The cowboy is a mythic figure in American life. From his emergence in the west in the late 1800s, he has caught the imagination of young and old alike. His adventures have been the stuff of countless stories, in print and on film. The legends surrounding the old west are told and retold, growing more exciting with each telling, so that it is, at times, hard to separate the myth from the reality. A growing and enthusiastic group of collectors is finding the cowboy and the wild west an exciting area of concentration. In Cowboy Collectibles and Western Memorabilia, Bob Ball and Edward Vebell, focus on the reality of the cowboy's life. While not immune to the myth, here you will find the artifacts that were essential to life in the west. They include rifles, pistols, saddles, clothing, boots, hats, blankets, gun rigs, and even barbed wire. This is the gear that the ordinary cowpoke used, wore, rode upon, ate from, and slept under. And while these items are becoming increasingly scarce, much of the equipment and clothing shown here can still be found at reasonable prices, if one is willing to search the antique shops, the flea markets, and tag sales. Surprisingly, collectors are almost as likely to find it in the east as in the west. For the lover of old west and the collector of its artifacts, this is a wonderful book that helps make an era come alive. A price guide is included.

Charts a new wave of feminist and queer media activism in post-millennial China Digital Masquerade offers a trenchant and singular analysis of the convergence of digital media, feminist and queer culture, and rights consciousness in China. Jia Tan examines the formation of what she calls "rights feminism," or the emergence of rights consciousness in Chinese feminist formations, as well as queer activism and rights advocacy. Expanding on feminist and queer theory of masquerade, she develops the notion of "digital masquerade" to theorize the co-constitutive role of digital technology as assemblage and entanglement in the articulation of feminism, queerness, and rights. Drawing from interviews with various feminist and queer media practitioners, participant observation at community events, and detailed analyses of a variety of media forms such as social media, electronic journals, digital filmmaking, film festivals, and dating app videos, Jia Tan captures the feminist, queer, and rights articulations that are simultaneously disruptive of and conditioned by state censorship, technological affordances, and dominant social norms.

An ideal resource for artists, illustrators and anyone in need of distinctive graphics for an unlimited number of print projects. These elegant calligraphic alphabets are copyright-free and ready to use. Classic and modern styles are featured in a selection of 100 different fonts. Upper-case letters are included in each alphabet, and most also contain lower-case letters and the numerals 0 through 9.

This beautifully designed book shows how the seemingly mundane objects that populate desks and cubicles everywhere are now being re-imagined as collector's items. And as today's trendsetting artists and designers are increasingly returning to non-digital techniques and methods, letterpress stationery, typewriters, and ink pens have developed the cache of vintage fashion and cars. Stationery Fever showcases the plethora of retro and fine office goods being produced and sold around the world. Organized like your favourite stationery store-pencils, pens, notebooks, erasers, greeting cards, school supplies, etc.- it features exquisitely photographed objects that transcend the decades since laptops took over most of our office needs. Each chapter highlights distinct objects and features a store that specialises in that category. Along the way, readers will learn the history of the lined notebook, the proper way to sharpen a pencil, and the story of how postcards came to be. Whether you're stuffing a college backpack or decorating your home office, this book will appeal to lovers of lo-fi and bespoke objects alike.

Crossword enthusiasts will love this book. Our largest collection of easy crosswords yet, it's packed with more than 300 crosswords from puzzlemaster Charles Timmerman. While perfect for beginners, these puzzles will also appeal to more advanced fans who enjoy a light and easy crossword every once in a while.

This extra-large volume is sure to excite gamers searching for puzzles they can do easily and with confidence. And solving crossword puzzles can help to improve vocabulary, memory, and problem-solving skills. Crossword fans young and old will find it's the perfect companion for hours of puzzling fun

Peter Hornsby's Decorated Biscuit Tins tells the story of a highly successful marketing technique operated in Britain, the United States, and many other parts of the world from the Victorian period up to the second World War. Biscuit or cookie makers discovered that their products sold better and lasted longer if they were packed in tins. The first plain, simple containers were replaced by elaborately decorated printed tins, many made to represent a whole range of fascinating domestic and family objects. These colorful and novel tins helped sell the biscuits and then remained in the home to be used as storage boxes or played with as toys, until they became the source of interest for today. Thousands of designs were made by the world's leading biscuit makers, and examples can still be discovered in trunks in Grannie's attic, filled with seed packets in the garden shed, on a shelf in the garage, or in any number of antique shops.

