Brush lettering--hand lettering with brush pens--and creating designs with watercolor paints guarantees you plenty of colorful creative fun! The combination of beautiful lettering with a colorful gloss and the delicacy of watercolors opens up a range of new design possibilities. Katja Haas presents various types of lettering and concentrates in particular on the special features of writing and decorating with brush pens. Ideas for feather-light blossoms, tendrils, and decorative elements, along with suggestions for special occasions, make this the perfect companion to lettering.

Ruined cities overgrown by jungle. Towns buried beneath the ground. Statues lying half- hidden in the sand. Why do civilisations collapse? Why are towns abandoned? And how do once mighty cities come to be forgotten about? From the pyramids of Egypt to the ruins at Angkor in Cambodia and on to the mysteries of the Easter Island moai statues, Abandoned Civilisations is a brilliant pictorial work examining lost worlds. What emerges is a picture of how vast societies can rise, thrive and then collapse. We admire how whole cities develop, but equally fascinating is what happens when their moment has passed. From the 9th century temples at Khajuraho in India which were lost in the date palm trees until stumbled across by European engineers in the 19th century to Mayan pyramids in the Guatemalan jungle to Roman cities semi-buried - but consequently preserved - in the North African desert, the book explores why societies fall and what, once abandoned, they leave behind to history. With 150 striking colour photographs exploring 100 worlds, Abandoned Civilisations is a fascinating visual history of the mysteries of lost societies.

As an increasingly popular line of collectible jewelry, creations distributed by Sarah Coventry, Inc. have made their mark. From the 1950s through the 1980s, women purchased the jewelry exclusively at home jewelry parties. The success of the jewelry made Sarah Coventry, Inc. one of the largest distributors of costume jewelry. Although the parties are a thing of the past, Sarah Coventry jewelry has not been forgotten. Now, these durable and fashionable pieces are sought after by collectors who have rediscovered their timeless appeal. In Sarah Coventry Jewelry, authors Monica Lynn Clements and Patricia Rosser Clements have compiled nearly 400 photographs that display the unique designs along with their current market values. Sets, limited edition pieces, earrings, bracelets, rings, pendants, and brooches are shown. The photographs depict jewelry made of gold metal, rhodium, and plastic as well as jewelry adorned with colorful plastic "stones," rhinestones, and gemstones. This reference guide is a must for collectors of Sarah Coventry jewelry.

The Arts & Crafts Movement had a profound effect on twentieth century design. It was a precursor to the minimalism of the day, yet imbued with a quiet eloquence based in careful, exquisite design. The natural materials, the subtlely organic forms began to shape living spaces across the country. In California, whose population was swelling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, so-called "Mission Furniture" seemed perfectly at home amidst the Spanish influenced architecture of the past and the bungalows that were beginning to line the streets. This new book is a survey of the influence of the Arts & Crafts Movement in the home. Drawn from an exhibit at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica, it covers everything from furniture to pottery, from lighting to books. Each item is illustrated in its setting, giving it a decorative context. In addition the items appear in individual full color photographs, showing its detail. Among the interesting collections is a group of chairs that virtually shows the evolution of the mission style. This book will delight and inform.

How Venetian glass influenced American artists and patrons during the late nineteenth century Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass presents a broad exploration of American engagement with Venice's art world in the late nineteenth century. During this time, Americans in Venice not only encountered a floating city of palaces, museums, and churches, but also countless shop windows filled with dazzling specimens of brightly colored glass. Though the Venetian island of Murano had been a leading center of glass production since the Middle Ages, productivity bloomed between 1860 and 1915. This revival coincided with Venice's popularity as a destination on the Grand Tour, and resulted in depictions of Italian glassmakers and glass objects by leading American artists. In turn, their patrons visited glass furnaces and collected museum-quality, hand-blown goblets decorated with designs of flowers, dragons, and sea creatures, as well as mosaics, lace, and other examples of Venetian skill and creativity. This lavishly illustrated book examines exquisitely crafted glass pieces alongside paintings, watercolors, and prints of the same era by American artists who found inspiration in Venice, including Thomas Moran, Maria Oakey Dewing, Robert Frederick Blum, Charles Caryl Coleman, Maurice Prendergast, and Maxfield Parrish, in addition to John Singer Sargent and James McNeill Whistler. Italian glass had a profound influence on American art, literature, and design theory, as well as the period's ideas about gender, labor, and class relations. For artists such as Sargent and Whistler, and their patrons, glass objects were aesthetic emblems of history, beauty, and craftsmanship. From the furnaces of Murano to American parlors and museums, Sargent, Whistler, and Venetian Glass brings to life the imaginative energy and unique creations that beckoned tourists and artists alike. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum Exhibition Schedule Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC October 8, 2021-May 8, 2022 Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas June 25-September 11, 2022

