Pottery + Ceramics

BOOKS:

500 Plates & Chargers: Innovative Expressions of Function & Style (500 Series)

By Lark

Lark Books
Paperback (420 pages)

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Product Description:

Plates and chargers can serve as more than just places to put your food: they can be glorious art to show off on a table, sideboard, or hutch. These 500 spectacular pieces chosen by esteemed juror Linda Arbuckle range from the utilitarian yet beautifully glazed plate to dramatically decorated work, and they’re crafted from a remarkable variety of materials—including pristine porcelain and bold earthenware. Nick Joerling’s stoneware is the perfect canvas for a design: vigorous brush strokes set in wax resist race across its attractive surface. Kelly McKibben’s hand-built Going for a Stroll showcases delicately inlaid and silk-screened images. The stunning gallery provides a unique and wide-ranging snapshot of contemporary ceramic arts.

Glass Bead Workshop: Building Skills, Exploring Techniques, Finding Inspiration

By Jeri L. Warhaftig

Lark Books
Hardcover (144 pages)

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Glass beadmaking has exploded in popularity—and those artists who have successfully mastered the basics want more techniques to enhance their repertoire. Jeri Warhaftig, a respected and experienced teacher, offers intermediates her time-tested, workshop-based approach to expanding their beadmaking skills. In each superbly illustrated and illuminating chapter, she focuses on using current tools, new materials, and innovative methodology to produce a singular bead—with several variations for every one. The possibilities, from sandblasting to metal inclusions, are stupendous: Craft sculptural flower beads; create a lightweight, hollow seashell-shaped bead; and go for the “wow” factor with geode beads that enclose decorative elements within a layer of glass. Helpful tips are sprinkled throughout, and a gallery of additional work will inspire.

Mixed-Media Mosaics: Techniques and Projects Using Polymer Clay Tiles, Beads & Other Embellishments

By Laurie Mika

North Light Books
Paperback (128 pages)

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Book Description:
Great crossover potential--introduces a fresh creative medium and process for mixed-media, collage, assemblage, polymer clay and mosaic tile artists.

Project variety--along with more familiar surfaces (like tables and mirrors), mosaic work is introduced in refreshingly new formats, such as jewelry and shrines.

Features an extensive techniques section and 18 step-by-step demos designed to be accessible to all skill levels.

Mixed Media Mosaics uses polymer-clay, mosaic-tile work as a new and exciting platform for mixed-media/collage artists. Readers will learn to craft highly textural and vividly colored icons, boxes, tables, items of personal adornment and more, using a combination of manufactured tiles and handmade tiles. Techniques for creating the tiles include painting and glazing, stamping, embedding items like beads and buttons, mixing pigments and mica powders with clay, adding metallic leaf, creating molds, combining the handcrafted tiles with traditional mosaic tile, grout alternatives and more. In addition to learning techniques for making their own tiles, readers will discover helpful processes for working inspiration (such as an homage to a loved one or a memorable getaway) into their tile-work, using personalization techniques such as stamping words or adding personal ephemera and found objects.

Making Polymer Clay Beads: Step-by-Step Techniques for Creating Beautiful Ornamental Beads

By Carol Blackburn

Interweave Press
Paperback (128 pages)

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Product Description:

A comprehensive introduction to the materials, tools, equipment, and techniques used to make unique beads with a variety of shapes, colors, and finishes. The straightforward instructions discuss topics that include conditioning raw clay and making simple shapes; producing more complex shapes, such as rounds, canes, and spirals; decorating the beads with foils, powders, and milléfiori; and creating faux effects like ivory, bone, turquoise, marble, and silver. A gallery of beads by internationally renowned artists, hundreds of step-by-step photographs of new beads designed by the author, and a clay gauge that allows one to estimate how much clay is necessary to make a specific quantity of beads are included, making this a comprehensive guide that will provide inspiration, demonstrate the range of effects that can be achieved in polymer clay, and teach beaders how to incorporate these beads into jewelry designs.

500 Tiles: An Inspiring Collection of International Work (500 Series)

By Lark Books

Lark Books
Paperback (420 pages)

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From press-molded pieces to carved works showcasing spectacular surface treatments, these magnificent tiles will inspire beginners and professionals, as well as collectors and enthusiasts. Some of the larger handcrafted displays here were made to decorate public and private spaces; others use single tiles to interpret nature, tell a story, or make a bold cultural observation. As always in this acclaimed series, all the contributors are accomplished artists, renowned in the field. Mary Lynn Buss creates the ultimate kitchen backsplash: a field of mosaic-tiled long-necked irises. Peter King and his wife and working partner Xinia Marín fashion large, expressively rendered, and sculptural installations. And Melody Ellis’s low-relief earthenware tiles pack intriguing narratives into every tile.

