Take your work to the next level! In Creative Pottery, join ceramic artist Deb Schwartzkopf and grow as a functional potter, whether your background is in wheel-throwing or handbuilding. Start off with a quick review of where you are in your own journey as a potter. If you need to brush up on the basics, help setting goals, or pointers on how to translate your inspiration into your work, you've come to the right place. The rest of the book is a self-guided journey in which you can choose the techniques and projects that interest you: Go beyond the basics and learn how to throw or handbuild a bottomless cylinder. Then explore seams and alterations for projects like an oval serving tray, altered cylinder vase, and dessert boat. Learn about small changes that make a big impact, making an asymmetrical slab plate, throwing plates, and creating a cake stand. Master bisque molds and use them to open a new world of possibilities. Make spoons, a goblet, a butter dish, and more. Add complexity for stunning forms, including a pitcher, juicer, teapot, and oil pourer. With compelling galleries, artist features, and guided questions for growth throughout, this is a book for potters ready to learn new skills and unlock their creativity.

The most comprehensive monograph available on the greatest living glassblower, Lino Tagliapietra. Lino Tagliapietra has been described as the world's greatest glassblower, a figure born from the five-hundred-year-old culture of Venetian glass, but one who also revolutionized glass as a discipline, inventing new techniques to create his masterful works. Even more astonishing, as Tagliapietra hit his full stride, he has become a notable figure in the unfolding story of modern sculpture - an artist whose distinctive works are coveted by collectors of contemporary abstract art and whose vision makes us think about art history in new and profound ways. This is the most comprehensive monograph available on his work and features insightful texts by Glenn Adamson and Henry Adams, as well as hundreds of new photographs, which showcase the impressive breadth and depth of Taglipietra's repertoire.

* 25 full-size, realistic patterns for common North American trees * Includes a color sample for each pattern * Species include American holly, Carolina ash, flowering dogwood, fanleaf hawthorn, sweet cherry, quaking aspen, white oak, and 18 more

You don't need much to make your first pot, just a piece of clay and an idea. At the same time, it's a craft one develops over a lifetime. Making Pots is a handbook both for the beginner and more experienced potter. Basic skills are taught along with a background explanation of the rich history of pottery. Step-by-step the potter, Stefan Andersson, guides us on the potter's wheel, glaze manufacture and firing, sharing his techniques and know-how. Stefan also describes how to set up your own workshop, make your own tools, and design, stone-by-stone, your own kiln. What happens if there's a pocket of air in your clay? If the potter's wheel slips when you centre the clay? Or if the pots fall apart as you decorate the slipware? For each section there are also solutions to common problems. The book is founded on Stefan's enterprise and production of wood-fired ceramics with photos and diagrams describing the tasks and techniques. Chapters include: Clay Preparation Drying Glazing Firing Kilns Tools Forming Techniques

A growing number of ceramic artists now choose not to glaze their work. Instead, they use an unglazed-naked-surface to express their ideas and concerns. From slips and terra sigillata to burnishing, engobes, oxide washes, and additions to the clay body, there is a wide range of techniques artists can employ to achieve the finishes they desire. As these techniques are suitable for a broad spectrum of processes, subject matter and context (from slipcasting to handbuilding, from high to low firing temperatures, from figurative to conceptual, from domestic to public), the scope of the work produced by the artists represented in this book is enormous. In Naked Clay Jane Perryman not only presents the finished ceramics and techniques of an international group of artists, she also investigates their ideas and areas of inspiration to further an understanding of their work. Each artist presented here has a unique style and way of working, but they are all connected through their committed relationship to the material and their desire to express their ideas using "naked" clay. This beautifully illustrated book will inform and inspire not only students, professionals, and teachers, it will fascinate collectors and, indeed, anyone with an interest in contemporary ceramics.

