4 comments about The Clay Lover's Guide to Making Molds: Designing, Making, Using (Lark Ceramics Book).

1. I was excited to see this book when it first came out. Read it the same day and had mixed thoughts. It is useful if you have never made a mold... but helpless if you have moderate to high experience. It is visually layed out better than anything else out there... and I keep it on the shelf for student reference. If you teach ceramics, keep it around. If you are seeking to learn mold making...it is just one of many books that you will need to peice together the real information that you will need to be a confident mold maker.

   Michael Joy
   chicagomoldschool.com




2. This well thought out guide gets right to work explaining in clear, concise steps how to construct various types of clay molds. From basic one-piece molds to complex multi-piece molds, Clayton describes their design, construction, and infinite utility. The book is loaded with excellent color and black and white photographs. Some depict the tools and process. Others show a magnificent sampling of finished products. This guide can take the average pot-throwers hobby to the next level. Makes a pretty decent coffee table book too. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.



3. Author Pierce Clayton and Editor Chris Rich have assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!



4. Clayton has assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!

1 comments about Marks on German, Bohemian, And Austrian Porcelain: 1710 to the Present.

1. PERHAPS IF THERE WERE INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE THE BOOK IT WOULD BE HELPFUL, HOWEVER I CAN NOT FIND ANYTHING I'M LOOKING FOR.

No comments about Susie Cooper Productions.

No comments about Impressionist Prints of Childe Hassam.

1 comments about For Ever Godard.

1. This is a pretty amazing collection of new writings on Godard. I've read pretty much every book on Godard, but nothing matches the depth and breadth of For Ever Godard. While there are many great studies of the nouvelle vague films, there are very few that cover his later films. Until now. Additionally, the topics are original and interesting: Godard as an experimental multimedia artist, the importance of voice and music, the influence of Benjamin and Blanchot, new aspects of production and representation, and many more. My personal favorite is called, "The Written Screen" on Godard's creative use of text and intertitles.
   
   If you're interested in Godard, you'll enjoy this book. There's something here to engage even the most well read Godard connoisseur. Buy without hesitation.

1 comments about The Arts of Fire: Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance.

1. Compiled and deftly edited by Catherine Hess (Associate Curator of Sculpture, Getty Museum), The Arts Of Fire: Islamic Influences On Glass And Ceramics Of The Italian Renaissance is informationally enhanced by the contributions of George Saliba (Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Columbia University) and Linda Komaroff (curator of Islamic Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Graced with a map, 61 color images and 17 b/w illustrations, The Arts Of Fire showcases luxury glass and ceramic objects made by Italian artists and craftsmen during the 15th and 16th centuries -- an era considered to be a high point in Renaissance art. What's less well known is that none of these wonderful creations would have been possible without the introduction of the technological and formal advances in the art and production of glass and ceramic ware imported into Italy from contacts within the Islamic East where they were originally developed and practiced. Also available in a hardcover edition (0892367571, $65.00), The Arts Of Fire is a superb and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal, professional, and academic Art History reference collections, The Arts Of Fire is a joy to simply page through and will leave the reader wondering what other treasures the Getty Museum has within its collections.

2 comments about Beer, Art and Philosophy: The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends Is the Highest Form of Art, a memoir by Tom Marioni.

1. As a young kid, I grew up in my dad's studio. I remember various refrigerators with the "FREE BEER" sign on them and his weekly wednesday gathering of friends drinking beer in his studio or at the old San Francisco Breen's Bar on his turf corner at 3rd and Mission. Years later, I would see his refrigerator and a wall of empty anchor steam beer bottles lined up at the SFMOMA and would bring a humorous smile to my face--thinking my dad is the only person I know who could transform beer drinking into art--beer art. Although I am biased, I love my dad's work. There is always a puzzle, a natural beauty and a bit of humor in every one of his works.
   
   My father's book takes a look at the development and history of conceptual art in the 1960's until now through his eyes and his experiences. Many of his ideas and art were very advanced for his time and are very relevant today. If you want to get another perspective on conceptual art, read my dad's book....and have a nice cold beer ready.
   
   disclaimer: my dad did not ask me to write this :-)



2. As the author rightly proclaims, by the nineties "the idea of social interaction in an art context became an art movement," but in 1970, when Marioni performed his signature work, "The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art," at the Oakland Museum, in which the debris of a drinking session was exhibited, "social artwork" was scandalizing.

   Marioni's memoirs are the closest you get to sharing a drink with a respected artist, regaled with youthful impressions and insider artworld reflections, without the artist being present. Artists Chris Burden, William T. Wiley and Sol Lewitt, who contribute book jacket testimonials, have sat and drank with Tom Marioni. Why not you?

   Since 1995, I've been attending Marioni's infamous weekly Wednesday gatherings that have continued his thirty year commitment in an extended performance involving hundreds of artists and friends. We drink and swap war stories. Some of the yarns in the memoir are familiar, reappearing as good friends, perfectly shaped after repeated telling. It's a blessing to see them gathered in print and paraded before a larger audience.

   There's a reason Marioni's gatherings (and this book) are so successful. He's a perfect host and an entertaining raconteur. Difficult concepts are carefully constructed in terms his audience comprehend. Marioni's art may be challenging, but the ideas expressed are simply stated and make for great reading. His insights into the art of John Cage, with whom he interacted yearly from 1978 to 1992, when Cage would stay with Marioni and his wife Kathan Brown to explore visual art at Crown Point Press are especially moving.

   People ask Marioni what a particular work is about, and as an artist he is loath to answer, knowing how easily mood can be explained away. But Marioni is also a curator, a perfect host and writer, who enjoys recalling the personages and mysteries of art. Art critic, Thomas McEvilley, who contributes an introductory essay, hails Marioni as "Northern California's foremost Conceptual artist." You'll see why after sampling this delicacy. Pull up a chair and get yourself a cool one.

   John Held, Jr., San Francisco, March 2004.

2 comments about Between Clouds of Memory: Akio Takamori, a Mid-career Survey.

1. This is a suberb book,in my personal estimation.It gives what I was searching for, a thorough review of the artist's work,excellent pictures,and information on the artist's history.
   I am partial to figurative work,and having done so much overly detailed work in my past,I look at his figures and realise that there is a lot of power to the meaning of "less is more" I am so glad I have it in my personal library,it is a help in conducting myself in where I want to go,in my own artmaking.



2. I thought this book was a great collective of Akio's work from his past work with the vessel to his current figurative sculpture. I would highly recommend it for any ceramic artist.

No comments about Women of the Book : Jewish Artists, Jewish Themes.

2 comments about Decorating with Mosaics.

1. This book is great for the begginer such as myself. Pleanty of ideas to try, and also the start of designing something on your own. I looked at several other books on mosaics, and found them interesting , however, for the begginer and/or the craft person who dosent need to know the why's and wherefores, these other books, I found, were for the art student, or perhaps art teacher. For someone who wants to learn how to do mosaics in her/his home for the FUN of crafting, this book answered my questions, and gave me the oportunity to make some very wonderful mosaics projects! My friends are asking me to make some projects for them. What better compliment can one have! Thank you.



2. Besides being a mosaic artist, I am a collector of mosaic books (more than a dozen in all) and I can't recommend this book. Not only have you seen these projects executed in a more interesting fashion in other books, the technique (what technique?) is really poor. If you follow it, you will get poor results. Buy Cheek, Goodwin, Dierks or Biggs/Hunkin instead. They are mosaicists.