1 comments about Collector's Encyclopedia of Blue Ridge Dinnerware Volume 2 : An Illustrated Value Guide.

1. YOU WILL NEED ALL BLUE RIDGE BOOKS AS MORE PATTERNS ARE BEING NAMED. THIS ONE WAS GREAT FOR MY USE AND NOW I AM DISPURSING MY COLLECTION AND NO LONGER NEED IT SO I WILL SELL IT.

No comments about Art And Its Institutions: Current Conflicts, Critique And Collaborations.

No comments about Tatiana Trouve.

No comments about The Shelley Style: A Collectors Guide.

No comments about How to Draw Celtic Key Patterns: A Practical Handbook.

2 comments about DK Art School: An Introduction to Mixed Media.

1. I have owned this book for many years and it has been the inspiration for many a successful lesson with primary aged children. I have learnt a great deal about technique and how to enhance artworks without having special "drawing" talent. A must for any teacher in a school without a specialist art teacher.



2. This book is designed to open the reader's eyes to the various types of mixed media art and how the techniques are used by different artists to achieve a wide range of effects. The photographs, especially those of the tools and supplies used in the techniques, as well as the photographs of artwork are especially informative, and useful for a beginner. However, if you're looking for specific technique instructions, or tips on how to combine the various mixed media techniques into your own artwork, you may be disappointed. This book left me wanting more, but it is still a valuable addition to a beginning artist's library.

No comments about Hagen-Renaker: A Charlton Standard Catalogue, Third Edition (Charlton Standard Catalogue).

No comments about Papers on Special Techniques in Athenian Vases.

3 comments about Collage with Color: Create Unique, Expressive Collages in Vibrant Color.

1. I really loved this book; it gave me new tools and ideas to work in my studio and to share with my friends and Alumni, from my art classes. I highly recommend it if you love to experience with color in a creative new way.



2. What I like most about this book is that it is a refreshing break from all the Somerset Studio look alike and same-looking altered book stuff out there (yes, I was surprised--this also has a few altered book things in here, and they're different and mildly interesting). Wow. Originality. Getting ever harder to come by in the modern paper art/craft publishing world.
   
   This book is actually more of a volume on paper decorating, with a bit of collaging principles and craft ideas included. This isn't bad. I read a lot of paper craft and art books, and I still found plenty in here that made me want to break out the paints and paper. And, as the title says, this is about color--how to decorate paper with it, how to combine it, how to make patterns with it. Unlike the previous reviewer, I didn't find the examples too bright. This is, after all, a book with "vibrant color" in the title. And here it is demonstrated by someone who truly understands it and is passionate about it. These examples sparkle.
   
   This is refreshingly different. No faux edginess which just looks bland the thousandth time you've seen it, or works featuring people wearing pasted dunce caps. You will instead find a nice basic, lucid overview of color concepts; great ideas for using acrylic paints to make interestingly decorated papers; and some ideas for combining these papers in aesthetically pleasing ways.



3. The author covers a lot of ground quickly here. While not as in-depth as Traci Bautista's "Collage Unleashed," Davies touches on many techniques and applications. The examples were way too bright for my tastes and didn't personally inspire me, but they work well as examples to see what's going on with the technique and provide a nice change of pace from the muted Victoriana that's so prevalent elsewhere. The photos also show the hand models with paint on them, which I really enjoyed after seeing many impossibly clean hands in other books. Yes! You will get paint on your hands and it's OK! I particularly enjoyed the Prayer Flags project, modelled after Tibetan prayer flags, and the Book Page Collage & Letter Stamps ideas.

3 comments about Decorative Art 50s (Decorative Art).

1. Taschen writes this is a sourcebook. It just shows where design comes from. What was done in that era. And this book does just that and does it good. No high-brow comment, just reproductions of pages of house-plans, chairs, sidetables, glass ceramics etc. So, if you want to know if your old chair has any historic relevance, look in this book and see if there is a design original, or you might own it! Emphasis on the US, England Scandivavia, Italy and the Netherlands.



2. Once you get past the lovely cover, the interior of this book consists entirely of magazine pages from the 1950's reproduced wholesale. While that means authenticity, it also means small,uninspiring black and white photography. Like looking at an old magazine, not the beautiful graphics one usually expects from Taschen.



3. An absolute must have for anyone with a love for the modernist design movement of the 50's and 60's, or if you're looking to stay consistent with a modernist theme while redecorating. It's so sleek and plastic and modular. I love it! And in the tradition of Taschen books, the price is well worth it!