Come aboard with carver Mike Shipley as he shows you how to carve a sea-worthy old sailor and his crew. More than 100 step-by-step photos guide you in carving, painting and staining the salty Old Sea Captain and his first and second mates. Patterns are also included for making buoys, lobster traps and wooden crates to set an entire sea-faring scene. Includes step-by-step carving & painting demonstrations, patterns, and colour photos of the finished crew.

Awestruck by the sight of a Grinling Gibbons carving in a London church, David Esterly chose to dedicate his life to the art - its physical control, intricate beauty and intellectual demands. Until his death in 2019 he was the foremost practitioner of Gibbons's forgotten technique, which revolutionised ornamental sculpture in the late 1600s. After a fire at Hampton Court Palace in 1986 destroyed much of Gibbons's masterpiece, the job fell to David Esterly to restore his idol's work to its former glory. It turned out to be the most challenging year in Esterly's life, forcing him to question his abilities and delve deeply into what it means to make something well. Exploring the determination, concentration and skill that go into achieving any form of excellence, Esterly breathed life into the world of wood carving. This special collector's edition of The Lost Carving reveals an astonishing life and deftly illustrates the union of man and material necessary to create a lasting work of art.

Everthing you need to know to create an entire miniature market and incredibly realistic produce in polymer clay. Master modeller Angie Scarr has perfected the craft of creating fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, cheeses, bread, pastries and gateaux in marvellous detail - right down to the earth on her potatoes and delicate veining on cabbage leaves and orange segments - and setting them in context by building market stalls, complete with striped canopies, wooden fruit boxes, punnets and other display items. Polymer clay modelling techniques include: simple caning; colour blending; stacking; advanced caning; combination techniques; advanced ideas; Step-by-step colour photography shows you how to create your own mouthwatering masterpieces of miniature art. Full plans and construction techniques for all the projects. Out of the dolls' house and into the street - bringing miniature hobbyists to a wider panorama for their craft.

The Lives of Chinese Objectsis a fascinating book. It is the result of excellent historical research as well as curatorial expertise. The reader is taken on an amazing journey starting with the startling discovery of the image of five Chinese bronzes on display as part of the Great Exhibition in 1851...The stories uncovered are riveting, a mix of curatorial detail and description, historical research and theoretical analysis. This book is beautifully written - clear, detailed and informative. The author is ever present in the text and the book is as much a story of her journey, as it is a story of the lives of the 'Putuo Five'. I just wanted to keep reading." . Suzanne MacLeod, University of Leicester

This is the biography of a set of rare Buddhist statues from China. Their extraordinary adventures take them from the Buddhist temples of fifteenth-century Putuo - China's most important pilgrimage island - to their seizure by a British soldier in the First Opium War in the early 1840s, and on to a starring role in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the 1850s, they moved in and out of dealers' and antiquarian collections, arriving in 1867 at Liverpool Museum. Here they were re-conceptualized as specimens of the 'Mongolian race' and, later, as examples of Oriental art. The statues escaped the bombing of the Museum during the Second World War and lived out their existence for the next sixty years, dismembered, corroding and neglected in the stores, their histories lost and origins unknown.

As the curator of Asian collections at Liverpool Museum, the author became fascinated by these bronzes, and selected them for display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery. In 2005, quite by chance, the discovery of a lithograph of the figures on prominent display in the Great Exhibition enabled the remarkable lives of these statues to be reconstructed.

Thousands of collectors will rejoice in this new guide to the products of Ceramic Arts Studio in Wisconsin. From 1942 to 1955, the pottery focused on the production of slipcast figurines which are avidly collected today. In over 250 color photographs Mike Schneider captures the beauty and charm of these figurines, providing a reference that has long been needed by collectors. The photographs are accompanied by a wealth of useful information including the history of the company and hints on care, repair, preservation, valuing, fakes, and reproductions. The figurines are organized by type with sections on People, The Animal Kingdom, Fantasies, Posy Pots, and Decorating the Walls. A Price Guide is included.

In the past decade, there has been a surge of Anglophone scholarship regarding Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which has led to a reframing of the discourses around Spanish culture of this period. Despite this new interest-in which painting, in particular, has been singled out for treatment-a comprehensive study of sculpture collections and the status of sculpture in Spain has yet to be produced. Sculpture Collections in Early Modern Spain is the first book to assess the phenomenon of sculpture collecting and in doing so, it alters the previously held notion that Spanish society placed little value in this art form. Di Dio and Coppel reveal that, due to the problems and expense of their transport from Italy, sculptures were in fact status symbols in the culture. Thus they were an important component of the collections formed by the royal family, cultivated noble collectors, humanists, and artists who had pretensions of high status. This book is especially useful to specialists for its discussion of the typologies of collections and objects, and of the mechanics of state gifts, transport, and collection display in this period. An appendix presents extensive archival documentation, most of which has never before been published. The authors have uncovered hundreds of new documents about sculpture in Spain; and new documentary evidence allows them to propose several new identifications and attributions. Firmly grounded in extensive archival research, Sculpture Collections in Early Modern Spain redefines the socio-political and art historical importance of sculpture in early modern Spain. Most importantly, it entirely transforms our knowledge regarding the presence of sculpture in a wide range of Spanish collections of the period, which until now has been erroneously characterized as close to non-existent.

