"As with stocks, education is the way to begin. There are many excellent books on the jewelry market, but start with Understanding Jewellery, the industry bible by two former Sotheby’s jewelry executives, David Bennett, and Daniela Mascetti." — Kristen Shirley, Bloomberg Understanding Jewellery is a comprehensive guide to 19th and 20th Century jewellery. From the methods used to identify and date pieces, to the factors that can affect their value, this volume contains an abundance of expertise relating to precious stones and metals. With almost 1000 magnificent colour illustrations accompanied by straightforward but thorough explanations, this publication offers a richer and more accessible reading experience than traditional text-dominated books. Including introductions to precious and semi-precious stones, and details of the stylistic developments of jewellery over the last 200 years, this volume is a standard work of reference and aninvaluable tool for collectors and dealers alike. "... a delightful and presentation worthy coffee table book, Understanding Jewellery also, in the truest sense, serves as an inviting educational tool with exhaustive encyclopedic explanations of jewelry starting in the late 18th century to the present." - New York Journal of Books

With 250 clear color photos and concise text, Jose Valencia takes readers through all the steps necessary to create unique carvings on rifle or shotgun stocks. Learn to create and apply patterns, remove factory checkering, and use a high speed power pen and accompanying bits to create elaborate scroll, basket weave, and maple leaf patterns, along with realistic wildlife carvings. Adapting patterns to curved surfaces, sanding, and finishing techniques are also shown and explained. Seven patterns are provided for each of the carvings. A color photo gallery is also provided for further inspiration. Once readers have mastered the techniques for carving and finishing these patterns, they will be able to transform standard gunstocks into works of art that will be appreciated for generations.

Italian Renaissance 'plaquettes' are often stored and displayed as a homogeneous category or genre in museum collections due to their apparently uniform small relief format. This has resulted in a scholarly literature that has concentrated largely on connoisseurship and taken the form of catalogues, thereby both responding to and propagating the myth of this classification. However, what is often forgotten, or buried deep in scattered catalogue entries, is that during the Renaissance this small relief format was regularly mass-produced and employed extensively in a variety of different contexts. Far from being a homogeneous category, plaquettes were originally viewed as many separate types of object, including pieces for personal adornment, liturgical objects, domestic artefacts, and models for architecture and painting. For the Renaissance consumer, the commission of a hat badge with a personal motto, the purchase of an off-the-shelf inkwell or the acquisition of a small relief for his study were separate concerns. The aim of this book is to redress the balance by examining these reliefs in terms of their use, alongside broader issues regarding the status of such objects within visual, scholarly and artistic culture from the fifteenth century to the early sixteenth.

In this book, Rachel Kousser draws on contemporary reception theory to present a new approach to Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture. She analyzes the Romans' preference for retrospective, classicizing statuary based on Greek models as opposed to the innovative creations prized by modern scholars. Using a case study of a particular sculptural type, a forceful yet erotic image of Venus, Kousser argues that the Romans self-consciously employed such sculptures to represent their ties to the past in a rapidly evolving world. Kousser presents Hellenistic and Roman ideal sculpture as an example of a highly effective artistic tradition that was, by modern standards, extraordinarily conservative. At the same time, the Romans' flexible and opportunistic use of past forms also had important implications for the future: it constituted the origins of classicism in Western art.

A unique set of 100 cards with over 200 TikTok challenges for you to shoot and upload, from lip synchs, dances and dares to ridiculous pranks.

A leading figure in the world of networked culture explores the artists and events that defined the mass medium of our time Since 1989, the year the World Wide Web was born, the art world has grappled with the rise of networked culture. This unprecedented survey of the artists and innovators in this area from 1989 to today is interwoven with the personal narrative of one of the leading voices on the digital world. In this book, Omar Kholeif, whose prolific career parallels the growth of the internet, tells the story of this mass medium and how it has fostered new possibilities for artists, both analog and digital. The book showcases work spanning a range of media from legendary artists including Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Nam June Paik, Heather Phillipson, and Wu Tsang. Tracing the key artists and innovators from the emergence of browser-based art to the dawn of NFTs, this is a tale for the present and the future.

Baby birds are some of the cutest creatures on this earth!" So begins Rosalyn Daisey's latest adventure into fine carving. In this new book she leads the carver through the creating of the chicks of five birds: the Carolina Chickadee, the Eastern Bluebird, the Bobwhite Quail, the Killdeer, and the Wood Duckling. Each step in the process is illustrated with a clear color photograph and a concise explanation from the author about what the step involves and how to do it correctly. In addition there are reference drawings, color palettes, and photographs of study skins. As always Rosalyn share the anecdotes and insights of a wildlife lover, and it is easy to see why her work seems to reflect a reverence for her subjects. This is Rosalyn's fifth carving book. She is nationally respected as one of the country's leading wildlife artists. Her work has won numerous awards, and the interest in her seminars speaks well of her ability to teach the art to others. This is the same skill she brings to this book. Enjoy.