From drippy and crackle to ash and lichen glazes, experienced ceramicist Linda Bloomfield guides you through the world of special effect glazes. Beautifully illustrated with pieces from both emerging and established potters that showcase stunning copper oxide-blues, metallic bronzes and manganese-pink crystal glazes, Special Effect Glazes is packed full of recipes to try out: from functional oilspot glazes using iron oxide, to explosive lava glazes. In this informative handbook discover how you can create these fantastic effects and learn the basic chemistry behind glazes in order to adjust and experiment with your unique pieces. Discussed are materials and stains, how to find them and how they affect the colour and texture of the glaze, alongside practical fixes to familiar glaze-making problems. Special Effect Glazes is essential for any ceramicist interested in creating eye-catching glazes and wanting to develop their knowledge of glaze-making, or experiment with their own formulas to achieve the perfect finish.

This book includes 25 beautiful projects that is shown step by step. The wonderful hues and textures of enamel celebrated in inspirational and practical designs, shown in over 300 photographs. Projects include a Fleur-de-lis Bookmark, a Door Plaque, Stargazer Earrings, Napkin Rings, a Night and Day Clock Face, a Cloisonne Bowl, a Flower Pendant and a Moon Bowl. This is a comprehensive guide, from getting started to achieving excellence, with everything you need to know about materials, equipment and techniques. It comes with pictures by the highly regarded craft, cooking and lifestyle photographer, Peter Williams. Enamel is a form of glass, and enamelling is the process of fusing it to metal using heat. The craft of enamelling has been practised for centuries, dating back to the Egyptians who used it as to imitate precious stones. This book illustrates the remarkable work being produced by today's enamellists using tried-and-tested methods, and shows in simple step-by-step sequences how to create 25 beautiful projects at home. All you need to get started is access to a small, purpose-built kiln and some basic enamelling equipment.A techniques section shows how to prepare enamels and metal, how to apply enamels for different effects and how to fire a piece, and the projects include earrings, beads, buttons, brooches and keyrings. This outstanding book shows how to create highly distinctive work that will be treasured.

"The author makes an eloquent plea for marine biodiversity conservation."-Library Journal "Harvell seems to channel the devotion that motivated the Blaschkas."-The Guardian Winner of the 2016 National Outdoor Book Award, Environment Category It started with a glass octopus. Dusty, broken, and all but forgotten, it caught Drew Harvell's eye. Fashioned in intricate detail by the father-son glassmaking team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, the octopus belonged to a menagerie of unusual marine creatures that had been packed away for decades in a storage unit. More than 150 years earlier, the Blaschkas had been captivated by marine invertebrates and spun their likenesses into glass, documenting the life of oceans untouched by climate change and human impacts. Inspired by the Blaschkas' uncanny replicas, Harvell set out in search of their living counterparts. In A Sea of Glass, she recounts this journey of a lifetime, taking readers along as she dives beneath the ocean's surface to a rarely seen world, revealing the surprising and unusual biology of some of the most ancient animals on the tree of life. On the way, we glimpse a century of change in our ocean ecosystems and learn which of the living matches for the Blaschkas' creations are, indeed, as fragile as glass. Drew Harvell and the Blaschka menagerie are the subjects of the documentary Fragile Legacy, which won the Best Short Film award at the 2015 Blue Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Learn more about the film and check out the trailer here.

Nearly 600 brilliantly detailed photos capture the work of 112 glass artists and show the tremendous diversity, depth, and breadth of how this ancient medium is used in the twenty-first century. New and emerging glass artists are featured together with well-known experts, and all of them challenge the boundaries of familiar techniques. Many of these artists also teach or continue research into the capabilities of glass. Many have won major awards; still others have been the subject of media attention; and many are mentors and leaders of contemporary glass art. Their towering installations, miniscule insects, glass kimonos, and more will inspire everyone interested in appreciating, working with, or collecting glass.

