Carving Kitchen Tools is the beginning of your woodworking journey and is a practical guide to creating your own beautiful utensils. From the all-important wooden spoon to butter knives, salad servers and spatulas, Moa Brannstroem Ott shows you how to create kitchen implements that will bring individuality and personality to your home. As well as this, Carving Kitchen Tools explores the variety of different woods, their properties and the whittling techniques to which they are most suited. With step-by-steps to illustrate the correct grips for knife and wood, tips on how to source your wood and details on the tools you need, this book is the perfect guide to this surprisingly simple and mindful craft. Projects include: Butter knives Frying utensils Straight spoons Curved spoons Salad servers Kuksa cups

This book features seven unique hollow-form projects, presented in order of difficulty. It includes all the practical knowledge needed to get started; comprehensive chapters on tools, equipment and understanding wood. Form templates are included for people to scan, cut out and use on their own projects. For thousands of years mankind has created hollow forms to store either everyday objects or things of value - but functional objects can also be beautiful in their own right. This comprehensive book will guide the beginner through everything they need to know to get started with turning their own hollow forms. You will learn how to work with different types of wood, which tools to use and how to apply basic techniques with confidence. You can learn the basic principles of form, proportion and design and how to apply this knowledge to your own work. Seven striking projects are set out in a clear step-by-step format and progress in difficulty.

This title offers 25 step-by-step hand-crafted projects. It shows you how to master decorative wood techniques including carving, pyrography, marquetry and fretwork, as well as basic automata and construction. It offers 25 stunning projects that include a tomato box chest, a carved maple clock with carved numerals, a rodeo toy, mirror frame and a contemporary shelf. It offers step-by-step instructions for techniques and ideas with over 300 photographs. Simple materials and equipment are used to create a diverse range of wooden objects. It introduces an inspiring variety of contemporary work by leading craftspeople. Essential information for selecting and preparing wood is included, with details of the main hard- and softwoods, the tools and the basic techniques. For anyone who enjoys creative crafts, working with wood is a perfect medium for both practical and artistic purposes. This book introduces a variety of decorative wood techniques, that are used in 25 appealing projects, which range from a simple keepsake card in balsa wood requiring the minimum of equipment, a harlequin book end, and a sturdy five-piece bench constructed in hardwood parana pine. Other imaginative projects use found or dismantled wooden objects, such as the Mirror Frame with stair spindles or the Lamp Base made from orange boxes. Every project is designed to reveal the characteristic grain, natural shade and texture of the individual wood. Although to make a number of these projects you will need a drill and a jigsaw, many do not require elaborate power tools. Don't be put off by sophisticated techniques, but connect with this natural resource at the most basic level, enjoying its classic, natural simplicity.

Charlotte Perriand was one of great designers of the twentieth century. A pioneer of modernism, her work was often overshadowed by her more famous male collaborators, who included Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Jean Prouve. However, in recent years her reputation as a furniture designer and architect has matched the stature of her peers - her furniture in particular has become highly prized by collectors. From the 1920s onwards, Perriand was instrumental in bringing the modernist aesthetic to interiors. But she also believed in the synthesis of the arts, and was friends with visual artists such as Pablo Picasso and Fernand Leger. This book will explore Perriand's journey from the machine aesthetic to her adoption of natural forms, and from modular furniture systems to major architectural projects such as Les Arcs ski resort. Featuring some of her most famous interiors, as well as her original furniture, her photography and her personal notebooks, this book sheds new light on Perriand's creative process and her place in design history. It will accompany the forthcoming Design Museum exhibition of the same title, which will coincide with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Perriand's last significant presentation in London, held at the Design Museum in 1996.

Make your first steps in calligraphy fun and rewarding

You'll be delighted at how easy this guide makes it to address invitations with a touch of class, send unforgettable greeting cards, and craft unique and meaningful gifts.

With Don Marsh's simple and straightforward instruction, you'll be creating graceful handwritten expressions in no time By learning a few key strokes (most of them found in the letters "a" and "n") you'll be able to form all the letters of the alphabet.

