Are you ready for even more letter love?! Practice is the key to beautiful lettering, and this gold spiral-bound book lays flat and provides plenty of space for practice. Bestselling author, Instagram sensation, and lettering extraordinaire Chalkfulloflove presents Hand Lettering 201, diving deeper into the fine points of creating exquisite hand lettering: - New alphabets styles - Advanced color and design techniques - A series of six projects to hone your skills - Tips and tricks to take your lettering to the next level Pssst! Christmas is right around the corner, and this makes a perfect gift!

Profiles of artists and performers from around the world form the basis of this innovative volume that explores the many ways individuals engage with, carry on, revive, and create tradition. Leading scholars in folklore studies consider how the field has addressed the connections between performer and tradition and examine theoretical issues involved in fieldwork and the analysis and dissemination of scholarship in the context of relationships with the performers. Honoring Henry Glassie and his remarkable contributions to the field of folklore, these vivid case studies exemplify the best of performer-centered ethnography.

The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection celebrates some of the most beautiful objects ever made, many in precious materials, and often on a small scale. Focussing on 50 exquisite works from the collection, this beautiful little book showcases the decorative art of creating small-scale carvings, snuffboxes, inlay pictorial illusions, and more, in cut-and-polished natural stones, often incorporating the widely known technique of pietre dure. Demonstrating remarkable skill and ingenuity, many of the works were commissioned by the powerful Medici family and royal families across Europe as symbols of their power and prestige. With detailed photography and extended captions the books explores the fascinating interplay of craftsmanship with the natural beauty of stones such as amethyst, lapis lazuli and jasper.

Sculpture was no occupation for a lady in Victorian Britain. Yet between 1837 and 1901 the number of professional female sculptors increased sixteen-fold. The four principal women sculptors of that era are the focus of this book. Once known for successful careers marked by commissions from the royal family, public bodies and private individuals, they are forgotten now. This book brings them back to light, addressing who they were, how they negotiated middle-class expectations and what kind of impact they had on changing gender roles. Based on their unpublished letters, papers and diaries coupled with contemporary portrayals of female sculptors by novelists, critics, essayists and colleagues, this is an unprecedented picture of the women sculptors' personal experience of preparing for and conducting careers as well as the public's perception of them. The author examines each woman's ability to use her position within the historical and cultural context as a platform from which to instigate change. The analytical emphasis throughout is on the art of negotiation and the result is an interdisciplinary work that delves deeply into the experience of an undervalued cohort of artists who had a disproportionate influence on Victorian social norms.

Make authentic reproductions of handsome, functional, durable furniture: tables, chairs, wall cabinets, desks, hall tree, more. Construction plans with drawings, schematics, dimensions, lumber specs reprinted from 1900s The Craftsman magazine.

A beautifully illustrated exploration of opulent tastes and the power of patronage in 18th-century Britain The central decades of the eighteenth century in Britain were crucial to the history of European taste and design. One of the period's most important campaigns of patronage and collecting was that of the 1st Duke and Duchess of Northumberland: Sir Hugh Smithson (1712-86) and Lady Elizabeth Seymour Percy (1716-76). This book examines four houses they refurbished in eclectic architectural styles-Stanwick Hall, Northumberland House, Syon House, and Alnwick Castle-alongside the innumerable objects they collected, their funerary monuments, and their persistent engagement in Georgian London's public sphere. Over the years, their commissions embraced or pioneered styles as varied as Palladianism, rococo, neoclassicism, and Gothic revival. Patrons of many artists and architects, they are revealed, particularly, as the greatest supporters of Robert Adam. In every instance, minute details contributed to large-scale projects expressing the Northumberlands' various aesthetic and cultural allegiances. Their development sheds light on the eclectic taste of Georgian Britain, the emergence of neoclassicism and historicism, and the cultures of the Grand Tour and the Enlightenment. Distributed for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

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.

Offering more than just a fun project, mousetrap-powered vehicles are a gateway to many of the great concepts in science. Projects using mousetrap vehicles have dramatically grown in popularity in classrooms across the nation, and this guide teaches science students of all ages the basic construction secrets they need to build winning mousetrap-powered vehicles, using nothing more than common household items. This guide also identifies the variables that dramatically effect the performance of mousetrap racers and offers prescriptive advice based on primary scientific concepts such as friction, inertia, force, and acceleration. With easy-to-follow directions for creating the ultimate speed-trap dragster, long-distance racer, boats, and more, this activity guide is designed to eliminate the guesswork and make learning fun. Working together, students and their parents will learn how to build vehicles that not only win the race for top speed, but also take home the trophy for longest distance traveled.

