackles the aesthetic debate engendered by Velazquez' choice of subject matter and style. Together these biographies give an excitingly close insight into the mind and world of a great painter. The introduction by Michael Jacobs situates these biographies in the context of Spain's Golden Age, and the intellectual ferment in painting and in the theatre that lie behind Velazquez' magic. The translations are by Nina Ayala Mallory, the leading scholar of Spanish artistic biographies. The volume is richly illustrated with 30 plates illustrating the full gamut of Velazquez' work.

Leather never goes out of fashion - and now designer Christina Anton shows crafters how to create colourful, fun and contemporary leather jewellery. Simply follow her tutorial, which covers the basic techniques from stamping to sewing, to make her magnificently wearable art. Twenty-one beginner friendly projects, including Layered Fringe Earrings and a Geometric Cuff Bracelet, will spark your creativity and take you to the next level!