LibGuides: Ceramic Art: Books & eBooks

Featured eBooks

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Ancient Maya Pottery "Aimers has brought together leading Maya ceramicists who provide their candid views on how they classify pottery. This volume is of particular theoretical strength for the discussion on terminology in classification, both for critically evaluating the type-variety system and for general classification of pottery."--Heather McKillop, author of Salt "At last, we have the opportunity to learn the potential strengths as well as the pitfalls of a single method for the study of the prehistoric Maya."--Fred Valdez Jr., coeditor of Ancient Maya Commoners "An intriguing journey through an analytical technique that is foundational to building deep and complex histories yet is deployed with a flexibility that some accept and others question."--Patricia A. McAnany, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill "Aimers has pulled together a series of theoretical, methodological, and substantive papers by prominent Maya ceramicists that evaluate the development, current utility, and limitations of the type-variety method."--E. Wyllys Andrews, Tulane University   The ancient Maya produced a broad range of ceramics that has attracted concerted scholarly attention for over a century.  Pottery sherds--the most abundant artifacts recovered from sites--reveal much about artistic expression, religious ritual, economic systems, cooking traditions, and cultural exchange in Maya society.             Today, nearly every Maya archaeologist uses the type-variety classificatory framework for studying sherd collections. This impressive volume brings together many of the archaeologists signally involved in the analysis and interpretation of ancient Maya ceramics and represents new findings and state-of-the-art thinking. The result is a book that serves both as a valuable resource for archaeologists involved in pottery classification, analysis, and interpretation and as an illuminating exploration of ancient Mayan culture.
Ceramics "It is rare to find a book on art that presents complex aesthetic principles in clear readable form. Ceramics, by Philip Rawson, is such a book. I discovered it ten years ago, and today my well-worn copy has scarcely a page on which some statement is not underlined and starred."--Wayne Higby, from the Foreword
Chosen Path : The Ceramic Art of Karen Karnes Renowned ceramic artist Karen Karnes has created some of the most iconic pottery of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The body of work she has produced in her more than sixty years in the studio is remarkable for its depth, personal voice, and consistent innovation. Many of her pieces defy category, invoking body and landscape, pottery and sculpture, male and female, hand and eye. Equally compelling are Karnes's experiences in some of the most significant cultural settings of her generation: from the worker-owned cooperative housing of her childhood, to Brooklyn College under modernist Serge Chermayeff, to North Carolina's avant-garde Black Mountain College, to the Gate Hill Cooperative in Stony Point, New York, which Karnes helped establish as an experiment in integrating art, life, family, and community. This book, designed to accompany an exhibit of Karnes's works organized by Peter Held, curator of ceramics for the Arizona State University Art Museum's Ceramic Research Center, offers a comprehensive look at the life and work of Karnes. Edited by highly regarded studio potter Mark Shapiro, it combines essays by leading critics and scholars with color reproductions of more than sixty of her works, providing new perspectives for understanding the achievements of this extraordinary artist.
The Magic of Ceramics Most people would be surprised at how ceramics are used, from creating cellular phones, radio, television, and lasers to its role in medicine for cancer treatments and restoring hearing. The Magic of Ceramics introduces the nontechnical reader to the many exciting applications of ceramics, describing how ceramic material functions, while teaching key scientific concepts like atomic structure, color, and the electromagnetic spectrum. With many illustrations from corporations on the ways in which ceramics make advanced products possible, the Second Edition also addresses the newest areas in ceramics, such as nanotechnology.
Persian Pottery in the First Global Age Persian Pottery in the First Global Age: the Sixteenth and Seventeeth Centuries studies the ceramic industry of Iran in the Safavid period (1501-1732) and the impact which the influx of Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, heightened by the activities of the English and Dutch East Indies Companies after c. 1700, had on local production. The multidisciplinary approach of the authors (Lisa Golombek, Robert B. Mason, Patricia Proctor, Eileen Reilly) leads to a reconstruction of the narrative about Safavid pottery and revises commonly accepted notions. The book includes easily accessible reference charts to assist in dating and provenancing Safavid pottery on the basis of diagnostic motifs, potters' marks, petrofabrics, shapes, and Chinese models.