Japanese screens (byobu) are made of wooden lattices with two to twelve panels, covered with a canvas of paper or fabric. Artists, embracing the dynamic format of screens, incorporated shadows and other elements on the canvas to direct the viewer's eye from one panel to the next. Screens are unique for being beautiful artworks as well as lightweight, portable objects, acting as backdrops for court ceremonies or partitions for intimate tea services. This sumptuous book explores the 1,300-year history of screens created in Japan. In the text, leading experts on Japanese art and culture describe how screens developed from the 8th to the 21st century, from their ceremonial use in royal residences and Buddhist temples to their functional and decorative use in the homes of samurai and aristocracy. The authors examines the stylistic evolution of screens and the wide variety of subjects depicted, such as flying dragons, the passing of seasons, monumental battles, and The Tale of Genji. This book includes 250 colour illustrations, many that are reproduced to full page, and shows the screens to their best advantage with a landscape orientation and large-format size. It features Japanese-sewn binding and is kept in a clamshell box, which contains foldout poster reproductions of six screens housed in a separate pocket inside the box. This volume is an elegant addition to the library of any admirer of Japanese art.

Jorunn Veiteberg has been wearing jewellery with a passion ever since she was a teenager. Covering nearly 50 years, her collection contains some 550 items, including work by 210 jewellery artists from 30 different countries, some by unknown craftspeople, some even mass-produced. Conventional forms live side by side with experimental objects, and political statements mingle with humorous asides. It is this collection that makes up The Jewellery Box. The book deals with how Veiteberg became a collector, why she focused on art jewellery, and what it can do for us. It's a personal story, but at the same time the volume is a contribution to the recent history of crafts, one that expands our understanding of jewellery.

* Packed with inspiring photographs of gardens, borders and features, this book provides a wealth of ideas for adapting schemes to fit the area being planted. * Includes patterns for 'natural' designs as well as more formal approaches. * TOPICS COVERED: Plants with Pattern: Leaf Shape and Texture; Patterns in Garden Layouts: Symmetrical and Formal; Patterns using Plants: Borders and Bedding; Patterns in Landscape

A "font" of information on lettering styles

"The Art of Whimsical Lettering" is an artful instruction book on creating stylized fonts and expressive artwork with personal handwriting skills. Author Joanne Sharpe shows you how to create exuberant and personalized writing styles for your artwork whether it be a journal, canvas art, or other projects that use text.

After an overview of Joanne's favorite tools and surfaces, take a peek into Joanne's personal lettering journal to discover how you too can collect inspiration, hone your lettering skills, and tap into your natural creativity. Joanne then demonstrates twenty art techniques for creating a variety of lettering styles using many different tools. She provides you with fifteen basic alphabets, ranging from simple pen-and-ink renditions to increasingly elaborated texts that reference calligraphy, vintage fonts, and doodle art, among other styles. Joanne also teaches you how to turn prosaic lettering into page art itself, merging text into illustration, or ornamenting words with decorative drawings."

Jewelry was worn by ancient Egyptians at every level of society and, like their modern descendants, they prized it for its aesthetic value, as a way to adorn and beautify the body. It was also a conspicuous signifier of wealth, status, and power. But jewelry in ancient Egypt served another fundamental purpose: its wearers saw it as a means to absorb positive magical and divine powers-to protect the living, and the dead, from the malignant forces of the unseen. The types of metals or stones used by craftsmen were magically important, as were the colors of the materials, and the exact positioning of all the elements in a design. Ancient Egyptian Jewelry: 50 Masterpieces of Art and Design draws on the exquisite collections in the archaeological museums of Cairo to tell the story of three thousand years of jewelry-making, from simple amulets to complex ritual jewelry to the spells that protected the king in life and assisted his journey to the Otherworld in death. Gold, silver, carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli were just some of the precious materials used in many of the pieces, and this stunningly illustrated book beautifully showcases the colors and exceptional artistry and accomplishment that make ancient Egyptian jewelry so dazzling to this day.

