Ten Thousand Years Of Pottery

The finest history of pottery available, this book offers an inspirational journey through one of the oldest and most widespread of human activities.

The Potter's Book of Glaze Recipes is a must for potters and ceramicists of all abilities interested in creating their own glazes.

'Lavishly illustrated and extremely comprehensive . . .a bargain.' ANTIQUES MAGAZINE 'The evolution of pottery . . . is fascinating, and this book does it justice.' THE GOOD BOOK GUIDE 'An epic tale . . . a book to buy and to treasure.' CRAFTS MAGAZINE Keynote The definitive British Museum reference book reissued with a beautiful new jacket design and pbk-with-flaps cover Sales points The classic, comprehensive, colour survey of ceramic art and production worldwide, from prehistory to the present day A mine of information for students and anyone interested in pottery Description Pottery is one of the earliest and most widespread of human activities and its history can be traced back to the Stone Age. This comprehensive account begins with the earliest civilizations of the Near and Middle East and follows the production of pottery chronologically around the globe. The final chapters analyse the development of ceramics as a medium of personal expression by artist and studio potters from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day. The breathtaking wealth of illustrations - drawn from major collections all over the world - includes examples of all the major styles, materials and forms from all periods. The Author Emmanuel Cooper is an internationally renowned potter, writer, critic and broadcaster and is Editor of the highly respected and influential magazine Ceramic Review. He has written widely on both modern and historical ceramics. Since 1999 he has been Visiting Professor of Ceramics and Glass at the Royal College of Art and is a member of the Arts Council of Great Britain.

Kuk is a settlement at c. 1600 m altitude in the upper Wahgi Valley of the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea, near Mount Hagen, the provincial capital. The site forms part of the highland spine that runs for more than 2500 km from the western head of the island of New Guinea to the end of its eastern tail. Until the early 1930s, when the region was first explored by European outsiders, it was thought to be a single, uninhabited mountain chain. Instead, it was found to be a complex area of valleys and basins inhabited by large populations of people and pigs, supported by the intensive cultivation of the tropical American sweet potato on the slopes above swampy valley bottoms. With the end of World War II, the area, with others, became a focus for the development of coffee and tea plantations, of which the establishment of Kuk Research Station was a result. Large-scale drainage of the swamps produced abundant evidence in the form of stone axes and preserved wooden digging sticks and spades for their past use in cultivation. Investigations in 1966 at a tea plantation in the upper Wahgi Valley by a small team from The Australian National University yielded a date of over 2000 years ago for a wooden stick collected from the bottom of a prehistoric ditch. The establishment of Kuk Research Station a few kilometres away shortly afterwards provided an ideal opportunity for a research project.

For over 25,000 years, humans across the globe have shaped, decorated, and fired clay. Despite great differences in location and time, universal themes appear in the world’s ceramic traditions, including religious influences, human and animal representations, and mortuary pottery. In Global Clay: Themes in World Ceramic Traditions, noted pottery scholar John A. Burrison explores the recurring artistic themes that tie humanity together, explaining how and why those themes appear again and again in worldwide ceramic traditions. The book is richly illustrated with over 200 full-color, cross-cultural illustrations of ceramics from prehistory to the present. Providing an introduction to different styles of folk pottery, extensive suggestions for further reading, and reflections on the future of traditional pottery around the world, Global Clay is sure to become a classic for all who love art and pottery and all who are intrigued by the human commonalities revealed through art.

Take your work to the next level! Join ceramic artist Deb Schwartzkopf for a journey that will help you grow as a functional potter, whether your background is in wheel-throwing or handbuilding. Creative Pottery begins with a quick review of where you are in your own journey as a potter. If you need to brush up on the basics, help setting goals, or pointers on how to translate your inspiration into your work, you've come to the right place. The rest of the book is a self-guided journey in which you can choose the techniques and projects that interest you: Go Beyond the Basics and learn how to throw or handbuild a bottomless cylinder. Then explore seams and alterations for projects like a vase, sauce boats, dessert boats, and a citrus juicer. Flatter Forms takes your throwing and trimming horizontal. Make beautiful plates and learn how to make the jump from plate to cake stand. Master Molds and use them to open a new world of possibilities. Make spoons, platters, and asymmetrical shapes like an out-of-round serving dish with molded feet and a thrown rim. Compose with Multiple Shapes to make two-part forms like a butter dish or a stacking set of bowls. Make a pitcher out of two simple forms and then take it further by exploring handles and spouts for a proper teapot. With compelling galleries, artist features, and guided questions for growth throughout, this is a book for potters everywhere that want to go beyond the basics, learn new skills, and unlock their creativity.

Take your skills—and your work—to the next level. Mastering the Potter's Wheel starts with an introduction to wheel-throwing, from centering to creating the basic forms. What pushes this book beyond the competition, however, are the techniques offered in the chapters that follow. From a variety of methods for throwing large objects such as pitchers and platters, to alterations, darting, and paddling, this book offers potters a world of possibilities. With galleries featuring today's top working artists, including Kyle Carpenter, Sam Chung, Chandra DeBuse, Julia Galloway, Martha Grover, Ayumie Horie, Forrest Lesch-Middleton, Kristen Kieffer, Kathy King, Matt Long, Alex Matisse, Lorna Meaden, Doug Peltzman, Mackenzie Smith, Shawn Spangler, and many more, you'll also find page after page of inspiration. The Mastering Ceramics series is for artists who never stop learning. With compelling projects, expert insight, step-by-step photos, and galleries of work from today’s top artists, these books are the perfect studio companions. Also available from the series: Mastering Hand Building and Mastering Kilns and Firing.

The history of science is a story of human discovery--intertwined with religion, philosophy, economics and technology. The fourth in a series, this book covers the beginnings of the modern world, when 16th-century Europeans began to realize that their scientific achievements surpassed those of the Greeks and Romans. Western Civilization organized itself around the idea that human technological and moral progress was achievable and desirable. Science emerged in 17th-century Europe as scholars subordinated reason to empiricism. Inspired by the example of physics, men like Robert Boyle began the process of changing alchemy into the exact science of chemistry. During the 18th century, European society became more secular and tolerant. Philosophers and economists developed many of the ideas underpinning modern social theories and economic policies. As the Industrial Revolution fundamentally transformed the world by increasing productivity, people became more affluent, better educated and urbanized, and the world entered an era of unprecedented prosperity and progress.