Learn how to apply interesting and inspired surface techniques to your ceramic work through 20 step-by-step projects. Carve Your Clay takes you through creative techniques that produce amazing, dynamic results, including inlay, piercing, sgraffito, etching, relief carving, wire cutting, and more. Gain new skills as you complete 20 projects featuring author Hilda Carr's signature style, each with clear step-by-step photography and easy-to-follow instruction to achieve beautiful results. This comprehensive book includes an easy guide on how to create basic forms, as well as glazing and firing techniques. Whether you are new to ceramics or are a more experienced potter looking to explore new surface design techniques, Carve Your Clay will educate and inspire you.

By the time of his death in 1904, critics, arts reformers, and government officials were near universal in their praise of Art Nouveau designer Emile Galle (1846-1904), whose works they described as the essence of French design. Many even went so far as to argue that the artist's creations could reinvigorate France's fading arts industries and help restore its economic prosperity by defining a modern style to represent the nation. For fin-de-siecle viewers, Galle's works constituted powerful reflections on the idea of national belonging, modernity, and the role of the arts in political engagement. While existing scholarship has largely focused on the artist's innovative technical processes, a close analysis of Galle's works brings to light the surprisingly complex ways in which his fragile creations were imbricated in the political turmoil that characterized fin-de-siecle France. Examining Galle's works inspired by Japanese art, his patriotically inflected designs for the Universal Exposition of 1889, his artistic manifesto in support of Dreyfus created in 1900, and finally, his late works that explore the concept of evolution, this book reveals how Galle returns again and again to the question of national identity as the central issue in his work.

Illustrated with more than 300 photos, this guide covers everything you need to know to begin working with glass. Learn the materials and tools needed, types of glass, and successful techniques, focusing on the copper foil method. While emphasizing the beauty and creativity that's easy to enjoy about this craft, the book offers detailed step-by-step photo instructions for tracing, cutting, grinding, foiling, assembly, soldering, patina use, and more. The 33 projects, each rated in difficulty level, cover a wide range of styles and techniques. All of them beautifully showcase the gorgeous array of art glass available today, and they serve as useful additions to your everyday life or as exceptional gifts: a mobile, candy dish, cutlery holder, mirror frames, lamps, jewelry, and even clocks.

A new pottery tradition has been developing along the border of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Despite the fact that this region is not yet an established destination for pottery collectors, Michiana potters are committed to pursuing their craft thanks to the presence of a community of like-minded artists. The Michiana Potters, an ethnographic exploration of the lives and art of these potters, examines the communal traditions and aesthetics that have developed in this region. Author Meredith A. E. McGriff identifies several shared methods and styles, such as a preference for wood-fired wares, glossy glaze surfaces, cooler colors, the dripping or layering of glazes on ceramics that are not wood-fired, the handcrafting of useful wares as opposed to sculptural work, and a tendency to borrow forms and decorative effects from other regional artists. In addition to demonstrating a methodology that can be applied to studies of other emergent regional traditions, McGriff concludes that these styles and methods form a communal bond that inextricably links the processes of creating and sharing pottery in Michiana.

During the eighteenth century, porcelain held significant cultural and artistic importance. This collection represents one of the first thorough scholarly attempts to explore the diversity of the medium's cultural meanings. Among the volume's purposes is to expose porcelain objects to the analytical and theoretical rigor which is routinely applied to painting, sculpture and architecture, and thereby to reposition eighteenth-century porcelain within new and more fruitful interpretative frameworks. The authors also analyze the aesthetics of porcelain and its physical characteristics, particularly the way its tactile and visual qualities reinforced and challenged the social processes within which porcelain objects were viewed, collected, and used. The essays in this volume treat objects such as figurines representing British theatrical celebrities, a boxwood and ebony figural porcelain stand, works of architecture meant to approximate porcelain visually, porcelain flowers adorning objects such as candelabra and perfume burners, and tea sets decorated with unusual designs. The geographical areas covered in the collection include China, North Africa, Spain, France, Italy, Britain, America, Japan, Austria, and Holland.