A comprehensive study of modern sculpture developments in Great Britain, this beautiful and important new book showcases 95 leading sculptors from the second half of the 20th century. Chronologically arranged to show the influences that touched each of the artists lives, it concentrates on the most influential, award-winning, and highly valued works from the growing field of popular sculpture available today. The artists themselves selected most of the pieces to represent their own work and are liberally quoted with personal statements to interpret their work for the readers. 780 color and black and white photographs display the wide range of materials, themes, styles, and settings that convey each individual sculptors own classical, figurative, abstract, or visionary work. \nA history of the Royal Society of British Sculpture (RBS), by the organizations current president, sets forth the purpose and results of this prestigious group today. Essays on the St Ives group of the 1940s and figurative sculpture of the 1950s put the growing sculpture movement in Britain into perspective. From them sprang several generations of influential sculptors whose work challenges current sculptors to push the bounds of artistic expression. They must create, and they do, in countless original ways. The growing popularity of sculpture parks in Britain is currently influencing new sculpture parks all over the world. The exciting images and wealth of specific information contained here will continue to shape the art market for generations to come.

This beautifully illustrated reference work is the only source of information on American women sculptors as a group. Virginia Watson-Jones presents the accomplishments of more than 350 contemporary American women sculptors through photographs of their major works and detailed information about their lives and careers. For each artist information is provided on her birthplace and birth year, education, preferred media, major exhibitions, location of work in public collections, awards, selected private collectors, professional interests other than sculpture, teaching position (if applicable), and mailing address. Each entry also includes a statement by the sculptor and her signature.

The first book to devote serious attention to questions of scale in contemporary sculpture, this study considers the phenomenon within the interlinked cultural and socio-historical framework of the legacies of postmodern theory and the growth of global capitalism. In particular, the book traces the impact of postmodern theory on concepts of measurement and exaggeration, and analyses the relationship between this philosophy and the sculptural trend that has developed since the early 1990s. Rachel Wells examines the arresting international trend of sculpture exploring scale, including American precedents from the 1970s and 1980s and work by the 'Young British Artists'. Noting that the emergence of this sculptural trend coincides with the end of the Cold War, Wells suggests a similarity between the quantitative ratio of scale and the growth of global capitalism that has replaced the former status quo of qualitatively opposed systems. This study also claims the allegorical nature of scale in contemporary sculpture, outlining its potential for critique or complicity in a system dominated by quantitative criteria of value. In a period characterised by uncertainty and incommensurability, Wells demonstrates that scale in contemporary sculpture can suggest the possibility of, and even an unashamed reliance upon, comparison and external difference in the construction of meaning.

Follow along as Harold Enlow, one of America's foremost caricature carvers, teaches you how to carve faces with life and expression. Enlow shares his woodcarving tips and techniques that make his carvings stand out in this information-packed book. You'll learn to carve a female face, a cowboy face, a Native American face, a Santa face, and more. Best of all, you'll discover Enlow's secret to success: learning how to render highly detailed eyes, lips, nose, hair, and ears before moving on to carving a complete face. Each project is done in small steps that guarantee success. For anyone who wants to learn to carve faces that stand out in a crowd, this is a must-have addition to your woodcarving library.

This book investigates how British contemporary artists who work with clay have managed, in the space of a single generation, to take ceramics from niche-interest craft to the pristine territories of the contemporary art gallery. This development has been accompanied (and perhaps propelled) by the kind of critical discussion usually reserved for the 'higher' discipline of sculpture. Ceramics is now encountering and colliding with sculpture, both formally and intellectually. Laura Gray examines what this means for the old hierarchies between art and craft, the identity of the potter, and the character of a discipline tied to a specific material but wanting to participate in critical discussions that extend far beyond clay.

During the early years of the nation, the eagle was adopted as the symbol of America. From that time to this it has been a favorite subject of carvers. It has adorned buildings, signs, furniture, and boats. It has carried banners of E. Pluribus Unum and Happy New Year. And it is cherished still. In this new book Paul White takes the carver through the process of carving a large traditional bald eagle. Beginning with the gluing of the boards and sculpting and ending with a helpful description of gold leafing, Paul explains each step in detail. For those who wish to get right to the carving he also explains the use of commercially prepared blanks. A measured drawing of the project is included, as well as a gallery of variations. A wonderful book for carvers of all abilities.