In the 1960s and '70s, the fabulously versatile jewelry and fashion accessories from Sarah Coventry, Inc. were known as the "Finished Look of Fashion." These "simply chic" pieces were sold through in-home fashion shows, worn by stars and models, and advertised though TV, movies, and popular magazines coast to coast. With over 400 stunning color photos of jewelry and accessories, this exciting book rediscovers the still popular and highly collectible fine fashion lines from Sarah Coventry. Included are beautifully displayed bracelets, pierced and clip earrings, pins, pendants, necklaces, rings, belts, packaging and much more, along with company history, original catalog pages and advertisements, and both retail and current values. This essential guide to Sarah Coventry's "jewelry with know-how" will appeal to collectors, dealers, and all who admire costume jewelry.

Learn how to elevate your wire weaving to an art form with Woven in Wire. While author Sarah Thompson's first best-selling book, Fine Art Wire Weaving, laid the foundation and taught the basic techniques particular to her unique style, this book pushes the boundaries, challenging readers to transform their pieces, adding complexity, dimension, and more. Weave your way through extensive information on creating with an eye to symmetry and dimensional forms as you fold, mold, and manipulate woven wire into 12 stunning jewelry designs. Step-by-step, wrap-by-wrap, Thompson takes you from beginner to expert with never before shared secrets that make your projects truly become works of art. Woven in Wire brings an award winning designer and highly sought-after wire arts instructor into your studio for private lessons that will take your jewelry to another level.

The nineteenth century - the Era of the Interior - witnessed the steady displacement of art from the ceilings, walls, and floors of aristocratic and religious interiors to the everyday spaces of bourgeois households, subject to their own enhanced ornamentation. Following the 1863 Salon des refuses, the French State began to channel mediocre painters into the decorative arts. England, too, launched an extensive reform of the decorative arts, resulting in more and more artists engaged in the production and design of complete interiors. America soon followed. Present art historical scholarship - still indebted to a modernist discourse that sees cultural progress to be synonymous with the removal of ornament from both utilitarian objects and architectural spaces - has not yet acknowledged the importance of the decorative arts in the myriad interior spaces of the 1800s. Nor has mainstream art history reckoned with the importance of the interior in nineteenth-century life and thought. Aimed at an interdisciplinary audience, including art and design historians, historians of the modern interior, interior designers, visual culture theorists, and scholars of nineteenth-century material culture, this collection of essays studies the modern interior in new ways. The volume addresses the double nature of the modern interior as both space and image, blurring the boundaries between arts and crafts, decoration and high art, two-dimensional and three-dimensional design, trompe-l'oeil effects and spatial practices. In so doing, it redefines the modern interior and its objects as essential components of modern art.

Chip Carving is the art of removing small sections of wood from a single piece of timber, usually to form geometric patterns. Finished pieces can be very intricate and complex but amazing results can be achieved surprisingly easily with the right guidance. Unlike many types of woodworking, chip carving requires very few tools, usually just two knives, and is a wonderful way too decorate all manner of existing objects including boxes, plates and furniture. The author guides the reader through the process of creating 15 distinctive projects. The necessary stages are explained with the use of detailed step-by-step photographs and accompanying text. The author also explains how to go about planning and designing each project in preparation for the actual carving process.

Whether there is a fire burning or not, there is something about a fireplace that gives a room warmth. The mantel we build around the fireplace becomes a focal point of decorating, bringing to all that surrounds a sense of elegance. In this new book Steve Penberthy and Gary Jones help the homeowner build a classic fireplace from stock materials and moldings and tools found in the most basic of workshops. From measurement to the finished product, they take the reader through the complete process. Every step is illustrated with a color photograph and a concise instruction. In the back are drawings and photographs of many design variations that can be made using the same building techniques. This is the, without a doubt, the best book ever published on building mantels and will be a welcome addition to the woodworker's library.

Spectacular centerpieces, tea services, and candelabras are among the gorgeous silver pieces shown in this new, beautifully illustrated book. These ware were made of coin and sterling silver, and range from compotes, pitchers, and serving trays to gravy boats and butter dishes. All of the top manufacturers of the 19th and 20th centuries are well represented, with photographs and discussions of pieces by Gorham, Kirk, Steiff and Shreve, among others. Eras of silver design are explained, with striking examples provided for Empire style, Gothic Revival, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Colonial Revival, Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Art Modernism. With over 300 detailed photographs of some of the most wonderful silver hollowware ever produced, this book is a must for collectors who love to dine in formal style. Each piece is described in detail, and a current value guide is provided.