Across America and around the world, people wander through flea markets to search for lost treasures. For decades, no such market was more renowned than the legendary Chelsea flea market, which sprawled over several blocks and within an old garage on the west side of Manhattan. Visitors would trawl through booths crammed with vintage dresses, rare books, ancient swords, glass eyeballs, Afghan rugs, West African fetish dolls, Old Master paintings, and much more. In The Golden Flea, the acclaimed writer Michael Rips takes readers on a trip through this charmed world. With a beguiling style that has won praise from Joan Didion and Susan Orlean, Rips recounts his obsession with the flea and its treasures and provides a fascinating account of the business of buying and selling antiques. Along the way, he introduces us to the flea's lovable oddball cast of vendors, pickers, and collectors, including a haberdasher who only sells to those he deems worthy; an art dealer whose obscure paintings often go for enormous sums; a troubadour who sings to attract customers; and the Prophet, who finds wisdom among all the treasures and trash. As Rips's passion for collecting grows and the flea's last days loom, he undertakes a quest to prove the provenance of a mysterious painting that just might be the one.

On the Great Plains, a land barren of wood and rock for the traditional rail and stone fences, the wire fence was a logical invention. Hundreds of barded-wire designs were invented, and the more practical patents were manufactured and shipped west at great profit. Today collectors are carefully searching out that wire for both enjoyment and historical interest.

This book was designed to provide a well-organized identifying, classifying, and cataloguing system for the many designs and variations of barded wire. Nearly one thousand drawings and three indexes to patents, inventors, and manufacturers provide an immediate means of identification.

Art collectors and their collections make up an important part of the contemporary arts and crafts infrastructure. Not only do museums and art collectors improve an artist's financial situation by buying their work, but their collections also have symbolic meaning. To be included in the right collection can give an artist a high level of recognition; at the same time, the purchase secures their work a place in a system whose aim is to preserve art for the future. Collecting is a selection process which has economic, social, political and art historical implications, and consequences for the artist, the art scene and the public. In On Collecting the authors look at collecting from public, private and personal perspectives to shed light on some of the structures that are responsible for how artworks become 'collectable' and thus available to the public in museums and public spaces. On Collecting is the fourth volume in the series Documents on Contemporary Crafts. The series is published by Norwegian Crafts and offers critical reflection on contemporary crafts, seeking to stimulate discourse within the field. With essays by: Glenn Adamson, Liesbeth den Besten, Paul Derrez, Eivind Furnesvik, Margaret Wasz, Trude Schjelderup Iversen, Gunnar Kvaran, Knut Ljogodt, Nanna Melland, Yuka Oyama, Anthony Shaw and Petter Snare.

The Women for Victory series provides a thorough and authoritative reference for American servicewomens history and uniforms of WWII, and is designed for scholars of womens or military history, veterans, collectors, re-enactors and others interested in the history and dress of these servicewomen on active military service. Carefully researched historical background information about the female wartime services is combined with comprehensive documentation of their distinctive uniforms. Color photos of original clothing and accessories, modeled in full-length studies and supported by close-up views, show various uniforms and insignia in detail. The text and color photographic portions are supplemented by original wartime photos, many previously unpublished, as well as documents, tables and drawings. Vol.1 examines the two oldest female military components of the U.S. armed forces: the Army Nurse Corps, and Navy Nurse Corps. The book also covers two lesser known groups of militarized medical female service personnel: the Army Hospital Dietitians and Army Physical Therapists.

Author and poet Kathryn Carole Ellison's nine beautiful books of poetry are a result of a lifetime of writing-first as a journalist. Then, because she had some life lessons to share with her children, she chose poetry as a means of communicating. Her books-Celebrations, Heartstrings, Inspirations, Sanctuary, Awakenings, Sojourns, Gratitude, Tapestry, Milestones, Beginnings, Horizons and Moments-contain poems from a collection written over a span of 43 years. The "Poems of Life and Love" are as fresh and relevant today as they were when she first wrote them. She has also created a Journal titled Gifts of Life and Love. Ellison began writing poetry for her children in the 1970s when they were reaching the "age of reason," and she was leaving an abusive marriage, becoming a single parent, and overcoming alcohol addiction. She wanted to share "life's lessons" and "words of wisdom" with her them. Poetry was her way to communicate with her teenage children to help them make good decisions in life, without a barrage of words and lectures that would fall on deaf ears. And so, the Advent Poems began. Ellison gave her children one new poem a day during Advent, along with a trinket. More than 40 years later, her grown children still look forward to each Advent season to receiving her poems. In total, Ellison has penned more than 600 inspirational and wisdom-filled poems for living a more joy-filled life and overcoming every-day challenges. After Ellison's second husband died of Alzheimer's disease in 2008, she decided it was time to share her poetry with the world. In 2014, at the age of 75, she started a business and began the journey into the world of publishing and fulfilling her life's purpose. Ellison wants to share the message that it's never too late to pursue one's dreams. She believes the philosophy that "you can be old at 30, or young at 90"-that it's all up to us. And she believes there is no better time than now to share the poems with the world at large. The present, broken world needs some good-old fashioned lessons in kindness, civility and common sense.