Dazzling new, original collection by a master of the genre presents more than 260 high-impact, permission-free designs that exploit to their fullest the dramatic potential of squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and other elements. Invaluable for wallpaper and textile design, packaging and computer art, these eye-catching forms provide artists and craftspeople with angular forms, pleasant symmetries, and other great images for immediate use and inspiration. More than 260 black-and-white designs.

One of the most powerful stories of the Arts and Crafts movement: a perceptive biography of one woman's valiant life in a vanished era of emerging feminism and bold socialist thought.

C. R. Ashbee was, some would say, the key man in the British Arts and Crafts movement during the early decades of the twentieth century. Regarded as heir to William Morris in political belief and design reform, Ashbee (and his Guild of Handicraft) gained international fame in his own time and remains a legend today. While much has been written about him, little has been said of his wife. Now Felicity Ashbee breaks the silence in a compelling book about her mother.

The book depicts Janet Ashbee as a gifted woman of emotional warmth, strength, and unconventionality, all of which enhanced her husband's work. An accomplished writer and thinker in her own right, Janet Ashbee's life revolved around great historic issues that still resonate today: the socially conscious Arts and Crafts movement, the role of women in contemporary affairs, and embattled ethnic relationships in the Middle East -- not to mention marriage and sexual orientation, predicated upon her husband's vibrant and well-known homosexuality.

A book of rare insight and significance, Janet Ashbee sheds welcome light on the Arts and Crafts movement and on women in oft-romanticized Victorian and Edwardian British culture.

This lavish collection of copyright-free engravings by the celebrated 19th-century artist F. Knight-reproduced directly from a rare original edition-contains elaborate wall murals with trompe-l'oeil effects; scenes of hunters, flanked by mythological figures; idealized damsels in rustic settings; and numerous other florid motifs. Designs both floral (leaves, running vines, and blossoms) and animal (realistic and grotesque) appear in a variety of sizes and styles. 700 black-and-white illustrations.

The Arts and Crafts Movement, a fascinating period in American decorative history, led to the unprecedented commercialization of fine crafts and the empowerment of thousands of women and immigrants, who began to pursue new careers in design and handicraft. In 1893, the World's Fair in Chicago heralded the egalitarian art movement in America that led to the establishment of a plethora of metalwork and jewelry companies and studios by the turn of the century. Darcy Evon documents how these new trends spread throughout the Midwest and eventually the country, led by innovative pioneers who inspired an entire nation. They designed exquisite, original pieces of metalwork and jewelry by hand, starting with basic raw materials. Dozens of previously unidentified shops, artists, their creations, and accurate information on well-known historical figures, are featured for the first time in this important, major publication. Organized by trade name and location, this book is for collectors, dealers, and art historians, as well as artisans.

Discover the slow, tactile art of hand-building ceramics and express yourself through the act of creating unique, timeless pieces for your home. The Urban Potter teaches you how to make beautiful, one-off handcrafted pieces with simple, natural shapes and neutral tones. Ceramicist Emily Proctor's unique, self-taught style embraces irregularity and asymmetry - here, there is no such thing as perfection, every piece is created through an authentic, intuitive process, with no wheel required. The 24 step-by-step projects include functional homeware such as bowls, plates and vases, as well as other decorative accessories, and are ordered by difficulty, making this book suitable for anyone who wants to play with clay, from beginners through to more seasoned ceramicists. For each project, Emily guides you through the whole process and explains all the techniques involved, from slabbing and pinching, to carving and glazing, while also fully leaning into the joys of slow ceramics and the mindful, patient nature of the art.

A rich, authoritative look at a material that plays an essential role in human culture
Wood has been a central part of human life throughout the world for thousands of years. In an intoxicating mix of science, history, and practical information, historian and woodworker Harvey Green considers this vital material's place on the planet. What makes one wood hard and one soft? How did we find it, tame it? Where does it fit into the histories of technology, architecture, and industrialization, of empire, exploration, and settlement? Spanning the surprising histories of the log cabin and Windsor chair, the deep truth about veneer, the role of wood in the American Revolution, the disappearance of the rain forests, the botany behind the baseball bat, and much more, "Wood" is a deep and satisfying look at one of our most treasured resources.

More than 530 beautifully photographed examples of jewelry and art-enamel work glow from the pages of this first comprehensive study of the work and aesthetic vision of the American Arts & Crafts movement. The lives and art of the era's top craftsmen-84 jewelers, enamelists, and metalsmiths-are explained with careful consideration to the contexts and influences that shaped them. The belief that beauty should be part of everyday life was paramount in the design reform movements of the early 20th century. Dozens of creators are featured here, including Josephine Hartwell Shaw, Frank Gardner Hale, Robert Riddle Jarvie, the Kalo Shop, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and the Roycroft. Although jewelry and enamelwork pieces received appreciative critical acclaim in that period, during today's revival of interest in the US Arts & Crafts movement, they have attracted scant attention from art historians. This collection fills that void and is a valuable resource for collectors and historians.

Long held as one of the most spiritually charged Zulu art forms, Zulu ceramics have entered the 21st century as a diversifying and vital art. From independent artists to craft cooperatives, Zulu Pottery examines the techniques and individuals continuing this great tradition. Zulu Pottery focuses on contemporary ceramics from the northern half of KwaZulu-Natal, where ongoing traditions are kept alive, to the heart of Durban, where newer artists are transforming and innovating. Masters such as Nesta Nala – as well as a new generation of artists, including Jabu Nala and Clive Sithole – have travelled the world demonstrating the art of Zulu pottery.

The oldest word in politics is "new". The oldest word in the writing of history may well be "modern": it is, without doubt, one of the most overworked adjectives in the English language. But the indeterminacy is perhaps just another way of saying that the difficulties raised are of a kind which simply will not go away... This collection of eight essays on aspects of modernity and modernism takes up the challenge of examining the complex, but fascinating convergence of aesthetics, politics and a quasi-spiritual dimension which is perhaps typical of British modernist thinking about modernity. This may have produced figures whom we now dismiss as eccentrics or "aesthetes", it none the less produced figures whom many still think of as in some sense embodying the national identity: what, after all, could be more "English" than a William Morris wallpaper design? Rather than towards socialism in any of its "scientific" guises, what the British modernist approach to modernity may have been pushing at was yet another mutation of liberalism: a libertarian-humanitarian hybrid in which indigenous radical and Evangelical legacies keep scientific socialism in check, where fellowship and domesticity edge out a larger-scale, more abstract "fraternity", and where citoyennete or civisme give way to what George Orwell was later to define simply as "decency".