Accompanying an exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Inspiring Walt Disney explores the influences of the art and architecture of France on Walt Disney and his studio artists, highlighting in particular the Disney classics of hand-drawn animation, Cinderella (1950) and Beauty and the Beast (1991). Pairing preparatory material from these films - including concept art for talking furniture and fairy-tale castles - with masterpieces from the eighteenth century reveals hidden sources of inspiration and allows us to appreciate the extraordinary talents behind Disney animated films and French decorative arts. Just as the dynamic, twisting movements of the Rococo sought to breathe life into what was essentially inanimate - silver, porcelain, furniture - so too did Disney animators seek to create the illusion of movement, action and emotion. Illustrated with innovative works by artists such as Mary Blair, Hans Bacher and Peter J. Hall, and the animated and anthropomorphic furniture, Sevres porcelain and gilt bronze of rococo designers, the catalogue explores the shared creative roots of these two seemingly disparate artistic realms and looks to revitalise the feelings of excitement, awe and marvel, which both eighteenth-century craftsmen and Disney animators sought to spark in their audiences.

Decorating with motifs is truly quick and easy. Use these wonderfully versatile decorating techniques and designs to create a special atmosphere and leave your own unique imprint -- on various articles in and around the house, for yourself or as prized gifts for family and friends. This book inspires in two parts. The first section is filled with colour photographs of completed projects, as well as numerous tips. The second section contains over 250 motifs to choose from and combine with the craft of your choice. The motif collection is divided into ten themes: Africa, cacti, shells, leaves...take a look -- you will find something to suit every taste and setting.

A joyful exploration of modern calligraphy, with exercises and ideas to help you get creative with ink.

Modern calligraphy has taken social media by storm and inspired thousands of people to put pen to paper and get involved with ink. For years, handwriting has been in danger of becoming lost to keyboards and smartphones, with few of us picking up a pen to do much more than scrawl a shopping list or take hasty notes in meetings so, for professional calligrapher Betty Soldi, this increase in interest is welcome.

In Inkspired, Betty encourages you to reconnect with handwriting and discover the calming, creative joy of calligraphy. The book contains guidelines and practice pages, and its calligraphy-friendly paper and unique lie-flat binding mean you can write straight into the book with ease. Once you have had a go at her own `Alphabetty' of calligraphic letters, you are encouraged to develop your own individual style, with a section of projects, from invitations to writing on crockery.

Learn to embrace mistakes, play around with new ideas - Betty encourages practicing not just with pen and paper, but writing on mirrors in lipstick or etching messages into a plant leaf - and express yourself with beautiful lettering and flourishes. Betty's mantra is `Practice makes progress', and with her infectious enthusiasm and invaluable guidance, even the most inexperienced of inkers will find their scribbles transformed.

Designed to be a companion to our classic title 1000 Chairs, this edition contains an awesome selection of over 1000 lights. Presented chronologically by decade are the 20th century's most interesting electric lights, from Tiffany's beautiful leaded-glass shades to completely outrageous designs from the late 1960s and 1970s to the latest high-tech LED lamps. All major styles are represented here-Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modern Movement, De Stijl, Postwar, Pop, Radical, Postmodern, and Contemporary-in 640 pages of truly illuminated works. This definitive reference work is a must-have for collectors and design fans. About the series Bibliotheca Universalis - Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe!

Breathe new life to the timeless craft of friendship bracelets with 101 customizable designs! Learn how to make personalized gifts for your friends by adding names, inspiring words, special messages, pictures, shapes, symbols, and other meaningful images and sentiments that will give your bracelet making as one-of-a-kind style! From the author of the best-selling Friendship Bracelets 101 and Friendship Bracelets 102, this complete guide will show you how to take your knotted, personalized crafts to the next level! Also included is an inspiring tutorial on how to make your own original pattern. Featuring all the basics you need to know, step-by-step instructions, coordinating photography, and an inspirational gallery of fun designs, this book lets you celebrate your friendships and give them a bracelet they'll love! Author Suzanne McNeill has written more than 230 craft and hobby books that share her passion for creating. Designer, artist, columnist, TV personality, publisher, art instructor, and winner of the Craft and Hobby Association's Industry Achievement Award, Suzanne has been called "the Trendsetter" of the arts and crafts industry.

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.

Now available in paperback, this book devotes itself exclusively to rings, considering them thematically rather than chronologically. The author, a world expert, has rich historical and literary knowledge. As she considers rings in all their forms she makes us delight in them as works of art, and makes their context come alive through paintings, drawings and vivid quotations.

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.

