This is a new, revised edition of an essential book on pyrography. It offers updated with current work practices and an extended gallery of inspirational work from the very best pyrography artisans. It features 12 design projects that are presented in clear step-by-step process. This new revised edition of Stephen Poole's detailed guide to pyrography will be updated with some current work practices and an extended gallery of inspirational work from the very best pyrography artisans. Stephen's book comprehensively covers the subject from the history of the craft, materials and equipment required through to all the skills to create 'burnt wood art decoration'. Starting with basic tracing, Poole explores all the techniques to recreate lifelike textures and shading to conjure up inspiring images of nature, still-life and atmospheric scenes. The author gives indispensible instruction specifically on pyrography for woodturned objects and how to protect and finish the work. Projects include: rolling pin, wooden spoon, earrings, brooch, frame, key ring, jotter board, breadboard, cheese platter

Chinese arts and crafts enjoy a unique reputation in the history of material culture and civilisation. For several thousand years, crafts have echoed the rhythm of daily life in China. From rural society to the imperial court, these crafts have served a practical purpose, constantly evolving with changes in lifestyle. In this illustrated introduction Hang Jian and Guo Qiuhui discuss the colorful history and development of distinctive Chinese crafts, including ceramics, furniture, clothing and decorative arts.

This beautiful illuminated manuscript, now in Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, is one of the earliest surviving examples of a unique group of Bibles containing the most extensive cycles of biblical illustrations juxtaposed with theological and allegorical interpretative images. The present moralized Bible was produced in Paris in the first half of the 13th century, and contains over 1000 exquisitely illuminated medallions accompanied by textual extracts and commentaries that act as captions to the illustrations and thus reveal, by word and image, the relevance of the Bible to contemporary life. They reflect the rapidly-changing world of the thirteenth century and highlight the many ideological problems prominent in the intellectual and political milieu of the time. It is a book that has long fascinated both historians and art-historians, since it stands out not only as one of the major artistic achievements of its time, but also as an important historical document for an understanding of medieval Europe. All illuminated pages of Codex 2554 are reproduced in full colour in this volume. In his commentary to the manuscript, Gerald Guest explains the origins of this type of Bible manuscript; he compares the work with other surviving examples, examines the style and meaning of the illuminations, poses the likely patrons and puts the creation of the moralized Bible in its intellectual and artistic context. The author has also translated all the French texts that accompany the illuminations into English.

The Everyday Blacksmith is your essential reference for learning how to make items you'll use everyday: tools, hardware, utensils, decorative objects, and more. Get great techniques and tips for hand forging, and discover projects contributed by leading blacksmiths from around the world, each featuring plenty of opportunity for variation. Modern smiths can use the first section of The Everyday Blacksmith as a reference for shop basics: safety tips, equipment, and techniques like spreading, using a chisel, twisting, and finishing pieces. These basics are incorporated through a series of distinctive projects that include a bookmark, spoon, and leaf fob. The second section of the book features a diverse array of essential step-by-step blacksmith projects, which are arranged by category and difficulty. Projects include accessible techniques, functional designs, and diverse styles. Among the techniques and projects you'll discover are: How to heat treat high-carbon steels Methods for making curved bookends Instructions for creating decorative functional pieces such as a towel rack and napkin rings How to make unique jewelry and jewelry display items Ideas for creating basic hardware, including latches and hinges For centuries, blacksmiths were the craftsmen and artists who worked society's most important material-iron. Blacksmiths were not only a fixture in their community, they helped shape that community through their particular methods of making the hinges, hooks, brackets, and tools their neighbors used every day. Blacksmithing today is enjoying a resurgence. No amount of technical perfection replaces the feeling of picking up a hand-forged object, knowing that it was shaped by someone's creativity and physical effort. Celebrate that individuality with The Everyday Blacksmith.

Create your own floral and plant illustrations, with no previous artistic experience necessary! Each project in this beautiful book is broken into easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions, making how to draw leaves and flowers (including poppies, pansies, and cherry blossoms!) as easy as 1-2-3. You'll also learn the process of creating patterns and digitising your illustrations!

These stylish craft books are highly accessible, with all techniques fully explained, and each project photographed from start to finish. Each book contains 25 beautiful and original projects.

As one of the few decorative arts about which little has been written, japanning is today fraught with misunderstandings. And yet, in its heyday, the japanning industry attracted important commissions from prestigious designers such as Robert Adam, and orders from fashionable society across Europe and beyond. This book is a long overdue history of the industry which centred on three towns in the English midlands: Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Bilston. It is as much about the workers, their skills, and the factories and workshops in which they laboured, as it is about the goods they made. It tells of matters of taste and criticism, and of how an industry which continued to rely so heavily upon hand labour in the machine age reached its natural end in the 1880s with a few factories lingering into the late 1930s. Richly illustrated, it includes photographs of mostly marked, or well-documented, examples of japanned tin and papier mache against which readers may compare - and perhaps identify - unmarked specimens. 'Japanned Papier Mache and Tinware' draws predominantly upon contemporary sources: printed, manuscript and typescript documents, and, for the period leading up to the closure of the last factories in the 1930s, the author was able to draw on verbal accounts of eyewitnesses. With a chapter on japanners in London, other European centres, and in the United States, together with a directory of japan artists and decorators, this closely researched and comprehensive book is the reference work for collectors, dealers and enthusiasts alike.