Working in full-size is a daunting prospect for most carvers. But, fortunately, some creatures are made small enough to be manageable. So it is with elves. These delightful mischievous characters of myth are traditionally very small, and have a liveliness about them that make them perfect subjects for carving. Kelley Stadelman takes the carver step-by-step through the process of creating a life sized elf. After years of teaching, Kelley makes carving easy and enjoyable. She begins with the blank and ends with decorative painting. The result is a wonderful creature in the primitive style that will adorn your home or shop. Each step is illustrated with a color photograph and descriptive caption. Patterns are included for the main project and several similar projects that are shown in the gallery. This is a great project for the beginning or intermediate carver!

Born near the Tuscan province of Lucca in 1815, Domenico Brucciani became the most important and prolific maker of plaster casts in nineteenth-century Britain. This first substantive study shows how he and his business used public exhibitions, emerging museum culture and the nationalisation of art education to monopolise the market for reproductions of classical and contemporary sculpture. Based in Covent Garden in London, Brucciani built a network of fellow Italian emigre formatori and collaborated with other makers of facsimiles-including Elkington the electrotype manufacturers, Copeland the makers of Parian ware and Benjamin Cheverton with his sculpture reducing machine-to bring sculpture into the spaces of learning and leisure for as broad a public as possible. Brucciani's plaster casts survive in collections from North America to New Zealand, but the extraordinary breadth of his practice-making death masks of the famous and infamous, producing pioneering casts of anatomical, botanical and fossil specimens and decorating dance halls and theatres across Britain-is revealed here for the first time. By making unprecedented use of the nineteenth-century periodical press and dispersed archival sources, Domenico Brucciani and the Formatori of Nineteenth-Century Britain establishes the significance of Brucciani's sculptural practice to the visual and material cultures of Victorian Britain and beyond.

The first biography of Anne Damer since 1908, The Life of Anne Damer: Portrait of a Regency Artist, by Jonathan Gross, draws on Damer s notebooks and previously unpublished letters to explore the life and legacy of England s first significant female sculptor. Best known for her portraits of dogs and other animals, Damer also created busts of England s most important political heroes, sometimes within days or hours of their historical accomplishments. This in-depth biography traces her life during the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Peace of Amiens and the Hundred Days. Damer was convinced that art could have significant political influence, sending her bust of Nelson to the King of Tanjore to encourage trade with India. Her art stands at the transition between neoclassicism and romanticism and provides a wealth of insight into 19th century British sculpture. In the last twenty years, there has been a strong revival of interest in Damer s life, particularly in gay and lesbian studies due to her famous relationship with author Mary Berry. This text serves as a deeper investigation of this fascinating and important figure of British art history. The emotional menage a trois of Anne Damer, Mary Berry, and Horace Walpole forms the heart of this new biography. Gross contends that all three individuals, had they led more conventional lives, would never have given the world the literary and artistic gifts they bestowed in the form of Strawberry Hill, Belmour, and Fashionable Friends. The struggles they faced will encourage modern readers to appreciate anew the fluidity of sexual identity and passionate friendship, as well as the restraints put in place by society to control them. Anne Damer s life has much to teach a new generation concerned with the complex relationship between love, art, and politics. The Life of Anne Damer will interest historians of Georgian England, and readers in the fine arts, literature, and history.

Isamu Noguchi's Skyviewing Sculpture was created by invitation for Western Washington University, north of Seattle, in 1969. The 14-foot high sculpture, which sits in the university's central quad, acts as an observatory, encouraging viewers to enter and turn their gaze to the sky. 'Skyviewing' was a leitmotif in Noguchi's art throughout his long career as an artist and landscape architect, from his early work alongside Constantin Brancusi in Paris in 1928 to his death in 1988. Some sculptures act as reflecting telescopes with polished stone that mirror the firmament while others trace the path of the sun with cast shadows or lead the eye up towards the sky. The work at Western invites the viewer in, and guides the eye upwards to observe the sky in all of its variety. Looking Up explores Noguchi's work on the themes of space, and our place in the universe; examines the changing artistic climate during his long career; and places Noguchi in context with a younger generation of artists, including Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt, James Turrell, and Charles Ross. The book includes essays by leading specialists, as well as a plate section and contemporary photos of the creation, transportation and installation of Skyviewing Sculpture .

