1 comments about James Carpenter: Environmental Refractions.

1. There's an inherently classical discipline to the experiments and exploration that James Carpenter's work seems to embody. What I find fascinating is the metrical expansion of ideas and ideals -- the inventions are meditated and gradual, the discoveries are thoughtfully implemented. There's always the implication that wild experiment lead to merely wild results, with a lessened sense of application. This book is a grand reference to the intellectual character of his work, that has been surely transformative in the marveled evolution of his work.
   
   This book is, perhaps solely, the best way to envision the history and intelligence of Carpenter's work, and the support of his team in the manifestation of consistently extraordinary renderings of solutions for his clients.

No comments about Charles M. Russell: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture in the Amon Carter Museum (Library of American Art).

No comments about Artists in Glass: Late Twentieth Century Masters in Glass.

2 comments about The Golden Eagle: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at the Art of Bird Carving.

1. Simply a fabulous book, by a fabulous bird carver. But I agree that many will find the project too daunting for all but the most professional bird carvers. This is, nevertheless, an incredibly beautiful book and one that the reader can dream with. Just reading it, even if you never try to tackle something on this scale, is an extraordinary pleasure. The only real criticism I would have is that there might have been clearer liaisons in how he got from one stage of the carving to the other. Not that much of it isn't implicit. I guess I would just like a bit more "hand-holding." Get his other books as well. Scholz is truly at the top of the heap in bird carving.



2. Scholz continues his leadership in the field. This book is very interesting but it seems unlikely that many will have the expertise or dedication to duplicate his effort. Want something you can use? Get his DVD on Carving a Kestrel. However, get this one to see how the master creates a masterpiece.

3 comments about Tin Craft: A Workbook.

1. Good book, well written, and has a lot of practical information one can use. I will be using much of what I read in my craftwork. I would buy it again, but I have one now.



2. while the professional Editorial Review / Book Description indicates otherwise ("venture off to your local grocery store, purchase a six-pack of soda pop, return home, empty the soda pop in the kitchen sink and begin your lifelong obsession") this book has no hints about how to make those cool, colorful crafts that we've seen in import stores using "wonderful colors and shiny surfaces of easily available commercial cans", again quoting the professional book review.
   
   if you really need this, a book with such basic instructions, you will also need an adult to help you open the cans, flatten them, and curl the ends.
   
   what a disappointment!



3. Its the best tin can book in the whole world and I love it with my hole heart. This book helped me to make different arts out of tin even thought I am a poor crafts person! Its a must have!!!!

No comments about Buddhist Sculpture of Korea (Korean Culture Series).

4 comments about A History of Jewellery 1100-1870.

1. It is a good resource book, gives a lot of details on the actual HISTORY of jewellery. But relying almost solely on text when writing of something as visual as jewellery is somewhat dry. For an (antique) jewellery aficionado, not so much interested in knowing all the historical facts but more in appreciating the variety, craftmanship, style and beauty of jewellery, this is a wrong book to own.



2. I was looking forward to receiving this book very much and I have to say I was a bit disappointed when it got here. Although it is very thorough it has NO COLOR PICTURES. Jewelry is something that cannot be appreciated to the fullest in black & white. I would have been much happier if they had atleast done half of the pictures in color.



3. It's rather more interested in post-Renaissance jewelry than anything else, devoting quite a bit of its pages to the super ornate stuff. There's a perfectly good reason for this, namely that pre-Renaissance jewelry frequently got melted down and recast. I still wish it'd devoted more time to that earlier stuff, since my interest is particularly in Renaissance-era jewelry. Still, it's a great introduction to the subject.

   Well-written, with lots of good tidbits, and one of the few resources for the study of the history of jewelry. Lavish illustrations and portraits, some of which I'd never seen anywhere else before.




4. This is an excellent reference book for any jeweler, historian, or SCA participant. There are over 400 photos in the book, which say it all. Great information!

No comments about John McCracken: Sketchbook.

3 comments about Wood-Fired Stoneware and Porcelain.

1. After doing much searching and researching, I've found that this book, along with F. Olsen's "Kilns", is an excellent resouce for those of us who have spent much time working with kilns from a pedestrian level, but little time investigating the construction of them. Jack Troy's writing is clear and enjoyable and his knowledge obviously exhaustive. The first place to go if you are considering the merits of woodfired work.



2. "Wood-Fired Stoneware & Porcelain" is a great resource for potters interested in this alternative style of firing. The book contains substantial information on kiln design, clays, glazes, stacking, and firing wood kilns. Troy adds in details from his own considerable experience, and the photos and illustrations will make you anxious to get to the studio (or your local brick supplier...) The only drawback is that the majority of the photos are in b&w; however, the color plates that are included are great. A nice historical section, and lots of work by and info on contemporary potters. Most likely a good book to have on the shelf, and a great companion to his book on Salt-Glaze.



3. Jack Troy is a very good and entusiastic writer. This new book is very much worth it's price and if you can get your hands at the old one, Salt Glazed Ceramics, that is a trofee.

2 comments about Ron Mueck.

1. No book could do justice to seeing Mueck's art in person (for example, the unnatural scales of his sculptures can't be captured in a photograph), but for the Mueck fan, this is a great book. The photos are excellent and the text is informative.



2. Even since the sixties the idea of getting into a form sculpture able to depict reality in such and instance that can mistake the eye, and play with the mimesis notion in such a way, perception by all means get deceived, has been explored.
   
   In the contemporary work of Mueck this ideas get totally unbounded in a body of work that is a continuos surprise and further more a challenge to visual perception, psycological perception and emotive perception. Just imagine an enormous photograph of a child enhanced to be several meters high. you do? now make it in 3d.., that is what we are talking here.
   
   Children of several floors, gigantic babies, tiny old ladies, make a powerful discourse about a sculpture much more next to a very 'photoshopized' image, even the shworooms look like and art piece with the Muecks in them.
   In a world were the shallow and empty conceptual art is everywhere is really refreshing to see this guy work.
   This book about the australian artist is in english and german, and contains apart from many if not all of his work in color, a catalogue raisonne list of all his produced work to the date of publication 2005.
   
   Since I really have no interest in today's empty and pretentious art -instalation, conceptual and all those things, you know, that should bare a sign at the enter of the galleries: 'don't drive heavy machinery..' because of their boring charachteristics- normally my shopping list is only of photo books.
   
   But this art book is something so beautiful, that even if you are not an 'art lover' -remember Mueck as the author of many cinema effects like 'Labyrint' prosthetics before becoming a force in the art world- you can have hours of joy and poetic interaction through images full of tenderness, mistery and force.