Aimee McCulloch, an accomplished modern glass artist, goes beyond traditional stained-glass techniques and makes glass into modern and contemporary works of art. Enjoy that contemporary focus in this complete guide as she first teaches beginner stained-glass skills (cutting glass, soldering, etc.) before launching you into 10 ambitious, exciting, and inspiring projects that can be displayed at home or given as gifts. By learning each of these techniques, you'll be able to continue working and experimenting with stained glass to combine techniques and create your own special designs. With McCulloch's help, combine new, contemporary techniques with historical ones to bring this popular art form into the present day.

Learning from others' mistakes is always more efficient and less costly than committing them yourself. This book is packed with practical information that will enable potters to successfully complete the many steps in pottery production. Making functional pottery or ceramic sculpture entails different skill sets and processes in forming clay, drying clay, glazing, and firing. Any one of these steps can cause failures. As ceramics consultant Jeff Zamek points out, under ideal conditions a beginning or advanced student would be guided by a teacher at every step; mistakes and bad habits would be caught as they occurred and corrected. While such learning situations are rare today, this book fills the gap. As Zamek says, "This book offers you forty years of wisdom, generated by my students' and my client ceramics companies' issues with clays, glazes, and kiln firing." With its solutions to common problems, this guide helps potters to succeed.

The Duncan & Miller Glass Company, of Washington, Pennsylvania, was one of the glassmaking giants of the 1920s -1940s. This book focuses on the company's prolific Depression Era production and includes a valuable prologue about the Victorian wares and an epilogue about their contribution to the Tiffin Glass Co. Over 500 color photos, original catalog pages, advertisements, and patent drawings, combined with a detailed chronology of company history, detailed captions, bibliography, index, and value guide provide a complete reference for this popular glassware.

This is the first book to showcase the work of acclaimed ceramic artist Jennifer McCurdy. Collectors and art enthusiasts will be delighted to gaze at these luminescent forms, lyrically accompanied by the poetry of Jennifer's sister, Wendy Mulhern. Dozens of color photographs, plus a section on evolution and process that's illustrated with forty-five color images, clearly show the depth and brilliance of Jennifer's work. In this collaboration Jennifer and Wendy celebrate art and how it holds things that can't be contained in any other way. These vessels, of porcelain and poetry, resonate with each other, engaging an intimate conversation. The evolution and process section provides insight into both the internal process of artistry and the physical and temporal dedication essential to bringing forth a life's body of work.

The core of the collection of Greek vases at Harrow School is the gift of Sir John. Gardner Wilkinson, a leading Egyptologist of the mid nineteenth century whose wide range of interests is well demonstrated by his skill in collecting Greek vases, as well as his still influential books on Egypt. The collection is by no means an ordinary one, since it contains more than its share of Athenian masterpieces as well as a full range of wares from other parts of Greece and Italy. It includes the name vase of the Harrow Painter, an outstanding amphora by the Kleophrades Painter, and many hitherto unpublished pieces of more than ordinary merit.

From Clay to Kiln is a must-have guide for anyone working with ceramics, from absolute beginners, weekend crafters and students, through to practising ceramicists. In this book, Stuart Carey invigorates and encourages you through all stages of the pottery process. Covering all the information you need about tools and materials, he takes you through preparation and hand building, throwing and finishing your vessel, to glazing and firing. You will gain an in-depth knowledge of how clay works and how to apply your skills to the wheel and beyond. With simple step-by-step tutorials, clear visuals and Stuart's helpful hints and tips, you can jump straight in with confidence and create a piece of pottery that marries beauty, form and function. Including stunningly beautiful photography throughout, this is a book to inspire.

Situated within the larger context of the post-Independence craft revival, this volume pays keen attention to the transnational histories of practice through five sections. The section Shift explores the local and international lineages of Indian studio pottery. Object discusses the ways in which clay has been a unique medium of expression for many artists. Utility considers the development of Indian ceramic industries, through lenses of economics and class. Form takes as its subject hereditary potters who negotiate modern-day artistic spaces. Perception focuses on the low-fired water container and its web of connections with its makers and users. The very mutability of clay and its shaper and the resulting dynamism, that produces both tensions and opportunities, are at the centre of this book.