The Art of Metal Clay (with DVD): Techniques for Creating Jewelry and Decorative Objects

By Sherri Haab

Watson-Guptill
Released: 2007-05-01
Paperback (144 pages)

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Product Description:

Since it was first published in 2004, The Art of Metal Clay has introduced thousands of readers to metal clay—the amazing craft product that starts out as moldable, malleable clay and turns into real metal. Now it’s even easier to perform that modern alchemy, because something new has been added to The Art of Metal Clay: a great new DVD featuring author Sherri Haab. Haab’s personal appearances are popular with crafters eager for new information and ideas, and seeing her on television makes it easy to understand her metal-clay techniques. Three all-new projects are shown from start to finish, all offering an up-close view of the creative process. Everyone who loves jewelry making, metal clay and polymer clay, beading, or any kind of crafting will want this new value-added version of the metal clay classic.

500 Animals in Clay: Contemporary Expressions of the Animal Form (A Lark Ceramics Book)

By Lark Books

Lark Books
Paperback (426 pages)

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Product Description:

It’s simply breathtaking: no other volume has ever presented such a diverse and captivating collection of contemporary animal-themed ceramics. Juried by distinguished artist and educator Joe Bova, this magnificent gallery includes pieces from an international group of artists; the beautifully crafted works range from the representational to the abstract, from artful realism to provocative surrealism (including animal-human hybrids). Ann Marais’ image of a waterfowl painted onto a porcelain dish has a restrained, Asian quality, reinforced by a simple palette of black on white. Laurie Sharkus’ painted and smoke-fired stoneware turtle could easily be mistaken for the living creature. Bova provides astute and illuminating commentary overall, while selected artists’ notes shed light on how and why they choose to interpret this challenging subject.

Mosaic Techniques & Traditions: Projects & Designs from Around the World

By Sonia King

Sterling
Paperback (240 pages)

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With the breathtaking work of hundreds of artists on display throughout, this visually arresting volume showcases mosaics from all corners of the globe and teaches the skills needed to produce 15 beautiful pieces. The history of the art, tools and materials, and techniques come first: bases, adhesives, and grout; shaping and placing tesserae; practical and artistic design considerations; and several methods of creating the actual mosaic. Put that information to use on an array of magnificent international projects—from a Blue Willow Tray to a Rock Garden Fountain—all beautifully illustrated and with the level of difficulty noted.

The Polymer Clay Techniques Book

By Sue Heaser

North Light Books
Paperback (128 pages)

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Amazon.com:
It's hard to imagine a material more versatile than polymer clay. What other medium yields perfectly convincing simulations of everything from marble, wood, ivory, and jade to metal, porcelain, mosaic, enamel, and semiprecious stones--not to mention flowers, food, and sculptural forms? With a thoroughness rarely found in other books on the subject, Sue Heaser explains all of these methods and more, supplementing her excellent instructions with good, clear photos. Although she includes a number of full step-by-step projects, this is primarily a techniques-driven presentation. Beginning with the preliminaries of materials, preparation, color mixing, baking, and other basics, Heaser then moves on to clay manipulation (beads, millefiori, molds, vessels, frames, flowers), sculpting (simple animals, faces, armatured figures), embellished treatments (stamping, painting, metallic effects, image transfers), and simulations (stones, antique effects, wood, miniatures). Chapter-opening spreads showcase exquisite works by a variety of polymer clay artists, and a helpful appendix compares the handling properties of all the leading polymer clay brands. Beginners will most likely be more comfortable with a more project-oriented approach, but anyone already bitten by the polymer clay bug will find this an essential idea book. --Amy Handy

The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting (A Lark Ceramics Book)

By Andrew Martin

Lark Books
Hardcover (160 pages)

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For potters, mold making is invaluable because it allows them to slip-cast identical multiples of their work—and this newly revised, now in color edition of Andrew Martin’s classic is the definitive guide to the craft. No other volume has shown the processes in such how-to detail. It’s overflowing with hundreds of photos, key techniques, projects, master artist profiles, and troubleshooting tips. A thorough introduction addresses materials and tools, and presents Martin’s simple, unique template method for making clay prototypes. Create easy one-piece molds to make tiles, bowls, and platters, or multi-piece molds for more complex forms. An extensive overview covers slip formulation, while offering highly desired slip recipes for low-, mid-, and high-fire clay bodies. This will be the standard reference in every ceramist’s library.