With 250 images and 12 patterns, carve a wooden boot through illustrated step-by-step instructions. From sketching an idea to carving a stylized boot using found wood, this new DIY book guides you in preparing a pattern and cutting a blank using a bandsaw for the basic parts of a lace-up leather boot -- the vamp, the toe, and the sole. Using a rotary power tool fitted with a flex-shaft hand piece, carving burrs, and sanding drums, learn how to give the boot a distinctive character for creating women's high-heel boots, hiking boots, casual slip-on boots, and brogues. Chapters include wood selection, sketching the pattern, blank preparation, and decorating and assembling the boot. A gallery of completed projects offers inspiration for your own creative ideas. For carvers of all skill levels.

This handbook provides hundreds of clear color photographs and fascinating stories which reveal volumes about each fragrance, far beyond the size of the bottles. These miniature bottles are popular collectibles today and this useful book contains information to satisfy the most discriminating taste. Fragrance names, their creators, launch dates, bottle and package designs and dimensions are all here, as well as a price guide in the captions to reflect today's fragrance market.

From Seattle's earliest days as a Gold Rush boomtown to its celebration of the future during the 1962 World's Fair, local artists have created public art installations-statuary, reliefs and other sculpture-that became familiar features of the city's landscape. This comprehensive study of 12 Seattle sculptors and their works examines the motivations of the artists and their benefactors, the development of the city's public art policy, and the political forces behind the pieces that are now part of the city's rich history. Biographical details and historical perspective are provided for such artists as Lorado Taft, Alice Robertson Carr, John Carl Ely, Max P. Nielsen, August Werner and James FitzGerald.

A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword. The sword is the most iconic of all weapons. Throughout history, it has connected various, sometimes conflicting, dimensions of human culture: physical combat and representation of political power, definition of gender roles and refinement of body techniques, evolution of craftsmanship and mythological symbolism. The articles collected here explore these dimensions, from a variety of disciplines, among them archaeology, medieval history, museum conservation, and linguistics. They cover topics from the production and combat use of Bronze Age swords via medieval fencing culture to the employment of the sword in modern military. They question traditional sword typologies and wide-spread theories about sword making, discuss medieval sword terminology and the use of swords as royal insignia, and describe the scientific methods for approaching original finds. Arising from an international conference held at Deutsches Klingenmuseum Solingen (the German Blade Museum), the volume provides fresh insights into the forms the sword can take, and the thoughts it inspires. LISA DEUTSCHER and MIRJAM E. KAISER work in prehistoric archaeology, specialising in La Tène and Bronze Age swords, respectively. SIXT WETZLER is the deputy director of the German Blade Museum; his research focuses on the history of edged weapons, and their use. Contributors:Matthias Johannes Bauer, Holger Becker, Jan-Heinrich Bunnefeld, Rachel J. Crellin, Vincenzo D'Ercole, Andrea Dolfini, Raphael Hermann, Daniel Jaquet, Robert W. Jones, Ulrich Lehmann, Claus Lipka, Stefan Maeder, Michael Mattner, Florian Messner, Nicole Mölk, Ingo Petri, Stefan Roth, Fabrizio Savi, Ulrike Töchterle, Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis, Marion Uckelmann, Henry Yallop

The book provides inventive ways of approaching the theory, history and practice of performance art, based on the author’s many years of teaching and performing experience. This book proposes useful tools of practice, inventive exercises and comprehensive assignments and connects with the current debates surrounding performance art. This book presents seminal performances that it explores through questions, discussion topics and practical exercises.

LAND ART: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO LANDSCAPE, ENVIRONMENTAL, EARTHWORKS, NATURE, SCULPTURE AND INSTALLATION ART

A fully illustrated guide to land and environmental art. A newly updated and revised edition of our best-selling book.

For the land artist, the whole planet is an artist's studio. The land artist ranges over the whole globe. A desert, a beach, a field, a forest becomes a studio, a place of creative activity. This means the very texture and colour and shape and dampness and springiness and strength and size of moss, for instance. Or a stone. Or a crevice in a rock formation. The way the light falls on a patch of grass, the little bits of dead, yellowish grass on top of the newer, green grass. Pine cones, closed-up. Flowers turning sunward in the late afternoon. These are the things land artists deal with in making art. These are the actualities that artists employ when they create artworks.

This book explores all of the major land, environmental and earthwork artists of the past 40 years, including James Turrell and his vast volcano site Hans Haacke's Conceptual art Michael Heizer's Mid-West earthworks Robert Smithson and his giant spiral, entropic earthworks Christo's wrapped buildings and islands, Robert Morris's environments Walter de Maria's Romantic Lightning Field David Nash's stoves, stones, trees and North Wales environments Hamish Fulton's walks and words Dennis Oppenheim's concentric snow circles Richard Long and his art of walking Andy Goldsworthy's natural, spontaneous, eco-friendly sculptures Alice Aycock's mysterious underground mazes Mary Miss's sunken pools and pavilions Wolfgang Laib's delicate, luminous pollen spreads Nancy Holt and her observation sculptures and the enigmatic floor sculptures of Carl Andre.