In this book, you'll find everything you need to begin--including:

• Which tools and materials to buy to get off to a good, affordable start
• Easy-to-follow instructions for the most practical and popular lettering styles--simple italic minuscules, simple roman capitals, simple italic capitals and swash caps
• Easy (but effective) exercises that make learning fun
• How to create numerals and decorative flourishes
• Copy-and-use practice sheets
• Inspiring examples of the art of calligraphy

More than a dozen projects--complete with stroke-by-stroke instruction--show you different ways to apply your new skills. You'll find practical and imaginative ideas for greeting cards, invitations, romantic verse and much more. And with Don's help, you can get started right away.

Making Sparkle Jewelry shows readers how to create colorful, sparkling pieces that lend a magical finishing touch to a prom dress, bridesmaid, Greek formal, debutant or little princess ensemble. Crystal components, mother of pearl elements and resin flowers, combine for 25 finished jewelry projects, including earrings, necklaces, and bracelets. Clear illustrations and step-by-step photo instructions introduce even first-time jewelry makers to the creative world of jewelry making.

Born in England into a unionist family, the artist Frances Georgiana Chenevix Trench became an ardent nationalist and quickly involved herself in the movement for Home Rule and political freedom in Dublin. Before the outbreak of the First World War, Cesca, as she was known, attended art school in Paris, where she associated with students from other small countries seeking freedom. Her passion for Ireland influenced her art, her love life, and her relations with her unionist family. Cesca's seven manuscript journals, originally written in Irish, English, and French, have been translated and set in the context of their times by Hilary Pyle. Heavily illustrated with her portrait sketches of friends and associates in the movement, as well as examples of her oil paintings and pastels, the book is a fascinating account of a young woman in early twentieth-century Ireland.

Georgian Jewellery is a celebration of the style and excellence of the eighteenth century, and of the ingenuity that produced such a wealth of fabulous jewellery. Heavy academic tomes have already been written about the period, but this book examines it in a more colourful and accessible way. The book aims to show that Georgian jewellery is not only the stuff of museums and safe boxes, but that it can be worn as elegantly and fashionably today as it was 200 years ago. Much disparate information about the jewellery has been gathered together and the period is brought alive by portraits and character sketches of famous Georgians in their finery, fashion tips, gossip, and some rather outrageous cartoons of the time, as well as fascinating recently discovered facts. With information on how to identify, buy and repair pieces, this sumptuously illustrated volume contains the largest single catalogue of 18th Century jewellery.

Speaking with Pictures is a path-breaking exploration of visual narratives in folk art. Instead of talking of the recovery of narrativity in Indian modernism through the idiom of folk art, as art critics sometimes do, this book foregrounds folk art's engagement with modernity by re-looking at its figurative modes and the ways in which they are embedded in mythic thought. It discusses folk art as a contemporary phenomenon which is a part of a complex visual culture where the 'essence' of tradition is best captured in a 'new' form or medium. Each chapter picks up a theme that moves between the local and the global, thereby attempting to problematise the stereotypical view of folk artists as carriers of 'timeless tradition'. An ethnographic account of innovations that have been taking place in the folk arts is offered through a detailed analysis of the scroll painting tradition of the patuas of West Bengal and the Pardhan-Gond style of Madhya Pradesh, highlighting some recent attempts at inter-medium exchange in storytelling, such as the use of Gond art for animation and graphic novels in the patua style.The book will interest those in visual and popular culture in anthropology, sociology, literary criticism and folklore. It will also be of immense value to art historians, museologists, curators and NGOs working in media and communication, apart from those with a general interest in folk art.

Hand lettering is the hottest craft going right now, and it applies perfectly to the co-existing trend of wooden signs displaying inspirational, heartwarming, or funny messages throughout people's homes. This book combines the two in a hard-working book that teaches the art of hand lettering with 20 projects to make for the home.

Calm Calligraphy will teach you the ancient art of the Scriptorium - copying letters, words and phrases - which helps you focus your thoughts and relax your mind. Learn the beautiful letter forms with step-by-step instructions, then refine your technique by copying inspirational words and phrases in the dedicated workbook section. By practising the meditative art of calligraphy you will gain a deeper appreciation of the beauty of order and balance. Ease your worries, improve your concentration and feel your spirits lift with each stroke of your pen. Malleus studied with the most recognized international masters of calligraphy and founded the Antica Bottega Amanuense in Recanati, now the greatest Scriptorium in the world.

