2 comments about Origami Paper Airplanes.

1. I'm not sure why you'd buy this book if you didn't want to fold airplanes!
   
   It's a great book, suitable for beginners, containing excellent airplanes to throw at your siblings and colleagues. The diagrams are easy to follow and everybody should be able to them



2. We borrowed this book from the library, and my 9-year-old son and I have had a blast folding and flying the airplanes. Most of them have taken off with no problems and have proven to be awesome flyers. One or two models have been a bit of a challenge to fold, but we simply started over and tried again!
   
   The instructions in the book are clear and simple -- simple enough for my 9-year-old to fold on his own, as a matter of fact. I recommend practicing the introductory folds in the front of the book in order to prepare yourself for take-off. For paper, we've been recycling old catalogs and magazines and have some very colorful models flying around our house!
   
   We ended up taking this book to a family reunion with us, and all of the kids had a blast folding and flying their airplanes. It was a great way for long lost cousins to spend some time together and get to know each other again!

2 comments about Ana Mendieta: Earth Body.

1. This book fills a gap in the Art History of the 20th Century as it celebrates Ana Mendieta's life. Her work links several different aspects of art and therefor defies being categorized. The sculpture grows the female form in landscape in many unique and very beautiful ways. It is tough, fragile, compelling, poignant and challenging all at the same time and contributes to our knowledge and appreciation of our place in the world and the part that art plays to enrich and inform. As a working artist I admit to being more excited about her work than I have been for a long time. Although her life was tragically and violently cut short after only eighteen creative working years she is up with the trail blazing artists of this time. Olga Viso does her memory justice. I think that this is a terrific book.



2. Ana Mendieta was only in her early 40s when she died in 1985. Born in Havana, Cuba, she came to the U. S. as a political refugee with her family when she was 12. Beginning in her artistic training at the U. of Iowa, she incorporated feminist and multicultural leanings into the conceptual art, land art, photography, and performance art she practiced with equal intensity and innovation. No matter what type of art she engaged in, Mendieta used her own body, or sometimes images or impressions of it, as a medium. With earth, blood, streams, shoreline, trees, and foliage, Mendieta meant to teach viewers about the close, intimate connection between a person's body and the natural world. With other art works, she makes statements about the savagery of rape and tyranny. No matter what point she means to convey or type of art she engages in, Mendieta's art is distinguished by its exceptional rawness. While the rawness is often inevitably provocative, it strikes one mostly as unaltered, immediate reality. The copious photographic record of Mendieta's art with essays by art experts who knew her or are familiar with her is a comprehensive appreciation of the short career of this artist who work both strikingly and complexly mixes artistic, political, and cultural elements of contemporary society.

1 comments about Carving (Fine Woodworking On).

1. This book is a compendium of 40 articles that appeared in Fine Woodworking magazine. The articles are almost exclusively for the advanced woodworker, and cover topics from tool usage to advanced patterns. In general the articles appeared short (as one would expect from a magazine), merely an introduction. Therefore, I would not recommend this book to anyone who is not already advanced in woodcarving.

1 comments about Masks of Mexico: Tigers, Devils, and the Dance of Life.

1. The author assigned herself the task of publishing a representative sample of masks from the many Mexican states with strong traditions of mask use, drawing from the previously underdisplayed collections of the Museum of International Folk Art, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

   The book brings together a number of interesting photographs of masked dancers, to augment the excellent mask photos. Some of these have appeared in other books on Mexican masking, accessible or inaccessible, others are fresh and new, to the reviewer at least.

   In terms of the actual masks, a number of these are rather old, attractive or uncommon, rarely seen or described in books or exhibits; some others are not so old or rare, but nevertheless very interesting. A minority of others are familiar from other standard reference works, and add little to this volume. Their inclusion follows from the goal to present the broad spectrum of Mexican masking.

   On the other hand, there appear to be virtually no decorative masks among all those illustrated, which is a credit to the excellent scholarship of the author. Indeed, she has taken great care to identify the carvers, the towns, the estimated age, and the indigenous traditions of each mask, to the extent that this could be documented. The estimated ages are refreshing in their modesty, in contrast to the florid attribution of great age to any demonstrable wear, that one so commonly encounters in books about masks.

   In the end, a book about Mexican dance masks must rise or fall on the strength of the material and the quality of the photographs; from this perspective the book is a must buy for any Mexican mask collector or aficionado.

No comments about Christian Marclay (Contemporary Artists (Phaidon)).

1 comments about Bing & Grondahl Figurines (Schiffer Book for Collectors).

1. This is one of the best books on pottery that I have purchased. It's very easy to locate a piece along with its value. Factory marks and numbers are well explained. I highly recommend this book.

No comments about Enamels, Enameling, Enamelists (Jewelry Crafts).

No comments about 3D Patterns for the Scroll Saw: Time Saving Tips & Ready-to-Cut Patterns for 45 Unique Projects.

3 comments about Chinese Folk Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series).

1. I bought this book at an art store with the purpose of finding a tattoo. I did and 5 years later I got it... Lots of great designs inside.



2. I have used this book numerous times for the somewhat non-traditional purpose of tattoo designs. My complaint is minor, and it has to do with how the book is formatted. The designs are white on a red or black background. This makes it a little difficult to photocopy for use; especially on the red pages.



3. I ran across this title in a small shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. I was running short on cash, and was kicking myself within 24 hours for not purchasing this book. Hawley provides 300 cut paper designs used in traditional Chinese embroidery. Each design is in white on a solid color background (red, blue, black, brown, or purple). The designs are clear and easy to see and enjoy. A brief introduction gives a little background (I would have liked more) on this folk art, and an index at the beginning allows users to look up symbols of specific interest. Do that, but browse the rest of the book as well!

   An eight-page supplement at the end illustrates 160 symbols (including ideograms, trigrams from the I Ching, and pictoral symbols) used in traditional decorative arts along with their meanings. Fascinating!

   For those interested in learning more about Chinese art, or for those who just enjoy beautiful designs, this is an excellent choice.

3 comments about Zanesville Stoneware Company: Identification & Value Guide.

1. I am pleased to be associated with this Zanesville book. We are all indebted to Jon Rans that his hard work overcame some unforseen challenges. So, I trust Rans will follow up with a further encylopedic sequel to this real heartland story of history, people, commerce, art and industry during periods of massive cultural changes in America.



2. Great publication that reflects the brilliance of Jon Rans and his collaborators.
   One of the best pottery chronologies ever written considering that most of the records of this company were lost in a couple of trajic fires.

   Some of the pictures could be of higher quality and the layouts of the pictures vs. discriptions is a little confusing.




3. It was with pleasure that I received and read the first pass on the history of this long misunderstood pottery company. Although the author makes a good attempt to document the history he falls a bit short. Many followers of this pottery know the confusion regarding the business relationship between Zanesville Stoneware and Francis Duggan of The Old Pot Shop in Norwalk, Connecticut. Rans had the chance to set the record straight that Zanesville made all the Old Pot Shop marked pots but either chose not to or did not fully understand the relationship. Although this is perhaps the most important aspect of the history for the collector it received a mere short paragraph. The pictures are sufficient and good if one considers that this is the only resource other than original catalogs, but more time spent with lighting would have gone a long way. Good book for the pottery lovers shelf but one that will undoubtedly be improved upon some day.