The animal kingdom has been a source of inspiration for jewelers since the days of antiquity. Chosen for their symbolism, their beauty or their personality, a whole menagerie of creatures has been depicted in gemstones and precious metals, ranging from fantastical dragons, griffins and sphinxes, to wild beasts such as boars and big cats, to the delicate forms of birds, fish and even insects. The 130 pieces in this book have been specially selected from the magnificent jewelry collection of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and include necklaces and earrings, bracelets and brooches by legendary names such as Boucheron, Falize and Lalique. They stretch from the Renaissance revival of the 19th century to the elegant lines of Art Nouveau and beyond, through to the playful naivety of modernist designs by Jean Lurcat and Line Vautrin. Beautifully photographed by renowned photographer Jean-Marie del Moral, this second title in the series that began with Flora: The Art of Jewelry is packed with clever and witty works of art that will delight all lovers of jewelry and nature.

Alongside artistically experimental aspects of education, the ThinkingJewellery 'trademark' stands as a contextual leitmotif throughout the gemstones and jewellery study programme at Trier University/Idar-Oberstein campus. The aims of ThinkingJewellery comprise scientifically oriented research as well as discourse on the historical and societal interconnection of jewellery. Highlights are the ThinkingJewellery symposia, which are now accompanied by a series of periodicals. The new series discusses contributions to a contemporary theory of jewellery beyond disciplinary boundaries or typical categories. The texts envisioned for ThinkingJewellery 2 include 'On the Cultural History of the Gemstone', 'Goethe on Colour' and 'Cold Shine - Empty Glamour, on Jeff Koons's Celebration Series', which are based on lectures from the 2017 symposium.

This book presents a wealth of images that will spark the imagination of all who see them. There are times when all artists struggle for inspiration. This can be particularly true when you try to create patterns, textures and designs with which to decorate your work. In this book, Carolyn Genders presents a wealth of images - of both natural and manmade objects - that will spark your imagination as soon as you see them. The book also highlights how these images can be visually abstracted, refined and developed to create other beautiful patterns, designs and forms. The result is not only a useful guide to how the creative process works but also a visually glorious sourcebook of images. This book is a must for all - whatever field you work in and whether you are an amateur or a professional artist.

"Images in the Margins" is the third in the popular Medieval Imagination series of small, affordable books drawing on manuscript illumination in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum and the British Library. Each volume focuses on a particular theme and provides an accessible, delightful introduction to the imagination of the medieval world.
An astonishing mix of mundane, playful, absurd, and monstrous beings are found in the borders of English, French, and Italian manuscripts from the Gothic era. Unpredictable, topical, often irreverent, like the "New Yorker" cartoons of today, marginalia--images drawn in the margins of manuscripts--were a source of satire, serious social observation, and amusement for medieval readers. Through enlarged, full-color details and a lively narrative, this volume brings these intimately scaled, fascinating images to a wider audience.

This in-depth look at the forces shaping contemporary jewelry in China includes works by 62 contemporary Chinese jewelry artists, presenting the arresting variety and energy that China offers the field. Cao, an internationally renowned artist residing both in the US and China, puts the work in context for the Western jewelry world by offering background, and exploring the contributions by acclaimed forces in jewelry design-including Norman Cherry, Anja Eichler, Mary Lee Hu, and Shannon Xin. Cao explains jewelry design's history and development in China during the periods from 1990 through 2020, including phases of Early Exploration (1990-1999), New Voice (2000-2007), Adaption and Communication (2008-2012), and Great Flux (2013-2020). With more than 350 photos of important works, learn how the contemporary artists of China are offering the world one-of-a-kind design styles as they absorb, shape, and reflect the inheritance and innovation of Chinese tradition.

From ceramics to silversmithing, calligraphy to textiles, hot glass to bookbinding, crafts have played a rich and complex role in the social, cultural, and artistic history of twentieth-century Britain. This all-encompassing book is the first to survey the full range of individual craft disciplines and key practitioners from the pre-World War I years of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the 1990s. Tanya Harrod shows how the crafts movement emerged in response to generalized anxiety about the production, commodification, and consumption of objects in a highly industrialized society. Caught between the more powerful disciplines of fine art, architecture, and design for industry, crafts have defined and redefined themselves throughout the century. The book begins with the craft revival of the early 1900s, tracing the complex legacy of John Ruskin and William Morris. The author then discusses how the Arts and Crafts Movement was forced to reexamine its aims during the Great War; how the development of the crafts was closely connected to the development of modernism between the wars; and how during World War II the idea of the handmade, often in the form of vernacular craft discovered in remote pockets of England, played a significant part in propagandizing a national culture worth defending. The book also explores the postwar beginnings of a countercultural workshop-based craft movement led by Bernard Leach and the continuing redefinition of crafts as the government-funded Crafts Council pushed them toward the fine arts and then the government attempted in the 1980s to recast them as exemplars of enterprise culture. Harrod describes the increasingly blurred division between craft and design for mass production at the conclusion of the book. Along with historians, educators, artists, craftspersons, and collectors, readers with an interest in British cultural history will find in this book much to delight and fascinate. This book accompanies an exhibition of British crafts, "The Pleasures of Peace: Craft, Art and Design in Britain from the 1940s to the 1960s," that will open at the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia in spring 1999. Published in association with the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts

The art of fire-writing is a returning trend, and there is no better way to learn the technique and inspire yourself than through this up-to-date edition of Daniel Wright's ultimate introduction to pyrography. Daniel Wright's enthusiasm for his subject is beautifully captured in a sequence of clear, easy-to-follow step-by-step photographs and unique projects. Taking his inspiration from pen-and-ink, engraving and watercolour techniques, he demonstrates many exciting methods and traditional ways of woodburning to create myriad patterns, pictures and motifs including landscapes, trees, flowers, animals and buildings. Information is included on the types of wood to use, how to prepare surfaces, working with the grain and enhancing designs. He goes on to illustrate shading and faux marquetry, and there's a section on using photographs and sketches to produce your own designs. With each new technique, a project is introduced by Daniel to help you learn and explore your new skill - from burning your own chessboard to a stunning fairytale stool design for your little one's bedroom. Finally, advice and demonstrations are provided on decorating old wooden objects, revitalizing much-loved pieces by working patterns into their worn, textured surfaces. This book will inspire, entertain and instruct you, whether you are a complete beginner or an experienced pyrographer.

From an award-winning calligrapher and well-known arts educator and author: a generously illustrated text offering full coverage of the art of calligraphy from the left-handed writer's point of view, presenting every facet of the subject, from correct hand, pen and nib positions to composition and page layout.

The first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor, arguably the most celebrated and mythologised jewel in the world. On 29 March 1849, the ten-year-old maharaja of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the centre of the great fort in Lahore. There, in a public ceremony, the frightened but dignified child handed over great swathes of the richest country in India in a formal Act of Submission to a private corporation, the East India Company. He was also compelled to hand over to the British monarch, Queen Victoria, perhaps the single most valuable object on the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i Noor diamond. The Mountain of Light. The history of the Koh-i-Noor that was then commissioned by the British may have been one woven together from gossip of Delhi bazaars, but it was to become the accepted version. Only now is it finally challenged, freeing the diamond from the fog of mythology that has clung to it for so long. The resulting history is one of greed, murder, torture, colonialism and appropriation told through an impressive slice of south and central Asian history. It ends with the jewel in its current controversial setting: in the crown of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. Masterly, powerful and erudite, this is history at its most compelling and invigorating.

More than any other piece of furniture, the chair has been subjected to the wildest dreams of the designer. The particular curve of a backrest, or the twist of a leg, the angle of a seat or the color of the entire artifact; each element reflects the stylistic consciousness of an era. From Gerrit Rietveld and Alvar Aalto to Verner Panton and Eva Zeisel, from Art Nouveau to International Style, from Pop Art to Postmodernism, the history of the chair is so complex that it requires a comprehensive encyclopedic work to do it full justice. They are all here: Thonet's bentwood chairs and Hoffmann's sitting-machines, Marcel Breuer's Wassily chair and Ron Arad's avant-garde armchairs. Early designers and pioneers of the modern chair are presented alongside the most recent innovations in seating. This dedicated compendium displays each chair as pure form, along with biographical and historical information about the pieces and their designers. An illuminating tome for design aficionados and an essential reference for collectors! About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

Under the ambiguous term HUNT (English: the hunt; Estonian: the wolf), Kadri Malk unites her collection of contemporary art jewellery. As a lone wolf, the Estonian artist and teacher compiled the pieces in her eternal hunt for beauty, mystery and creativity. Since jewellery is designed to be worn, Malk's fellow artists are not only immortalised in these works; they also pose in portraits alongside their favourite pieces. The jewellery is thus brought to life on the bodies of the collector's friends and companions. Text in English and Estonian.

Tassels are fashionable, fun and easy to make! The 20 projects in this book include a wonderful variety of tassels, made using a range of easy techniques and a few inexpensive materials. Carolyn Schulz has put her jewellery-making expertise to good use to create gorgeous bag charms, decorative key fobs and fashionable jewellery. There are folk-inspired tassels created using colourful threads and frayed fabric strips, leather tassels and small, simple tassels combined with beads and ribbon used to make colourful earrings and brooches. The basic tassel-making technique couldn't be easier and is explained at the beginning of the book, and all the projects have easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. No previous crafting experience is necessary. The materials used are widely available, and most can be sourced from scraps and left-over fabric, yarn and threads.

The court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II produced nothing more amazing than the Mira colligrophioe monumenta, a flamboyant demonstration of two arts-calligraphy and miniature painting. The project began when Rudolf's predecessor commissioned the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay to create a model book of calligraphy. A preeminent scribe, Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historic scripts. Many were intended not for practical use but for virtuosic display. Years later, at Rudolf's behest, court artist Joris Hoefnagel filled the spaces on each manuscript page with images of fruit, flowers, insects, and other natural minutiae. The combination of word and images is rare and, on its tiny scale, constitutes one of the marvels of the Central European Renaissance. The manuscript is now in the collections of the Getty Museum. Forty-eight of its pages are reproduced in this book, containing samples of classic italic hands; historical, invented, and exhibition hands; Rotunda, a classicizing humanist script based on Carolingian miniscule; classically based scripts; and Gothic blackletter and chancery.