La Bijouterie Francaise au XIX "e" Siecle by Henri Vever is an indispensable survey of the jewelry produced in Paris from the Empire to the Art Nouveau period. Since it was first published in three volumes nearly one hundred years ago, it has become the definitive source of information for the jewelry profession as well as for those who simply revel in the intricate beauty of fabulous jewels. Now, for the first time, the entire text is available in English in a single volume.

Vever, himself a highly accomplished jeweler, compiled a study that charts the histories of both the humblest and the most famous of his colleagues, including Bapst, Boucheron, Falize, Fontenay, Pouquet, Froment-Meurice, Gaillard, Lalique, Mellerio, and Wiese. This vivid contemporary account is full of data gathered directly from the jewelers themselves or from their descendants. It contains fascinating anecdotes concerning Imperial and Royal commissions together with entertaining tales of workshop practices. In crediting the designers, chasers, engravers, and enamelers who collaborated with the famous jewelry houses, Vever acknowledged the talents of technicians who often worked anonymously. In identifying unrecorded craftsmen, he made his book a unique document.

Political, economic, and industrial developments are discussed, as are their repercussions on society and fashion. With his intimate knowledge of techniques, Vever was able to analyze changes that were continually taking place in manufacturing processes. He also recorded the changing styles in jewelry and their sources of inspiration, ranging from the Antique to the Orient.

A unique feature of this English-language edition is the inclusion for thefirst time of over 130 color illustrations of pieces, many from Vever's collection, which appeared only in black and white in the original.

A vivid company biography of leading furniture manufacturer Walter Knoll based on its formative figures Wilhelm, Hans, and Walter Knoll, and most recently, Markus Benz. Walter Knoll, the book, charts the one-and-a-half-century-old history of this remarkable furniture dynasty, tracing the evolution of its designs in relation to key cultural and historical developments. When the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles was recently bought by the Federal Republic of Germany and transformed into a representative "transatlantic meeting place," it was Walter Knoll furnishings that defined its interior design and showcased German creativity and performance in arts and business. Based in Herrenberg, near Stuttgart, the 150-year-old furniture business is one of the most successful furniture companies of the modern era and a global leader in high-end furnishing manufacturing. Walter Knoll's impressively long history dates back to Wilhelm Knoll, the founding father of the Knoll dynasty, who first set up a leather shop in Stuttgart in 1865. Knoll rose from being a cobbler to the court purveyor to the House of Wurttemberg. When his sons, Willy and Walter, took over the company in 1907, they began producing chairs - introducing the first club armchair to Germany and becoming the industry's first exporter. Their advances marked a revolution in upholstered furniture. After founding his own company in the 1920s, Walter Knoll was a breakout sensation in the avant-garde interior design world with a landmark exhibition at the Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, under the direction of the Mies van der Rohe, in 1927. His son, Hans Knoll, went to the U.S. in the 1930s and himself founded his own company, Knoll Inc., and with it, re-wrote design history. In 1993, Markus Benz, the son of Rolf Benz, joined the Knoll ranks, continuing the successful cooperation with internationally-renowned architects and designers. This fascinating company story shows how the Stuttgart area, one of the strongest economic regions in the world, was also a wellspring of modern design and culture.

A major new look at the work of one of America's foremost self-taught artists Bill Traylor (ca. 1853-1949) came to art-making on his own and found his creative voice without guidance; today he is remembered as a renowned American artist. Traylor was born into slavery on an Alabama plantation, and his experiences spanned multiple worlds-black and white, rural and urban, old and new-as well as the crucibles that indelibly shaped America-the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the Great Migration. Between Worlds presents an unparalleled look at the work of this enigmatic and dazzling artist, who blended common imagery with arcane symbolism, narration with abstraction, and personal vision with the beliefs and folkways of his time. Traylor was about twelve when the Civil War ended. After six more decades of farm labor, he moved, aging and alone, into segregated Montgomery. In the last years of his life, he drew and painted works depicting plantation memories and the rising world of African American culture. Upon his death he left behind over a thousand pieces of art. Between Worlds convenes 205 of his most powerful creations, including a number that have been previously unpublished. This beautiful and carefully researched book assesses Traylor's biography and stylistic development, and for the first time interprets his scenes as ongoing narratives, conveying enduring, interrelated themes. Between Worlds reveals one man's visual record of African American life as a window into the overarching story of his nation. Published in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum

The power of Christmas derives from the appeal of its repeated rituals, the presumed antiquity of its traditions, and its ability to adapt to changing cultural conditions. Christmas cards seemed inevitable and ubiquitous, but in recent years the genre has been visibly in decline. It is now evident that the Christmas card was a culturally specific artifact, a distinctive way in which a fundamental human gesture could be expressed within a commercial, materialistic, and rapidly changing society. This stylish book explores the imagery, graphic forms, subject matter, and significance of Christmas cards in their chronological timeframe to reveal an important area of American material culture. There is much to surprise and delight. Distributed for the Bard Graduate Center Exhibition Schedule: Bard Graduate Center (09/28/11-12/30/11)

Natural fibers, knots, and beads make beautiful jewelry! Step-by-step instructions teach you how to make the basic macrame knots and how to add beads. You'll learn the types of cords and threads available, and how to combine the knots to create unique styles of bracelets, earrings, necklaces, and more-30 projects total-each with complete illustrated instructions. Elegant and pretty, these jewelry pieces can be worn every day. Make bolder statement pieces, or delicate bracelets to stack. Add your own favorite beads or inclusions to personalize for yourself or as gifts. Once you learn the basic macrame techniques, the possibilities are endless!

Hallmarks, guaranteeing the honesty of the metal and maker alike, have been used in Scotland since the sixteenth century. The 550th anniversary of Scottish hallmarking in 2008 is being celebrated with an exhibition in Nation Museums Scotland (25 January - 27 April 08)which gathers together for the first time all the most important examples of marked Scottish silver and gold, most from NMS' unrivalled collections. The exhibition and the accompanying book are concerned not only with silver and gold vessels, from earliest surviving marked examples right up to pieces made today, but also with the people who made them and the people for whom they were made. Objects, historic records, paintings, illustrations and contemporary accounts will be combined to present a dazzling display. The book distils the exhibition, making it a must for silver enthusiasts and collectors everywhere.

In Handbuilt, A Potter's Guide, pottery expert Melissa Weiss shows you the basics of crafting without a wheel, how to harvest and work wild clay, and using natural glazes. Handbuilt pottery is the perfect way for new potters to dive into this unique medium because it doesn't require access to a potter's wheel. In Handbuilt, A Potter's Guide, Melissa Weiss takes an organic approach to harvesting and working with local clays, and even shows you how to mix your own glazes to use on functional pottery for use at home. Students of pottery the world over have traveled to North Carolina to attend Weiss's classes. Now you don't have to! In this book, Melissa provides you with a solid course on slab and pinch-pot techniques that allow beginning students to master the basics and progress through finished wares. Looking to go a little deeper? Melissa also offers her unique knowledge of how to dig and process local clays for use in pottery, and for the techniques she has developed for creating unique glazes with ash, salt, and other dry materials. Melissa will also introduce you talented contemporary potters, who will share their work, tips, advice, and techniques. Learn the basics of handbuilding and more with this engaging guide.

An indispensable guide to identifying mistakes and accidents, and foolproof ways to fix them. This comprehensive resource is a must-have for all jewellers. It covers hundreds of mistakes, accidents, roadblocks and disasters that jewellers, especially beginner and intermediate, may encounter. Laid out in an instinctive problem-to-solution order and exhaustively illustrated, it is designed for quick reference and ease of use. Troubleshooting for Jewellers opens with 150 diagnostic charts that act as a first point of reference to identify the most common problems. The principal task is to recognize where the jeweller is going wrong, so the book provides several options for possible causes alongside suggested remedies. These are organized by metalwork technique. Other helpful features include: Colour-coded tabs for easy navigation; Descriptions of how a problem looks and feels; Potential causes are listed for each problem; Beautiful finished pieces are shown to demonstrate what can be achieved; Key stages of the technique are demonstrated; Images of the faults to aid easy diagnosis; Photographs demonstrate the best ways to remedy the issue at hand. The book's five technique chapters contain two types of content, each with detailed text and dozens of photographs. Best Practices introduces topics that help to lay the foundations for problem-free skills and to prevent future problems; and Fix-Its describe faults and mistakes, their causes, and provide specific instructions to make repairs. Troubleshooting for Jewellers closes with indispensable measurements and conversion tables, health and safety procedures, and a glossary. This is a practical reference that all jewellery makers will use at one time or another. It is an essential purchase, especially for trade and art schools and libraries.

Most of one's life is not always memorable. I spent a fair amount of my past just chasing the wind, however, I can recall certain events, some of which I will share. I'll stick to glimpses. This is what could be described as a fragmented autobiography; a story told through noteworthy events that have occurred during a colourful life. Some are mystical, some inexplicable. Short stories that involve humour, but most of all love, like threads of gold that run through a lifetime.