Everyone has different needs when it comes to coping with life's stressors, and children are no different. Some need quiet and soothing activities to calm them down, whereas others require more physical activity or intense sensory input to relax their minds and bodies. This resource comprises a collection of fun, flexible, tried-and-tested activities and make-it-yourself workbooks for parents and professionals to help a child in need of extra emotional support find the coping skills that fit them best. Each activity lists the materials required and includes clear directions for how to do it. There is something for every child: whether they are dynamic and creative or more cerebral and literal. Projects include making wish fairies, dream catchers, and mandalas; managing unstructured time with activities such as creating comics, dioramas and tongue twisters; and simple ideas for instant soothing, such as taking deep breaths, blowing bubbles, making silly faces, and playing music. Creative Coping Skills for Children also includes specific interventions for anxious or grieving children such as making worry dolls and memory shrines. This book is full of fun, easy, creative project ideas for parents of children aged 3-12, teachers, counselors, play therapists, social workers, and all professionals working with children.

Easy-to-follow guide has 60 step-by-step illustrations for making seats of cane, splint, rush, rope, twine, grass.

Wunderkammern are showing up everywhere these days. Design webshops, expos, interior design stores: they all try to bring back the memory of the century-old tradition of Wunderkammer, or 'the Cabinet of Curiosities'. This book is a Wunderkammer in itself, showcasing the most beautiful exotica, which explorers and adventurous merchants brought back from all over the world for rich collectors. Be amazed by beautiful seashells, stuffed animals, sculptured ostrich eggs, botanical drawings, 'dragons' preserved in formaldehyde, and bewildering Indiana Jones-like stories. A fascinating New World presented itself to them, and in this book, you'll see it through their eyes.

Glass is a magical material through which light can shine. Throughout its millennial history, its colourful splendour and malleability have always exerted a particular fascination and a creative attraction. The book offers a profound and lavishly documented panorama of artistic glass design in Europe and the United States since the 1870s. Over many years Renate und Dietrich Götze have assembled one of the world’s most important collections of glass vessels, comprising some 500 exclusive objects. It reflects not only the collectors’ passion for this luminous material and its unlimited opportunities for inspiring the imagination, but also their tremendous expertise. The volume is a compendium of glass art with numerous artist biographies, a directory of the glass foundries, their techniques and symbols – and, above all: a feast for the eyes!

The first major publication to explore the prolific career of Kaffe Fassett, one of the most recognized names in contemporary craft and design Kaffe Fassett (b. 1937) is one of the most recognized names in contemporary craft and design with work encompassing knitting, needlepoint, quilting, textile design, mosaic, painting, and drawing. Fassett's sense of color and pattern has inspired makers around the world; his early successes include knitwear designs for fashion designers such as Bill Gibb and Missoni, and in more recent years he has collaborated with the luxury fashion house Coach. His inimitable eye can translate the most everyday of details into the basis for one of his colorful, sophisticated, maximalist designs. This book explores Fassett's career and work in context for the first time, highlighting and widening the scope of his output over more than five decades. Drawing on original artworks, photographs, and archival material, it illuminates the work of this distinctive, influential artist and designer. Essays from design and fashion historians sit alongside striking visual material and insightful interviews with Fassett that provide additional context about this prolific artist. Published in association with the Fashion and Textile Museum Exhibition Schedule: Fashion and Textile Museum, London (September 23, 2022-March 12, 2023) Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh (March 31-July 8, 2023) Millesgarden Museum, Sweden (September 2023-February 2024)

Stickmaking Handbook is a fantastic introduction to the wonderful world of creating a wide range of traditional walking sticks, market sticks and crooks; there are 21 projects in total. Suitable timbers are covered in detail as well as alternative materials such as ram's horn, antler, buffalo and cow's horn. Techniques and tips on straightening sticks, fitting handles and fixing a ferrule are thoroughly explained. Stickmaking Handbook also discusses seasoning timbers, shaping, carving and shanking handles as well as a wide range of colouring and finishing methods.