Canada's ceramists, tapestry weavers, and other craft artists are recognized amongst the world's finest artisans. "Craft Perception and Practice" celebrates the excellence of Canadian crafts by bringing together twenty-four essays and critical commentaries by sixteen independent critics and curators, professional artists, art historians, and studio art instructors. Highly readable texts by internationally published authors Glenn Allison, Amy Gogarty, Paula Gustafson, Paul Mathieu, Gil McElroy, and Anne McPherson--as well as by noted Canadian painter Mary Pratt--discuss the conceptual, social, and cultural significance of craft media, engage linguistic and feminist theories, and consider aspects of tactile, sensual, and tacit knowledge in the context of works by a distinguished group of Canadian craft artists that includes Prix Saidye Bronfman Award winners Steven Heinemann and L opold L. Foulem. The inaugural edition of a three-volume series, "Craft Perception and Practice" features substantive writing about contemporary Canadian craft presented at conferences, in national and international periodicals, and in exhibition catalogues during the past decade. Illustrated with 37 full-page colour photographs. Indexed.

"This important volume promises to provoke critical discussion on the personal, social, and aesthetic programs of artists who work in craft media."

--Dr. Stephen Inglis, Director General of Research, Canadian Museum of Civilization"

"...it's the colorful photographs (over 500!) of one-of-a-kind Hopi and Moroccan-inspired mosaic pieces featured in her memoir, out in October, that truly command attention, from ammonite fossils and ivory animal renderings to stunning lapis, coral, and turquoise designs." - Natural Diamonds North African-born Eveli Sabatie had a long-time fascination with Native American culture and history. As a young woman, she left her home in Paris in 1968 to move to San Francisco, hoping to learn more. A chance encounter with a Hopi traditionalist led to an invitation to Arizona, where she apprenticed with a master Native American jewellery-maker. For her, this was the beginning of a new world. Art can never be fully divided from the artist's voice, nor the natural world. When Eveli encountered red jasper while roaming the Arizona mountains, she knew she had to incorporate her local geology into her work. Yet raw materials are just one of many ways in which the world around Eveli shapes her art. This book is a direct and personal exploration of Eveli's work, following her arc of growth, challenges and internal workings. Eveli's jewellery is entirely created by her, from gathering material to fabricating the body of the piece, doing the lapidary work and finally adding stone settings and finishings. She works in a rustic, ancient environment, often choosing to use rudimentary and home-made tools over commercial techniques. This book explores her creative process through five sections: THE JOURNEY, a biographical overview of her time at the Hopi reservation in Northern Arizona, where she apprenticed under Charles Loloma; CLOUDS AND RAIN, exploring the influence of the Hopi and the desert on her work; BEING HOME, which talks in greater detail about Eveli's relationship with the environment; BEING HUMAN, a philosophical study of humanity through jewellery; and BRANCHING OUT, which features Eveli's other artworks, which are sought after by collectors from around the world. This is a profound reflection on the earth, through the medium of jewellery.

Tea was introduced to Britain in the 1650s. Its popularity burgeoned over the following two-and-a-half centuries, until it became a defining feature of British culture. Drawing inspiration from China, British craftsmen worked to display their skills on numerous tea-related objects, which ritualised the process of drinking tea and imbued it with luxury status. Calling on an array of different materials and techniques, they developed a huge variety of canisters and lockable containers for storing and preserving this precious commodity. Tea chests and caddies were not merely functional items that might lurk at the back of the kitchen - they were intended for display and were an essential accoutrement for fashionable women. As the habit of tea drinking filtered down the social scale, caddies were made in larger numbers and in more affordable forms. This book brings together a great range of decorative antique tea containers, presenting them alongside detailed historical research conducted into their making and their place in British society across the centuries. It also explores the materials and techniques employed. With historical art showing tea's integration into British society, examples of old trade cards and original designs, and a wealth of illustrations of the objects themselves, this is a must-buy book for historians, collectors and those interested in the decorative arts.