The first comprehensive study of the most important ceramic innovation of the 19th century Colorful, wildly imaginative, and technically innovative, majolica was functional and aesthetic ceramic ware. Its subject matter reflects a range of 19th-century preoccupations, from botany and zoology to popular humor and the macabre. Majolica Mania examines the medium's considerable impact, from wares used in domestic settings to monumental pieces at the World's Fairs. Essays by international experts address the extensive output of the originators and manufacturers in England-including Minton, Wedgwood, and George Jones-and the migration of English craftsmen to the U.S. New research including information on important American makers in New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia is also featured. Fully illustrated, the book is enlivened by new photography of pieces from major museums and private collections in the U.S. and Great Britain.

"Gemstone Settings" is the most in-depth, technical guide to stone setting. Jewelry makers will enjoy an encyclopedic overview, which features an extensive summary of stone-setting and techniques for creating beautiful gemstone jewelry, from basic bezels and prongs to pave, carre, clusters, and numerous others--including cold joins, precious metal clay, settings for fragile stones, and settings that allow the stones to move.

You'll also discover detailed information about stones and metals--including their suitability, gorgeous photos and illustrations for visual support, what makes a design wearable and durable, and detailed information on pre-made versus handmade settings.

Step by step, learn how to set your most beloved precious, semiprecious, and organic stones with projects that range from elegant diamond masterpieces to earthy pearl or coral everyday favorites.

In Western Europe the Golden Age of Islamic metalwork in Iran was (and is) generally considered to be the earlier period, and later metalwork was collected almost by accident and has been correspondingly little studied and poorly published, though in recent decades the imbalance has been somewhat modified. The Hermitage Collection, which numbers 162 pieces is the largest collection in the world of later Iranian Islamic metalwork, from the West of Iran as far as the Punjab. The great majority of these are household utensils, and their manufacture is characteristic of the middling levels of urban societies, though in Khurasan in the late-15th and early 16th centuries brasses or bronzes inlaid with gold and silver were made for its Timurid rulers. The substantial numbers of Iranian copper-alloy astronomical instruments of this period were made by different craftsmen, for a different public, and deserve separate treatment, though not magic bowls, used in folk-medicine and divination, which are noticed in this volume. In his Introduction, Anatolii Ivanov gives a valuable directoryof museums and other institutions of the former Soviet Union with significant collections, which complement the holdings of the Hermitage and together amount to a truly substantial corpus. The latter were acquired from private collections, but the core of the collection, from the museum attached to the school of industrial drawing founded by Baron Stieglitz, came to the Hermitage in the 1920s, when this was broken up. As well as minutely detailed descriptions of each piece and analyses of their decoration, Ivanov presents a detailed critical survey of the limited documentary evidence afforded by the inscriptions many pieces bear, which is of permanent value as a basis for further scholars working on later Islamic metalwork in general.

Over many years in a workshop, the knowledge and ability to perform a wide number of relatively minor jobs becomes second nature to a skilled engineer, but the amateur, no matter how great his natural talent, rarely has the opportunity to experience the same wide range of tasks. This book, by the experienced engineer Ian Bradley, contains useful advice and instruction for beginners on workshop practices including arbors and mandrels, belt jointing and splicing, shaft collars, finishing metal surfaces, G-clamps, surface gauges, cutting holes, special nuts, hand turning tools, the wobbler, case-hardening, and machining square material. This book was suggested to the author by his many readers and correspondents as a supplementary volume to his classic textbook The Amateur's Workshop.

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 Chippendale cabinet-making firm, founded by Thomas Chippendale senior in about 1750, became famous partly through the successful publication of The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director (1754, re-published 1755 and 1762), but also through the fine furniture supplied to a number of illustrious clients. Chippendale senior ran the workshop for just over twenty years and his eldest son, Thomas Chippendale junior, continued the business for over forty years; the first two decades in partnership with Thomas Haig. Chippendale senior's work has been well documented but Chippendale junior's work has never, until now, been thoroughly researched. The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale Junior repairs the omission. His patrons included members of the Royal Family, aristocrats, landed gentry and antiquarians; he was adept at satisfying their demands, whether they required lavish gilt or simpler, often mahogany, pieces. Where family archives and original settings survive, as at Harewood House, Paxton House and Stourhead, they reveal the variety and quality of Chippendale's output. An analysis of client's invoices, even when the furniture can no longer be traced, for the first time provides a colourful view of what customers chose and what prices they paid.

