Working With The Masters

"Collage is the perfect art form---spontaneous, forgiving, expressive, descriptive, impetuous, and expansive."---Lynne Perrella --Book Jacket.

All that glitters here IS gold--and it’s gorgeous! This addition to the popular Masters series focuses on a topic--gold jewelry--with mass appeal to a wide audience: jewelers, metalsmiths, collectors, museums, and just about anyone who loves beautiful workmanship. Leading jewelry expert Marthe Le Van has chosen 40 of the world’s best goldsmiths and presents their finest pieces. A short essay accompanies each eight-page section, along with choice quotes from the featured artists. The talented creators showcased here include: Eva Steinberg (Germany): Art Nouveau influences abound in her colorful earrings and pendants Namu Cho (Korea/United States): Cho employs the ancient technique of Korean damascene known as poe mok saang gum. Claude Chavent (France): He plays with the optical illusions of trompe l’oeil, bringing volume and movement to his dazzling flat pieces. Stuart Golder (United States): Golder weaves sheets and wires of gold on a loom, designing elaborate patterns based on traditional cloth weaving.

This collection offers field-defining work from 43 master book artists.

Played out across the rolling hills, the Masters is the first major golf tournament of the year. Owen tells the story of how this unlikely winter haven became one of the most famed locations on the sporting map. For the millions of fans who dream of April in Augusta, this is the best and most intimate look at golf's ultimate rite of spring. 32 page photo insert.

What awesome craftsmanship appears throughout this unique volume--the zenith of an art that marries the world’s most exceptional gems with exquisitely-honed metal designs. Approximately forty of the world’s top jewelers present expertly-fashioned settings that embrace a diversity of styles and techniques, including pav�, channel, invisible, gypsy, wire, and tension. Christoph Kr�henmann’s creations display a fabulous fusion of Swiss artisanship and American ingenuity, old world elegance and contemporary chic. Paula Crevoshay’s jewelry focuses on the way gems make light tangib≤ she is considered by many to be one of the finest colorists today. And Kent Raible finds his inspiration in the opulent, intricate gold work of antiquity. Whether encrusted with diamonds or emphasizing just one glimmering stone, all these bejeweled pieces are simply stunning.

A rigorous historical and philosophical examination of the controversial spiritual Masters who guided Madame H.P. Blavatsky in opening the world to Eastern and esoteric spirituality in the late nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century, Russian noblewoman and occult philosopher Madame H.P. Blavatsky enthralled the world with revelations of an ancient “secret doctrine” behind the major faiths and a cosmic theology that united the insights of religion and science. Blavatsky said she was operating under the guidance of hidden Masters of wisdom, or mahatmas, who led her to reveal forgotten wisdom to modern people. The mythos of Blavatsky’s Masters left a deep mark on Western culture and spawned more than a century of debate: Were the Masters real? What did they teach? Are they reachable today? Now, independent scholar of religion Edward Abdill provides an authoritative, historically reliable, and delightfully readable study of the background and ideas of the Masters – in particular highlighting their message and its enduring relevance.

"No spiritual journey is complete without a road map and an expert guide. Book 3 in the Sacred Adventure series provides just that—detailed advice from the ascended masters for anyone who would like to follow in their footsteps and reach the pinnacle of self-mastery on one of the seven rays, or paths, of the divine consciousness. You will learn what is important to the ascended masters and how to work with these mentors of the spirit in chapters on the science of wholeness, the light of the divine mother, the creative power of music, the power of love in action, the joy of divine purity, the mysteries of elemental life (nature spirits), the gift of divine freedom, and the path of personal Christhood."

In today’s new economy—in which “good” jobs are typically knowledge or technology based—many well-educated and culturally savvy young people are instead choosing to pursue traditionally low-status manual labor occupations as careers. Masters of Craft looks at the renaissance of four such trades: bartending, distilling, barbering, and butchering. In this engaging book, Richard Ocejo takes you into the lives and workplaces of these people to examine how they are transforming once-undesirable jobs into “cool” and highly specialized upscale occupations. He shows how they find meaning in these jobs by enacting a set of “cultural repertoires,” resulting in a new form of elite taste-making. Focusing on cocktail bartenders, craft distillers, upscale men’s barbers, and whole-animal butcher shop workers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and upstate New York, Masters of Craft provides new insights into the stratification of taste, the spread of gentrification, and the evolving labor market in today’s postindustrial city.