Diamonds tell stories that are captivating and timeless. On the one hand, they are just stones, pieces of pure carbon with optical properties that make them glitter and sparkle like stars. On the other, they are mystical entities hypnotically drawing the viewer into a time machine as it were, wherein a cinematic montage of their journey unfolds. Diamonds Across Time presents a sweeping overview of diamonds across time and space, featuring ten essays by world-renowned scholars in love the stone. Here, these authors present new discoveries; explore extraordinary collections; investigate histories, science, and trade; the nature of diamonds; legendary gems, jewellery collections, and great designers. Above all, they tell the human stories that underpin the adoration of diamonds. Diamonds Across Time is a richly illustrated publication with high-quality images of gems and jewels, archival documents, rare drawings, and fabulous photographs. The volume places diamonds in the context of the time in which they were discovered, and on the political, social, and cultural stage on which their histories were etched. In a rapidly changing world, diamonds are eternal. They were created by nature and grew in the womb of the earth. They tell stories, and they record history. With this book, diamonds will finally have their own storytellers. The book was compiled and edited by the World Diamond Museum's chief curator and world-renowned jewellery expert Dr. Usha R Balakrishnan. She and nine other distinguished authors wrote ten monographs written in the order in appearance: Introduction; The Nizam Diamond: Bala Koh-i-Noor, in the Sacred Trust of the Nizam of Hyderabad - Usha R. Balakrishnan; Diamonds of the French Crown Jewels: Between East and West - Francois Farges; A Concise History of Diamonds from Borneo - Derek J. Content; Indian Diamonds and the Portuguese Duriing the Rise of the Mughal Empire - Hugo Miguel Crespo; Two Large Diamonds from India - Jack Ogden The Romanov Diamonds: History of Splendour - Stefano Papi; The Londonderry Jewels, 1819-1959 - Diana Scarisbrick; Dress to Impress in Southeast Asia - Rene Brus; Powerful Women, Important Diamonds - Ruth Peltason; One in Ten Thousand: The Unique World of Coloured Diamonds - John M. King.

Why did the Vikings sail to England? Were they indiscriminate raiders, motivated solely by bloodlust and plunder? One narrative, the stereotypical one, might have it so. But locked away in the buried history of the British Isles are other, far richer and more nuanced, stories; and these hidden tales paint a picture very different from the ferocious pillagers of popular repute. In this book, Eleanor Parker unlocks secrets that point to more complex motivations within the marauding army that in the late-9th century voyaged to the shores of eastern England in its sleek, dragon-prowed longships. Exploring legends from forgotten medieval texts, and across the varied Anglo-Saxon regions, she depicts Vikings who came not just to raid but also to settle personal feuds, intervene in English politics and find a place to call home. Native tales reveal the links to famous Vikings like Ragnar Lothbrok and his sons, Cnut, and Havelok the Dane. Each myth shows how the legacy of the newcomers can still be traced in landscape, place-names and local history. Meticulously researched and elegantly argued, Dragon Lords uncovers the remarkable degree to which England is Viking to its core.

"When you land on this book, if you do not yet have an appreciation of butterflies or Chan's workmanship, after reading, it will leave you in awe of both."-Beth Bernstein, Forbes "When I was a young boy, butterflies were flying colours - I knew not their name. Then butterflies became the Butterfly Lovers: a tragedy, a love story, a symbol of eternal love. As I grew older, I found them to embody the words of a great philosopher: life is but a dream; only we need to decide whether we want it to be the dream of a man, or the dream of a butterfly. I could not decide, and so I became The Butterfly Man." - Wallace Chan Father of The Wallace Cut - an illusionary three-dimensional gemstone carving technique - and The Wallace Chan Porcelain - a ground-breaking material five times stronger than steel - Wallace Chan is a guiding light in the world of jewellery design. Always innovating, always testing boundaries with his materials and technique, Chan's creations are as stunning as they are intricate. Compiled by jewellery experts, this book explores the cultural and personal significance of Wallace Chan's most famous emblem: the butterfly. Winged Beauty: The Butterfly Jewellery Art of Wallace Chan features approximately 30 of his finest pieces. Enter a butterfly house of colourful gems, with brooches and necklaces so delicate they might have flown down and alighted on the page.

In this compilation of projects and plans from "Furniture & Cabinetmaking" magazine, veteran craftsman Mark Ripley puts 20 years' worth of practical tips, refreshing ideas, and innovative approaches on the page. The 24 fully-diagrammed and illustrated designs here offer something to furniture-makers of all abilities, from a simple dining-room table to the more complex breakfront bookcase. And these projects don't require a lavishly-equipped shop: each design requires little more than a bench, a small bandsaw, two or three portable power tools, and a basic kit of hand tools. Before diving into building plans, Ripley helps readers understand the basics of properly choosing materials and harmonizing the elements of furniture design.