The creative duo Charles Eames (1907-1978) and Ray Kaiser Eames (1912-1988) transformed the visual character of America. Though best known for their furniture, the husband and wife team were also forerunners in architecture, textile design, photography, and film. The Eameses' work defined a new, multifunctional modernity, exemplary for its integration of craft and design, as well as for the use of modern materials, notably plywood and plastics. The Eames Lounge Chair Wood, designed with molded plywood technology, became a defining furniture piece of the 20th century, while the couple's contribution to the Case Study Houses project not only made inventive use of industrial materials but also developed an adaptable floor plan of multipurpose spaces which would become a hallmark of postwar modern architecture. From the couple's earliest furniture experiments to their seminal short film Powers of Ten, this book covers all the aspects of the illustrious Eames repertoire and its revolutionary impact on middle-class American living. About the series Born back in 1985, the Basic Art Series has evolved into the best-selling art book collection ever published. Each book in TASCHEN's Basic Architecture series features: an introduction to the life and work of the architect the major works in chronological order information about the clients, architectural preconditions as well as construction problems and resolutions a list of all the selected works and a map indicating the locations of the best and most famous buildings approximately 120 illustrations (photographs, sketches, drafts, and plans)

With a photo-rich teaching method that's welcoming to everyone, this introduction helps you use ink and a qalam-a traditional reed pen-to create flowing, timelessly decorative lines of Arabic script. The book begins with the history behind this art that decorates writings and architecture worldwide. Master calligrapher Alani next shows you how to choose the materials and prepare your tools. After a quick introduction to how the Arabic language works, he guides you through exercises to help you successfully write the 28 Arabic letters, join them together, and finally assemble them into phrases. Once you have mastered the basics, explore creating graphic compositions in each of seven major styles (Kufic, Thuluth, Naskh, Persian, Turkish, Riqa, and Maghrebi). Sometimes it takes years to be able to decipher a composition, but meanwhile, you can enjoy its aesthetic beauty. This guide helps beginners, like centuries of people before them, create graceful, meaningful art from words.

In recent years, there has been a real revival and appraisal of the works of the mid-century modern movement among architects and interior designers: the furniture, lighting and objects designed by Alvar Aalto, Charles & Ray Eames, Eileen Gray, Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobsen, Pierre Jeanneret, Finn Juhl, Vladimir Kagan, Poul Kjaerholm, Florence Knoll, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Borge Mogensen, Serge Mouille, George Nakashima, George Nelson, Verner Panton, Ico Parisi, Charlotte Perriand, Gio Ponti, Jean Prouve, Sergio Rodrigues, Jean Royere, Eero Saarinen, Arne Vodder, Jules Wabbes, Ole Wanscher, Hans J. Wegner, Jorge Zalszupin and many others is integrated in their most exclusive projects and their best pieces are sold at record prices at Christies, Philipps, Sotheby's... In the U.S., the mid-century modern movement in interiors, product and graphic design and architecture was a reflection of the International and Bauhaus movements including the works of Gropius, Florence Knoll, Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Brazilian and Scandinavian architects were very influential, with a style characterised by clean simplicity and integration with nature. In Europe, the influence of Le Corbusier and the CIAM resulted in an architectural orthodoxy manifest across most parts of post-war Europe that was ultimately challenged by the radical agendas of the architectural wings of the avant-garde. A critical but sympathetic reappraisal of the internationalist oeuvre, inspired by the Scandinavian Moderns and the late work of Le Corbusier himself, was reinterpreted by groups such as Team X, including structuralist architects and the movement known as New Brutalism. This chic, over-sized coffee table book is an essential object for all mid-century design aficionados, interior designers with a passion for the modernist 1950s and for refined readers seeking inspiration for their own interiors. In 20 reports, interior designers and passionate collectors of mid-century furniture, lighting, objects and artworks show how carefully selected touches of high-end mid-century modernism can contribute to a unique living environment.

The Tower of London has over two million visitors a year, with the Crown Jewels as its centrepiece. This paperback edition of the official illustrated history of the Crown Jewels, the most famous jewelry collection in the world, incorporates spectacular new photographs with stunning details. Accessible and up-to-date text, based on original research, includes the story of two of the largest and most famous diamonds in the world - the Kohi-nur and the Cullinan. This is the perfect souvenir for visitors to the Tower of London, as well as an ideal introduction for anyone interested in English history and monarchy.

Put your wood carving skills to practical use! This must-have book features 13 projects with step-by-step instructions and photography for creative and elegant walking sticks. Including projects for both intermediate and advanced wood carvers, painting and finishing instructions are provided, as well as helpful information on types of wood used for walking stick shanks, methods for joining a head to a shank, and more. From a simple lyre-shaped thumb stick and a gent's walking stick to derby sticks with the head of a fox, eagle, Labrador retriever, black swan, and other animals, you'll enjoy putting your carving skills to the test by creating these beautifully useful walking sticks and canes. Author Paul Purnell is a self-taught wood carver for 15 years who specializes in birds, animals, and other wildlife. His carving style includes a mixture of tools, and he has carved projects for The Guild of Master Craftsman's Wood Carving and Woodworking Crafts magazines.

* 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