This comprehensive guide to working with wire, focusing on the intricate and rewarding craft of wire weaving, will delight and inspire all levels of jewellery-maker. The 24 projects, ranging from elegant pendants to earrings, rings, brooches and bracelets, will appeal to a wide range of tastes and are grouped into beginner, intermediate and advanced sections so that confidence grows in the reader to feel able to move on a stage. Abby's experience running tutorials on this wonderful craft shines out in the clarity of the step-by-step instruction for each project and the invaluable tools and techniques section. To Abby, teaching is all about getting the detail right and taking out the guess work so the maker can concentrate on the end result of a beautiful piece of jewellery.

When Harold Hall was Editor of Model Engineer's Workshop magazine, he was surprised by how just so many of his readers had no access to a workshop at home, or even at college. This book presents a complete guide to building or converting a workshop space and then equipping it to serve a wide range of metalworking activities including model engineering, model making, car restoration and clockmaking. It explains all the essential requirements of the workshop environment: planning, heating and lighting, condensation plus health and safety factors. It then explains in detail the choice of various tools and equipment for differing tasks so the new workshop owner can avoid making unwise purchases. The book is based on a very popular series of articles which originally appeared in the pages of Model Engineers' Workshop magazine, and which have been revised for publication in this edition.

A tour through the Yale University Art Gallery’s holdings of American art, one of the most exceptional museum collections of its kind This volume presents an engaging selection of highlights and introduces readers to the richness and diversity of the Yale University Art Gallery’s holdings of American art. An introductory essay outlines pivotal moments in the three-hundred-year history of collecting, exhibiting, and teaching with American art at Yale and commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Friends of American Arts at Yale, whose support continues to ensure the excellence of the collection. The more than one hundred object entries that follow create a narrative that charts the multiplicity of experiences and accomplishments of artists and artisans living and working in North America—from the earliest days of European settlement to the present. Among the catalogued objects are works by some of the best-known names in American art as well as recent acquisitions and masterpieces that represent diverse American identities. A dazzling range of media is displayed, including paintings and sculpture, medals, prints and drawings, photographs, jewelry, furniture, and decorative arts. Each object is illustrated with a full-page image and is accompanied by a one-page discussion that focuses on its contribution to the history of American art.     Distributed for the Yale University Art Gallery

With over 200 scroll saw patterns to bring to life, this must-have resource will keep you scrolling throughout the year. With insightful sections covering the scrolling basics to assist beginners as well as more challenging projects for advanced scrollers this book offers a wide range of projects in various scroll saw styles.

For any keen woodturners out there who want to do more turning but are short of time, 30-Minute Woodturning is the perfect book as it has an enticing variety of projects which can all be completed in 30 minutes. Even for those working at an intermediate level, this book provides you with something to aim for without compromising safety and it will help beginners to build their skills. Each of the 25 projects also has plans for four variations included so there are a total of 100 designs to whet your appetite. Most of the projects require only basic turning tools and workshop accessories that nearly every turner will have. A list of tools and materials required is included for each one, along with drawings with dimensions. Projects include: candlestick holder doorstop decorative bird box toadstool spatula honey dipper bud vase square edge plate

An explosion of patination methods from beginner to advanced skill levels! Patina offers a collection of over 300 metal patination recipes, application instructions, and full-sized samples for anyone working in metals, including jewelers, sculptors, and metal artisans. This all-skill-level book covers steel, stainless steel, copper, brass, bronze, silver, and aluminum. Neatly organized by metal type then by color for ease of reference. Patina discusses variables that affect the overall metal coloration such as surface preparation, chemical formula, application method, and more. Cross-references take you to the variety of patination techniques offered, including immersion, brush application, spraying, fuming, layering, using resists, hot and cold applications, and more. All recipes feature step-by-step illustrated instructions. Patina also discusses safety issues and handling and disposing of hazardous or corrosive materials as well as proper ventilation. This book is an inspirational resource, a how-to guide, and a book that you have long been waiting for.

Learn how to master hundreds of knotting and braiding techniques to create stunning jewellery and accessories. Written by renowned jewellery crafter and first Ambassador for Swarovski Elements, Dorothy Wood, The Knotting & Braiding Bible is the essential guide to knotting and braiding techniques for jewellery craft. The book covers kumihimo (braiding), plaiting, knotting (including macrame) and fusion, with techniques for adding beads, using different cords/wire and attaching findings. All the instructions have step by step photography to make them suitable for beginners. Choose from a selection of contemporary jewellery, accessories and home decor projects to create beautiful gifts and home decorations.