This reference book studies the script, art, and culture of the early Arabic Kufic calligraphy. It presents around hundred historical stone inscriptions, coins, and manuscripts from early-Islamic Persia. In their book, the primary author, S.M.V. Mousavi Jazayeri, a well-known Iranian calligrapher and early Kufic expert, and his fellow co-authors read and analyze with meticulous detail the calligraphy, script, and art work of thirty-seven Kufic gravestone inscriptions, mainly from the Yazd providence of Iran. The carefully-selected inscriptional sample in this book illustrates the remarkable power and versatility of this early script, and the extent of the global role played by it in shaping societies and cultures of a vast area extending from China to Spai

This title will make you take a fresh look at metal and steel. You can create a wide variety of useful and decorative items for the home from almost any piece of scrap metal, steel, or wire. Look out for a variety of steel shapes, steel balls, half-spheres, square and round bars, pole caps, pyramids, and new or even old, rusty wire mesh in different designs and mesh sizes. Scrap-metal craft brings you a host of ideas that will inspire you to explore you own creative genius to make unique items from scrap metal, or simply to put utilitarian metal objects to new uses. Step by step instructions are given for every project. Sizes may be adapted to your own taste or specific requirements.

To develop a successful jewellery line, designers have to be more than just creative artists - they have to understand the ins and outs of running a craft business. Emilie Shapiro's detailed guide explores the many facets of creating a quality handmade collection that people will buy, including where to sell your work, how to do small-scale production, how to carry out market research and publicity, how to price and present your pieces for greatest effect and so much more. It's the perfect primer for budding jewellery entrepreneurs.

Make professional-looking metal jewellery and accessories without investing in silversmithing tools, equipment and training, with this essential guide to working with precious metal clay. Metal clay is a magical material: real metal in clay form that can be modelled and then fired to turn it into pure metal. It has taken the crafting world by storm in the past 20 years and its versatility and accessibility means it is used by professional jewellery makers and hobbyists alike. Metal clay is available in many different types - silver, copper, bronze and even steel. It can be sculpted, modelled, moulded, rolled into sheets, cut into shapes, woven, braided and carved to produce an endless array of forms and effects. Equipment needed is minimal and you will probably have most of the simple tools in your home already. This book concentrates on silver clay which is the easiest kind to use because it can be fired without a kiln. After drying the clay, it is fired using either a small blow torch, a gas hob, or camping gas and in five minutes or less the clay becomes pure 999 silver that can be hallmarked. This book will show you how to master all the basic techniques of working with metal clay while later chapters cover more advanced techniques. Twenty gorgeous projects are shown in detail with clear step-by-step photographs. There are pendants, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, charms, brooches, beads, cufflinks and rings and many of the projects give alternative ideas for developing your skills. Embellishment techniques are shown in detail from setting stones and gilding to enamelling with resin, adding inlay, engraving, and oxidising for luscious colours. Whatever your skill level and whatever your craft style you will find this a rich and inspiring guide with tried-and-tested techniques explained in detail, as well as the cutting edge of metal clay creativity and materials. A few projects that need kiln firing are given at the end of the book to show what can be achieved if you decide to go further with this fabulous material. Author Sue Heaser is a prolific crafter who has written over 18 books on the subjects of jewellery making, polymer clay, metal clay and miniatures. Her expert guidance will give even the beginner the confidence and the inspiration to start a love affair with metal clay and all its creative possibilities.

This title documents a type of folk art in West Bengal, India, that combines traditional narrative scroll painting with singing and storytelling. It depicts the life and work of modern day artists who have reinvigorated their folk art by depicting contemporary social issues.

The strange cries heard at night in a dilapidated penitentiary, the glimpse of a `White Lady' floating through a graveyard, the face at the window in a room that has been locked for decades - stories of hauntings never cease to intrigue us. From palaces to prisons, from an 11th century chateau in France to 'The Island of the Dolls' in Mexico City, Haunted Places features the world's most fascinating spooky locations. Some hauntings are recent, others are ancient, but all the stories are striking: from the deceased monks who pace the boundaries of a ruined former priory, to the lift operator in a Canadian hotel still working his shift decades after he died, to the infamous Vlad the Impaler, who haunts a Romanian castle where he was imprisoned for seven years. With tales of the `Mad Old Woman' who searches Highgate cemetery in London for the children she supposedly murdered to strange laughter heard at night, from apparitions to floating orbs to radios suddenly changing station, Haunted Places features 150 outstanding photographs of haunted sites. Each eerie photograph is accompanied by a caption explaining the story of the haunting, from tragic accidents to brutal murders, from executions to disease and other sorrowful endings.

Contents Include: WRITING AND ILLUMINATING: The Development of Writing - Acquiring a Formal Hand, Tools, Methods, Models, Practice - Manuscript Books - Versal Letters and Coloured Capitals - Black and Red - Laying and Burnishing Gold - The Use of Gold and Colours in Initial Letters and Simple Illumination - A Theory of Illumination - The Development of Illumination - "Design in Illumination" - LETTERING: Good Lettering - Some Methods of Construction and Arrangement - The Roman Alphabet and its Derivatives - Special Subjects - Inscriptions in Stone - Notes on the Collotype Plates - The Collotype Plates