The glorious Manifattura Lenci of Turin is the protagonist of this volume, which presents one hundred and fifty works belonging to the Ferrero Collection. Small plastics and decorative sculptures have made the fortune of this historical manufacture, first active in the field of cloths and dolls, for 'toys in general, furniture, furnishings and children's clothing', and subsequently, since 1927, in the ceramic sector. The Lenci production was inspired by the fashion magazines of its time, between customs and bon ton, reflecting the taste of an era and a society, which had identified in its products the bourgeois status symbol. Lenci was characterised over the years by the creative contribution of important artists such as Sandro Vacchetti, Elena Konig Scavini, Marcello Dudovich, Gigi Chessa, Mario Sturani, and Abele Jacopi, who made the ceramic production unique and inimitable. In 1934 Sandro Vacchetti, former artistic director of Lenci manufactory, founded the successful Essevi ceramics, which follows in the footsteps of Lenci and constitutes a continuation of their style.

A new practical guide to dividing (indexing) in the workshop. Whether new to the process or looking to enhance your skills, this book will introduce you to a range of dividing methods and explains how to achieve the best results both with and without specialist dividing tools. With step-by-step instructions and photography throughout, this new book explains dividing with the 'coordinate method' and using the lathe; dividing with gears and dividing plates; using the dividing head, the rotary table and the spin indexer; electronic dividing methods and finally a range of case studies to show application of practical techniques.

Turn your garden into a haven for your feathered friends with this book of simple and attractive bird houses to make and make over. Setting up a bird house in your garden will provide birds with a place to rest and raise their young, and will also add a touch of color and style. Only basic woodworking and crafting skills, materials and tools are needed. There are easy-to-follow step-by-step photography and instructions throughout, and diagrams where required to help ensure your measurements are accurate. Several variations are given for different parts of the bird house so that you have even more options to choose from. Chapters cover: building a basic box, roof styles, roof treatments, wall treatments, doors, windows and other features, painting and finishing, base treatment and mounting your bird house. One basic bird house can be made into something unique, depending on the combination of features you choose and how you paint and finish it.

The practice of mask-wearing has a long history, even becoming mandatory in times of global crisis. In this useful contribution to the performing arts curriculum, Maskword: The Background, Making and Use of Masks takes a new look at the creative and timeless art of masks and mask-making, while also exploring their cultural anthropology from prehistory to the present day. Drawing on her extensive experience in professional theatre and running workshops, Foreman promotes the life-affirming qualities of masks, providing us with an invaluable resource for artists and teachers, as well as parents seeking activities for children at home. Eight themed projects use photographs to document masks and mask-making techniques, with each one offering practical advice and design ideas; materials are inexpensive and easy to acquire. With photographs by Richard Penton.

Disrupting Craft presents the work of Tanya Aguiniga, Sharif Bey, Dustin Farnsworth, and Stephanie Styjuco, four artists who take innovative approaches to their selected mediums. They share a fascination with themes of identity, and the practise of their art as a means of engaging socially with communities in collective activity. The featured artists work in a remarkable variety of media including earthenware pottery, textiles and weaving, sculptural materials and woven plastic fabrics, and wood, metal and mixed media. Their visual sensibilities range from traditional African beaded culture, to digital media, the products of modern-day capitalist economies in the developing world, to post-industrial rust-belt of the American Midwest. Each is actively engaged in an artistic dialogue within their local and wider community, presenting mementos of bygone cultural eras and making sense of it for the present moment. Disrupting Craft is the second publication, and exhibition, devoted to the work of contemporary American craft practitioners and artists since the Renwick Gallery re-opened in fall 2015, following a major restoration and renovation.

Award-winning carver and fishing enthusiast Rich Rousseau shares his fish-tested designs for creating a variety of fresh and saltwater lures. These are fun and easy projects for anyone who enjoys fishing, carving or collecting. It includes a full-colour gallery of historic and contemporary wooden lures, accompanied by an introduction from top collector Butch Bartz. Making a usable fishing lure from a scrap of wood and some paint is a fun and easy project for anyone who enjoys fishing, carving or collecting. Divided into three main chapters this covers everything from what to know about choosing the right wood, types of lures, extra options to add to a lure, how to dress a hook and full-sized bonus patterns to help develop skills. Along with the wonderful lures that can be made by hand, there is a full-colour gallery of historic and contemporary wooden lures, accompanied by an introduction from top collector Butch Bartz. Rousseau's love of lure making and fishing in general is evident in the Fun Fish Facts and entertaining stories that are littered throughout.

Blacksmithing is one of the traditional "lost arts" deserving re-discovery by anyone interested in do-it-yourself building and crafting. Creating one's own apparatus from metal enhances wood-working, stonework, building, and restoration work. Traditional builder and historic preservation consultant Charles McRaven shows how practical, simple, and rewarding the forging of hand tools can be. Having discovered blacksmithing himself when he moved "back to the land" in the 1970s, Charles McRaven tells readers all they need to know to set up their own smithies and begin blacksmithing. Over the years, McRaven claims he has made almost every mistake that can be made while perfecting his skills, and he shares this hard-won knowledge with readers in a readable and humorous style. The simple and clear instructions supplemented by the step-by- step photography, show how to build a forge, how to make and/or acquire tools, and how to use those tools to create utilitarian items of lasting beauty and durability.