Illuminating three centuries of European artistry and ingenuity, this volume in The Met’s acclaimed How to Read series provides a wide-ranging exploration of decorative arts from British writing tables to Russian snuffboxes Spanning three centuries of creativity, from the High Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, this volume in The Met’s How to Read series provides a peek into daily lives across Europe—from England, Spain, and France to Germany, Denmark, and Russia. Featuring 40 exemplary objects, including furniture, tableware, utilitarian items, articles of personal adornment, devotional objects, and display pieces, this publication covers many aspects of European society and lifestyles, from the modest to the fabulously wealthy. The book considers the contributions of renowned masters, such as the Dutch cabinetmaker Jan van Mekeren and the Italian goldsmith Andrea Boucheron, as well as talented amateurs, among them the anonymous young Englishwoman who embroidered an enchanting chest with scenes from the Story of Esther. The works selected include both masterpieces and less familiar examples, some of them previously unpublished, and are discussed not only in light of their art-historical importance but also with regard to the social issues relevant to each, such as the impact of colonial slavery or the changing status of women artists. Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

Over the past 30 years, research on archaeological textiles has developed into an important field of scientific study. It has greatly benefitted from interdisciplinary approaches, which combine the application of advanced technological knowledge to ethnographic, textual and experimental investigations. In exploring textiles and textile processing (such as production and exchange) in ancient societies, archaeologists with different types and quality of data have shared their knowledge, thus contributing to well-established methodology. In this book, the papers highlight how researchers have been challenged to adapt or modify these traditional and more recently developed analytical methods to enable extraction of comparable data from often recalcitrant assemblages. Furthermore, they have applied new perspectives and approaches to extend the focus on less investigated aspects and artefacts. The chapters embrace a broad geographical and chronological area, ranging from South America and Europe to Africa, and from the 11th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Methodological considerations are explored through the medium of three different themes focusing on tools, textiles and fibres, and culture and identity. This volume constitutes a reflection on the status of current methodology and its applicability within the wider textile field. Moreover, it drives forward the methodological debates around textile research to generate new and stimulating conversations about the future of textile archaeology.

Luxurious and stylish braided jewelry! Eye-catching, ornate and fashionable, jewelry created with soutache braid can be made easily! In Sensational Soutache Jewelry Making, you'll learn the basic techniques of soutache embroidery, and then get creative with 15 easy-to-follow projects for bracelets, earrings, brooches, rings and necklaces. Get inspired by author Csilla Papp's ideas, then use your imagination to put your own twists on projects like the simple but stunning Zima Earrings and Baroque Bracelet, or a challenging statement piece like the India Choker. Color and stone choice combine with elaborate braids to make these pieces distinctly yours. Add an elaborate element to your jewelry work with Sensational Soutache Jewelry Making.

In contrast to much current scholarship on women and material culture which focuses primarily on women as consumers, this essay collection provides case studies of women who produced material objects. The essays collected here make an original contribution to material culture studies by focusing on women's social practices in relation to material culture. The essays as a whole are concerned with women's complex and active engagement with material culture in the various stages of the material object's life cycle, from design and production to consumption, use, and redeployment. Also, theorized and described are the ways in which women engaged in meaning making, identity formation, and commemoration through their manipulation of materials and techniques, ranging from taxidermy and shell work to collecting autographs and making scrapbooks. This volume takes as its object of investigation the overlooked and often despised categories of women's decorative and craft activities as sites of important cultural and social work. This volume is interdisciplinary with essays by art historians, social historians, literary critics, rhetoricians, and museum curators. The scope of the volume is international with essays on eighteenth-century German silhouettes, Australian aboriginal ritual practices, Brittany mourning rites, and Soviet-era recipes that provide a comparative framework for the majority of essays which focus on British and North American women who lived and worked in the long nineteenth century. This volume will appeal to a broad range of students and scholars in women's history, art history, cultural studies, museum studies, anthropology, cultural and social history, literature, rhetoric, and material culture studies.