At one time, most towns of any size had somewhere a small foundry that would undertake small casting jobs, often more out of interest and good neighbourliness than for commercial gain. Regrettably, those days are no more and the model engineer in many areas must either adapt commercially available castings or send away to a specialist foundry that will undertake small jobs, often at some expense and with some delay. The alternative is to make your own patterns and castings, which is in fact much easier than you may think. The Backyard Foundry covers basic principles, materials and techniques, pattern making, moulding boxes, cores and core-boxes, electric, gas and coke furnaces, and includes step-by-step procedures with examples of locomotive cylinders and wheels. Sources of specialised materials and even the design of an outdoor furnace suitable for small-scale commercial work are given. Each stage and subject is covered in detail so that even the inexperienced can undertake casting with confidence. Although the book is written primarily for the model engineer, anyone wishing to make mouldings or castings will profit from its pages.

The techniques of depositing a thin metallic layer on an object for decoration, corrosion protection, electrical conductivity, wear resistance and so on have been known for many years but have been developed and improved to a remarkable extent in the second half of this century. This book sets out to discuss the principles and practice of those forms of plating most suited to the amateur and small workshop, using relatively simple and inexpensive equipment to produce results virtually undetectable from work carried out by major plating concerns. Jack Poyner, a professional involved in all forms of plating for many years, is also a keen model engineer able to recognise the dividing line between what his average fellow enthusiast would consider practical and worthwhile and what is really better left to experts in the field. The result is a really useful and practical book, which will be of value to both amateur and light industrial users in many diverse fields.

Initially promoted as "the answer to the housewife's prayer," the gleaming chromium, brass, and copper houseware specialties of the Chase Brass & Copper Co. today stand as icons of American Art Deco style. This book chronicles the entire Specialty line produced by Chase from 1930 to 1942 and profiles the industrial designers who made it possible, including such pioneers as Lurelle Guild, Walter Von Nessen, Russel Wright, and Harry Laylon. An essential reference for Deco collectors, this book features 650 full-color catalog and historical photos, vintage advertising, a complete cross-reference listing, and a price guide. This in-depth look at the unique Chase blend of practicality and streamlined modern design will appeal to all admirers of twentieth-century decorative arts.

Maximizing reader insights into the principles of designing furniture as wooden structures, this book discusses issues related to the history of furniture structures, their classification and characteristics, ergonomic approaches to anthropometric requirements and safety of use. It presents key methods and highlights common errors in designing the characteristics of the materials, components, joints and structures, as well as looking at the challenges regarding developing associated design documentation. Including analysis of how designers may go about calculating the stiffness and endurance of parts, joints and whole structures, the book analyzes questions regarding the loss of furniture stability and the resulting threats to health of the user, putting forward a concept of furniture design as an engineering processes. Creating an attractive, functional, ergonomic and safe piece of furniture is not only the fruit of the work of individual architects and artists, but requires an effort of many people working in interdisciplinary teams, this book is designed to add important knowledge to the literature for engineer approaches in furniture design.

This mammoth catalog of American furniture manufacturers shows, for the first time in modern publication, the styles of furniture available at the height of the 1920's, a pivotal period between Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and the Depression as 1932 was the very worst year in the history of the furniture industry and most of the companies that failed did so in the four years between 1928 and 1932. Therefore, this catalog remains as the single sourcebook for the products of American furniture companies of this era. Room settings of the period are shown as well as color charts of wood showing the standard finishes of the period. These will be a great help to people restoring furniture to its original color. Thousands of furniture forms are displayed with descriptive commentary facts, and a few original prices. In this edition, a price guide is included for estimating values in the current marketplace. This exciting reference book should become a useful tool for interior decorators, furniture historians, collectors, dealers and restorers working with early twentieth-century designs.

Written for both beginners and advanced beaders with over 200 illustrations and photographs of 47 bead-work pieces. The emphasis here is on traditional Native American techniques. The patterns include Ogalala Butterfly, Peyote Stitch, Apache Leaf, Zig-zag, Potawatomi Weave, and Lakota Chain among others. Includes sources for supplies, notes on knots and threading, and an illustrated section on how to make an Indian Bead Loom. Other techniques explained are pendants, ear drops, rosettes, applique, and sewn beadery. A complete beading resource.