Richly illustrated, Early Gothic Column-Figure Sculpture in France is a comprehensive investigation of church portal sculpture installed between the 1130s and the 1170s. At more than twenty great churches, beginning at the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis and extending around Paris from Provins in the east, south to Bourges and Dijon, and west to Chartres and Angers, larger than life-size statues of human figures were arranged along portal jambs, many carved as if wearing the dress of the highest ranks of French society. This study takes a close look at twelfth-century human figure sculpture, describing represented clothing, defining the language of textiles and dress that would have been legible in the twelfth-century, and investigating rationale and significance. The concepts conveyed through these extraordinary visual documents and the possible motivations of the patrons of portal programs with column-figures are examined through contemporaneous historical, textual, and visual evidence in various media. Appendices include analysis of sculpture production, and the transportation and fabrication in limestone from Paris. Janet Snyder's new study considers how patrons used sculpture to express and shape perceived reality, employing images of textiles and clothing that had political, economic, and social significances.

The top-selling ceramic figurines of the 1940s and '50s came from Madison, Wisconsin's Ceramic Arts Studio and their outstanding designer, Betty Harrington. In terms of quality, variety, and charm, her figurines are among the best of the era, enchanting, and exquisitely designed down to the last intricate detail. This is the first comprehensive book about this popular studio and it presents all the figurines released by CAS, detailed information on the firm's early years, and Betty Harrington's artistic pursuits after the studio closed. Over 1200 color photographs show stylized figurines of theatrical adults, dancers, children, and animals; vintage catalogs; advertisements; and original designs, along with a complete inventory. Today's values are included in the captions and in a price guide/index, for easy reference. The carefully researched text includes interviews with company owner Reuben Sand, early designer and co-founder Lawrence Rabbitt, studio personnel, family members, and the designer herself. Collectors will find this an indispensable guide to Ceramic Arts Studio's engaging figurines.

Chinese ceramics and their glazes have delighted and enthralled the world for centuries. In this book, Nigel Wood traces the development of Chinese glazes from the Bronze Age to the present day. He carefully describes how Chinese glazes were made, and how they evolved over some 3000 years of continuous production. He provides analyses and shows how their superb qualities can be reproduced with common Western raw materials. The book is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of colour plates of Chinese potters and Chinese kilns.

In this collection of works by more than 25 contemporary ice artists, discover a fascinating art medium defined by its ephemeral nature. Merging creativity and engineering, today's ice artist can create incredibly complex artwork, featured here in more than 150 photos. Ice sculpting's history and impact are described by champion sculptor James Stugart, including events such as the ice festival in Harbin, China. Sculpting firm owner Justin Gordon explains the tools and techniques, and Dick Brickley, former chair of the BP World Ice Arts Championships held in Fairbanks, Alaska, relates the history of this largest international competition. As sculptor Ben Firth says, "Carving ice is a good reminder that no art lasts forever; that, in the end, art is not about creating a permanent object, but about changing people."

During the second half of the twentieth century, Scandinavian potters and glassmakers drew on elements present in China and Japan during the period of the Sung Dynasty to produce pieces of beauty and elegance that combined subtle glazes and classical shapes. The qualities came to characterize Scandinavian design in combining the fundamentals of craftsmanship, quality, subtlety, and a relationship to the natural surroundings. With 380 colour photographs to illustrate the work, this book is a must for the ceramics and glass collector as well as those who appreciate the results of a collaboration between artist and nature. Concentrating on designs produced in Sweden, Denmark, and Finland following World War II, the book presents the works of ceramics companies such as Roerstrand, Gustavsberg, Arabia, Saxbo, and Palshus, as well as the glass of Orrefors, Kosta, and Iittala. Designs by some of the greatest names in contemporary Scandinavian ceramic and glass design, including Berndt Friberg, Stig Lindberg, Gunnar Nylund, Wilhelm Kage, Edward Hald, Sven Palmqvist, Tapio Wirkkala, Timo Sarpaneva, and Vicke Lindstrand, will be appreciated by all students of twentieth century design. The guide to current prices will please the collector.

A practical and in-depth look at modelling faces in clay covering essential information from choosing your clay and modelling tools to drying your work and types of natural finishes. This is a practical and in-depth look at modelling faces in clay, using step-by-step pictures, which is ideal for anyone who wants to have a go at working in detail. As the face gives the figure life and personality, it is an important focus once the body has been created. This book examines the various aspects that make up the face in depth, and which need to be considered when modelling, such as the proportions of the head, bone structure, muscles and expressions. From the face of a child to that of an adult, and from sadness to joy, the enormous variety of faces and expressions all require a different approach and convincing details to complete the figure or bust. All these things are covered thoroughly using diagrams, step-by-step images and clear explanations in order to help you create a face for your work and to improve your modelling. The book also covers essential information such as how to get started, choosing your clay and modelling tools, drying your work and types of natural finishes such as wax.