Online Gallery Directory of Unique Fine Arts and Handmade Crafts Gifts

 

The Complete Potter

This book offers something for everybody interested in pottery! Beginning potters will find a complete course in the pages of this book. Experienced potters will find new ideas for designing and decorating virtually every type of ware. Heavily illustrated with more than 600 how-to photos, The Complete Potter takes readers through every phase of the potter's craft, from clay to kiln.

The Art and Craft of Leather
Creating handsome leather products is an enjoyable and rewarding hobby, but it's a craft that requires training and specialized tools. The heart of this book begins with an introduction to leatherworking tools--mallets, awls, bevellers, groovers, special needles, coloring and dying agents, and others. Next, the authors demonstrate techniques and the use of tools for embossing, cutting, sewing, and shaping. They conclude with detailed, photo-illustrated instructions for eight different projects.

Metalworking Tools and Techniques

Metalworking is written for everyone inspired by the versatility of metal. It explains the many techniques that form the basics of this craft, from traditional methods of measuring and marking out to more recent practices such as use of adhesives and inert gases for joining metals. It includes advice on setting up a workshop and equipment, an introduction to the qualities of metals, working with the metal, drills and drilling, threads, shaping and joining metal, and machines.

The Complete Jewelry Making Course: Principles, Practice and Techniques

This comprehensive and heavily illustrated manual teaches the craft of jewelry making to students looking to create professional quality items. The author covers every step of the process, from creating original design concepts to fashioning professionally finished pieces of jewelry. She lists all required tools and equipment, explains their uses, advises on safe working practices, and then guides her readers through every stage of the jewelry making process in a series of carefully structured tutorials.

Fire and Form: The Art of Contemporary Glass

This volume features more than 100 works by 31 of the best-known American and European glass artists of our time, including Jaroslava Brychtova, Dale Chihuly, Dan

Dailey, Stanislav Libensky, William Morris, Tom Patti, Lino Tagliapietra, and many

others...In his thoughtful and informative essay, curator and renowned glass

scholar William Warmus identifies four prominent themes in the relatively recent

development of studio glass .

The Oil Painting Course You Always Wanted

In The Oil Painting Course You’ve Always Wanted, author Kathleen Staiger presents crystal clear, step-by-step lessons that build to reinforce learning. Brush

control, creating the illusion of three dimensions, foolproof color mixing,

still-life painting, landscapes, and portraits—every topic is covered in

clear text, diagrams, illustrations, exercises, and demonstrations.

Understanding Textiles
This book helps readers understand how the components of textiles–fiber, yarn, fabric, dye, and finish–contribute to the performance of products for specific end uses. With a focus on the why behind the material, it encourages students to understand and predict textile properties and performance. This edition emphasizes the global environment and offers separate chapters in fiber properties; fabrics and structures; and nonwoven fabrics.

Paper: Handmade Style
Tear into 27 fresh, contemporary paper projects including how to make your own beautiful paper using recycled materials and plant fibers! Each project has been thoughtfully designed by members of the Primrose Paper Arts, a group of teaching and exhibiting papermakers and bookbinders based in Sydney, Australia.Step-by-step instructions and illustrations guide you through the process of making your own paper — including embossed, embedded, laminated, and other embellished varieties.

 

Sculpture: Principles and Practice

This authoritative introduction to sculpture covers forms of sculpture, how to construct an armature, build a model stand, carving, much more. Invaluable for beginners but skilled sculptors will find its broad scope useful. "Instruction and appreciation become one in this book."

The Photographer's Eye

Design is the single most important factor in creating a successful photograph. The ability to see the potential for a strong picture and then organize the graphic elements into an effective, compelling composition has always been one of the key skills in making photographs. Digital photography has brought a new, exciting aspect to design  because image-editing tools make it possible to alter and enhance the design after the shutter has been pressed. This has had a profound effect on the way digital photographers take pictures.

 

Soap Maker's Workshop: The Art and Craft of Natural Homemade Soap
Thirty recipes for creating all kinds of handmade soaps, including liquid, cold- and hot-process, melt-and-pour and re-batched soaps--all using natural ingredients, sustainable methods and tools found in almost any kitchen. The authors also demonstrate how to add fragrances, skin treatments and colors and how to shape solid soaps.  A 30-minute tutorial DVD is also included.

Candle Making Secrets: Insider Tips and Advice

Every bit of this book is packed with the latest cutting edge information on making candles, and it took over 1 year to research, gather the data, and compile it all in one place. Inside, you'll discover a wide range of candle making tips and advice, including: - 3 little known, yet simple ways to use wicks - How to pick the right kind of wax - How to create different kinds of candles like pillar, votive, taper, tealight and more - A pennies-on-the-dollar approach to giving special and unique candle gifts - 3 things you should never do when it comes to making candles ...and more!

Wood: Craft, Culture, History

Green reiterates throughout this fluent and pleasing work the uniqueness of wood, which contributes to its attraction. Whatever object Green investigates, he discovers its layers of historical, commercial, environmental, and artistic significance, not least in the substitution for wood by other materials. Despite this trend, however, wood is always more appealing to sight and touch than its competition: nobody loves a titanium golf club the way they do a persimmon-headed driver. Sophisticated but approachable, Green's work richly satisfies curiosity about the subject.