No comments about CityScape: The Book.

2 comments about Making Ceramic Sculpture: Techniques * Projects * Inspirations (A Lark Ceramics Book).

1. As a sculpture student who has worked primarily in wood and plaster, I wasn't interested in this book as much for technique as for a photo gallery of contemporary sculpture. I was blown away. I will be taking ceramics in the future, and now I can hardly wait to get my hands on clay; I was fascinated by the different styles possible in this medium. Those coming from a ceramics background will have an entirely different appreciation for this book (I don't know anything about the techniques introduced, but the author made them seem very 'do-able'). At any rate, it's a wonderful book to peruse, and stimulate that creative muse.



2. A beautiful ceramic sculpture book... this book deals with handbuilding sculpture work. It is both for learning and looking, has several step by step projects you can follow along with and a gallery full of wonderful images in the back half of the book. There is also good information on finishing your ceramic work, and even talks about alternative finishes on clay such as oil paints, acrylics and experimenting with your finishes.

1 comments about The Yam Yankee: & Other Veggie Carving Projects (Schiffer Book for Carvers).

1. When I first learned to carve, three years back, I was shown how on a Yam, and shown the cover of this book.

   It is a great book to learn carving! Tom takes you step by step through three different faces. The photos really show the cuts well.

   Only after carving for some time did the variety of techniques he used hit me. He used several different methods for creating faces between the three examples... different ways of depicting eyes, starting noses and such. He also used a combination of knife and gouge techniques.

   It's easy, and inexpensive to experiment. The tools necessary are VERY cheap. I usually use either an old carving knife, or a favorite exacto-knife, and a set of the cheapest gouges since yams carve so easily. You can get really good prices on yams as the fall and winter holidays approach.

   I carved a couple dozen yams for christmas ornaments that year.

   Then I went out and found a wood carving club and made the jump to woodcarving.

   But I still go back to the fun of Yam carving every so often. It's easy on my hands, and it's fun to get a whole face done in about one half hour. Then wait to see how it comes out when dry!

   I recommend giving the yams a spray of 'Lysol' every so often as they dry, to keep them from molding, or use a food dehydrator to speed the drying up!

   A great book to start carving with!

   -Bob

2 comments about African Sculpture.

1. I believe this to be an early-and mediocre- attempt by Warren Robbins to catalog African Art. Photos are all B&W and questionable quality.
   This probably led to his and Nancy Nooter's book "African Art in American Collections", an excellent book covering many tribes/areas of Tribal Art.
   I would recommend buying the second book as a sound basis and investment in identifying African Tribal Art.



2. This is a good overview of African sculpture, but the prospective buyer should know that all the pictures are black and white.

No comments about Phoebe Washburn: Regulated Fool's Milk Meadow.

No comments about Smoky-Top, the Art and Times of Willie Seaweed (Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum Monograph, 3).

No comments about Beginning Woodcarving: Projects, Techniques, Tools.

4 comments about Collectible Souvenir Spoons: Identification & Values.

1. I have found this book invaluable as I am a collector of souvenir spoons. If you collect souvenir spoons, thinking about collecting them or just enjoy looking at them - you need this book!



2. A recommended pick for any collector's reference library, WayneBednersh's Collectible Souvenir Spoons Book II ... considers both usual and unusual categories of spoons, from historical and art spoons to rarer prison spoons.



3. Published in 1998, this 336 page book contains 750 large, sharp, black and white photos, plus 12 full color pages. Although difficult to photograph, the pictures clearly show the designs on the spoons. The volume contains informative text, covering the history of spoons, introduction, and details. Major topics range from Inspiring A Nation, First Americans, and Modern Vision of Government, to Inspiring Our Children, Our Bowl Overfloweth and Craftsmanship and Painted Silver. Price ranges are provided as well as a comprehensive bibliography and index. A valuable reference tool for souvenir spoon collectors.



4. Everyone who is interested in sterling silver and other types of collectible spoons, needs to purchase a book like this. The author has made a grand effort to bring together a great many styles of spoons for the reader and viewer......ENJOY IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2 comments about Design Sourcebook: Jewellery.

1. Yikes! It's a collection of what I'd consider mishaps at my bench! Oh, lord...
   I'm sorry, apparently it's called "art" by folks with probably more money than taste. Page after page of weird art project jewelry, most of it unwearable on purpose, to be "exhibited" and looked at, rather than worn.
   
   The highlight of the book was a dead mouse wearing a crown of pearls, suspended in a block of clear acrylic.
   When that's the highlight...? *scratching my head*
   
   I hate to sound so narrow-minded, but I keep running into this with a lot of the jewelry books I've been buying. I guess maybe I'm just craving a book with pictures of some things people might wanna.. you know.. actually wear? I was pretty sure that's what jewelry was supposed to be, for the most part. I guess despite everyone thinking I'm a weirdo all my life--and me being proud of it--maybe I'm actually old-fashioned and boring after all. :-o



2. David Watkins' Design Sourcebook Jewellery provides a focus on the works of the best jewelry makers around the world, from traditional rings to sculptured pieces. The materials and approaches vary widely but the unifying theme is the different design approaches of jewellery artists and any involved in jewelry making will find it an important source of inspiration. Excellent hands-on reference for budding artists and crafts people.

2 comments about The Tilted Arc Controversy: Dangerous Precedent?.

1. The "Tilted Arc" is one of the more important and known leftovers of history of public art . In this book Harriet Senie give a vision to us of the process of order of this sculpture and of the some interveninentes that had supported and attacked this work of art. For beyond all the polemica that Richard Serra range excited, the author very raises pertinent questions on the public art, and points the reasons that had marked this controversy. It will be that the demolition of a workmanship will arise a dangerous precedent that will go to put in risk the programs of public art? It will be that from the moment that the state and the public contests a workmanship, this will have to be placed another place or only destroyed? These and other questions are boarded for Harriet Senie, that of shining form contextualize one of the sculpture pol?micas of century XX.



2. Tilted Arc by Richard Serra, one of the largest public sculptures commissioned for a Federal building, was removed from its New York site in 1989, only eight years after it was installed, as a result of the most famous conflict between artist and public opinion. The book describes in detail the fate of a difficult work by this great (if macho) living sculptor, analyzing the multiple issues and problems that surround the public art process. Harriet Senie is one of the very rare modern art historians who have concentrated on public art, and the one who knows most about its history and politics. Unencumbered by the complexities of present critical theory, she writes in the simple language of the journalist (not inappropriate for the subject and its audience), trying to be fair to all points of view.

   The Preface of the book outlines its entire content, while the four chapters (1. Commission, Installation, Removal; 2. Public Opinion; 3. Reframing the Controversy; and 4. After Tilted Arc) are neatly divided into many subsections with titles easy to follow. A Conclusion summarizes the subject and the complex questions it raises. In-between, Senie manages to discuss quite a bit of Serra's art before and after Tilted Arc, and to quote his uncompromising and always illuminating opinions... The fifty-five b&w reproductions, while of rather grim grayness, illustrate adequately the artist's related works and comparable public plazas with sculptures by other artists.

   Aside from bringing together a great deal of material about this particular public art debate, Senie's book is also an invaluable source of information on public art policies in this country and on the history of federally-sponsored public art of the last quarter of the 20th century (the NEA and GSA programs). While perhaps a little repetitive, it is a goldmine of information and a must for artists, historians and policy makers interested in public sculpture.