Featured Print Books

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The Art and Craft of Ceramics Beginners eager to explore the world of ceramics, as well as experienced potters seeking new techniques and ideas, will find this colorful, technique-packed manual absolutely inspiring. Lavishly illustrated and visually attractive, it provides both practical and creative information on tools and materials, production processes, glazing, and decorative techniques--including detailed explanations of clays, kilns, and accessories. Explore essential methods for modeling (hand building, wheel turning); for decorating the pieces (slips, glazes, colored engobes); and for properly firing the finished piece at both low and high temperatures. Put all that new knowledge to work on six step-by-step projects--from a large, oval sculpture formed by extrusion and wheel-throwing to a beautifully simple functional vessel--all created by top ceramists.
Art Deco and Modernist Ceramics This work concentrates on the ceramics produced during the 1920s and 1930s throughout Britain, Europe, the USA and Japan. It provides explanations of the varied usage of terms such as art deco, modernism, art moderne and streamline style. Over 200 colour photographs illustrate objects, both useful and decorative, chosen for their appearance, their historical significance, or their potential appeal to 1990s collectors and practitioners.
Ceramics : A World Guide to Traditional Techniques A world-wide survey of traditional ceramics evaluates specific types for their raw materials, creation techniques, decoration types, and uses, in a comprehensive volume that features such topics as firing, glazes and finishes, molding, and throwing and provides a glossary, tourist information, and a
The Complete Guide to High-Fire Glazes : Glazing & Firing At Cone 10 With hundreds of recipes for some of the most popular and enduring high-fire glazes, this reference will prove a boon to ceramists who want to master this complex and versatile aspect of the art. Author John Britt, who served as Clay Coordinator at the respected Penland School of Crafts, has personally tested many of the recipes, and carefully reviews every one. He offers a thorough examination of glaze materials, chemistry, and tools, and presents the basics of mixing, application, and firing procedures. There’s a wealth of information on various type of glazes, including copper, iron, shino, salt/soda, crystalline, and more. An exhaustive index of subjects and a separate index of glaze recipes will help ceramists find what they need, quickly and easily.
Electric Kiln Ceramics: A Guide to Clays and Glazes Ceramists choosing to work in home studios are praising the safety, convenience and economical benefits of the electric kiln. Now in its third edition, Electric Kiln Ceramics helps the ceramist create work exclusively intended for firing in the electric kiln.
Handbuilding In this book, Michael Hardy looks at the traditional handbuilding methods--pinching, coiling, slab building, and pressmolding--and explains how to do them. For many years these methods were eclipsed by throwing on a potter's wheel which came to dominate as a making method. However, in the past 30 years handbuilding has once again become a preferred technique among ceramic artists. These artists are engaged in exploring the creative possibilities that handbuilding offers, experimenting fully with and combining techniques in an effort to achieve their artistic vision. The results have brought forth some of the most exciting ceramics today.
Hand building / Ceramics for Beginners Ceramics are always popular with crafters, and hand building with low-fire earthenware is a natural place to start. With its wealth of information and images, elegant design, and time-tested advice this beautiful new book by artist Shay Amber will inspire even the most intimidated beginner. Just as in her celebrated workshops, Amber guides would-be ceramists through all the basics, from selecting the right clay body to embellishing the surface with fabulous decorations and gorgeous glaze treatments to setting a firing temperature. She teaches how to pinch forms, create coils, make flat slabs, work with simple molds and armatures, and ornament your piece with stencils, slips, underglazes, terra sigillata, and more. Each technique is laid out in easy-to-follow step-by-step photos with projects in progress and stunning gallery images. Amber introduces a unique, easy-to-follow method for constructing a beautiful slab-built piece, and all the necessary templates are included. A dozen projects--including a pinched Tea Bowl, coil-built Espresso Cup Set, and luminous Lantern showcase the key methods. Comprehensive and accessible, this illustrated introduction will become the standard on the potter’s bookshelf.
Inside Japanese Ceramics This practical and supremely useful manual is the first comprehensive, hands-on introduction to Japanese ceramics. The Japanese ceramics tradition is without compare in its technical and stylistic diversity, its expressive content, and the level of appreciation it enjoys, both in Japan and around the world. Inside Japanese Ceramics focuses on tools, materials, and procedures, and how all of these have influenced the way traditional Japanese ceramics look and feel. A true primer, it concentrates on the basics- setting up a workshop, pot-forming techniques, decoration, glazes, and kilns and firing. It introduces the major methods and styles that are taught in most Japanese workshops, including several representative and well-known wares- Bizen, Mino, Karatsu, Hagi, and Kyoto. While presenting the time-tested techniques of the tradition, author Richard L. Wilson also accommodates modern technologies and materials as appropriate. Wilson has gathered a wealth of information on two fronts-as a researcher of Japanese pottery and art history, and as a potter who has studied and worked for years with master Japanese potters. In his introduction, he provides a short history of Japanese ceramics, and in closing he looks beyond traditional methods toward ways in which Western potters can make Japanese methods their own. Richly illustrated with 24 color plates, over 100 black-and-white photographs, and over 70 instructive line-drawings, Inside Japanese Ceramics is indispensable for potters as well as connoisseurs and collectors of Japanese ceramics. Above all, it is an invitation to participate-to study, make, touch, and use the exquisite products of the Japanese ceramic tradition.
The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water : Korean Ceramics from the Ataka Collection of Chicago One of the world's great collections of modern art in a full-color treasury.