William Malpas has written books on Richard Long and land art, as well as three books on Andy Goldsworthy, including the forthcoming Andy Goldsworthy In America. Malpas's books on Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy are the only full-length studies of these artists available.

Includes new illustrations, bibliography, notes. 380 pages. ISBN 9781861714008. www.crmoon.com

Though she has not knowingly seen Angels, Kelley Stadelman has received their help in times of crisis. She has felt their presence. These joyful little soldiers of God seem to have a childlike presence. Their personalities are uninhibited. They go about their duties energetically. Yet they are wise, committed to their tasks and reverent to their boss. The whimsy of angels is captured in the designs of this book. Kelley leads the carver step-by-step through the angel carving project, beginning with the blank and finishing with a beautifully painted heavenly being. With concise descriptions and clear color photographs, Kelley's experience as a teacher will lead carvers of every ability to beautiful results.

An extravagant array of miniature perfume bottles fills these full-color pages, pure rapture for those who love scent, beautiful glasswork, and the mystique of the truly elegant. While collectors of full-sizes perfume bottles have always found a place for a few choice "minis" on their shelves, these are a growing trend to specialize in these little beauties in their own right. From the Victorian era through the beginning of the 20th century, from the world wars through the 1990s, this book has it all! Over 600 brilliant photographs show every detail and each bottle is identified by fragrance, perfumer, size, and era. Significant glassmakers are discussed, and their works are identified. This book has bottle-by-bottle guide to current market values.

This unique carving book features five projects that will get your creativity flowing, allowing woodcarvers of all skill levels to make their own personalized and wearable nametags. Using minimal tools and wood, more than 300 color images provide easy, step-by-step instructions for making a variety of designs. Have a friend who's a baseball lover? Make him a baseball nametag. Or use the seasons as a theme with pumpkin and fall leaves carvings. A gallery of completed works will inspire more great ideas. The projects are fun to do and even more fun to give as gifts to family and friends. Carving Caricature Nametags is a book for all carvers to add to their collection.

This book offers an essential reference for anyone interested in contemporary European jewellery design. Through guided conversations with the major designers of today, Roberta Bernabei reveals the creative, conceptual and technical working practices that underpin the aesthetic of each practitioner's work. In addition, the dialogues shed new light on these jewellers' inspiration and their ideas about functionality and the human body. Each interview is supported by photographs and a detailed bibliography and appendix which locates the jewellers' work in galleries, museums as well as online. Major jewellery artists present include: Giampaolo Babetto, Gijs Bakker, Otto Kunzli, Ruudt Peters, Mario Pinton and Tone Vigeland, alongside members of the emergent generation: Ted Noten, Annamaria Zanella and Christoph Zellweger. This book, which opens the door to contemporary jewellery practice, will be welcomed by all students, lecturers and practitioners.

This text is the exhibition book that accompanies the film installation and solo exhibition of Childhood's End shown at the Norwich Gallery, Norwich School of Art and Design, in 2000. The book includes interviews with David Cross and Matthew Cornford about the genesis, preparation and filming of the project. The project involved a skille dpiolet and an expensive fighter jet drawing a crude flawed untenable political statement in the sky.

Dale Power leads you step-by-step through the process of carving a robust and realistic polar bear. Complete, concise instruction and detailed color photographs make the carving of this bear an enjoyable task for the novice and advanced carver alike. Dale approaches the carving with a combination of hand and power tools, giving good advice in both techniques. Once carved, Dale illustrates techniques to burn and paint the details that give your bear a very natural look. Four original patterns for polar bears, grizzlies and brown bears are included as well. The gallery photographs provide detailed and instructive perspective on these bears from different regions of the world. The character and personality of each bear comes through in these photos.

The Last Laugh is the first and only book to take readers deep into the bizarre universe of the standup comic, from the classic years of Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Shecky Greene, to today's comedy superstars. Phil Berger shows how styles and trends in standup have changed over the past fifty years, but how taking the stage in a comedy club is as tough as it's always been. Performers profiled in the book include Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Elaine Boosler, Robert Klein, Bill Cosby, Billy Crystal, Dick Gregory, Andy Kaufman, Steve Martin, Cheech and Chong, Eddie Murphy, and a host of others. Filled with comics' hilarious routines and anecdotes, this substantially updated edition also chronicles the lives and careers of more recent artists, including Richard Lewis and Jay Leno.