Handbuilding Ceramic Forms: Elspeth S. Woody. A very useful book though a tad American, shows you lots of different ways of working with clay, I found it very liberating.
The Self-Reliant Potter: Andrew Holden Possibly one of the most useful ?how to? pottery books about. If you can get it, i think it's out of print
Coiled Pottery: Betty Blandino New reprint out, excellent for coil technique.
The Kiln Book: Fred Olsen (also known as ?The Olsen Kiln Book?), get it. Fantastic and I've got a copy...
Wood Fired Stoneware and Porcelain: Jack Troy Inspirational, Pyromania for everyone, I love this book...
Shire Archaeology Books on Pottery Dead useful and good resources esp. Later prehistoric Pottery
There's also something called the "book of forms" or summat like that that is really good to dream with... Lots of shapes but kinda deconstucted, so that what appears to be a fairly boring jar in profile turns out to be a really interesting winged formin plan....
Love that "Pyromania for everyone" and had to laugh at "A very useful book though a tad American". Are any of these books online? I don't mean as in "to buy", but to read online. Bubbles, do you make your own molds? I like how you make a round globe out of a half globe mold, that's smart thinking.
Welllll - it would have to be VERY innovative, as I have several other books as well.
Holy moly!!!! I found it on Amazon.com - price USD 54 the _cheapest_! I would really like to see that book, but totally unseen, almost 55 bucks is a bit dear.
Hmmmm - will give that a miss as well - as I find coil is not even enough for my "exacting standards" Hehe! I have a little slab roller, so I prefer using that
mmmm - no kiln - drat! That is probably at least a year in the future, if not more. Am still learning about firing and prefer to do my firing in my teacher's workshop, so that I can suck as much information and knowledge out of her as possible ;-)
No space for wood firing :-(
Could you explain that further? I have bought an historic book about Japanese pottery, but I don't quite understand how that would teach me technique.
The potter's directory of shape and form or some such. Yeah - I have it. Slightly useful. But almost better are the 500 books - "500 bowls" etc. Great inspiration.
Thanks tons for your input! I WISH that Andrew Holden book wasn't so expensive! Checked amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and ebay :-(
That makes the cheaper one about 32 pounds Sterling at the current rate. If it was published now, I expect the retail price would be about 20. The extra 12 reflects its scarcity and desirability.
Another good place to check for old books, or even new ones, is Abe Books . They seem to be tapped into a consortium of independent booksellers on both sides of the pond. I've gotten lots of great deals on pottery books (and lots of other books) there.
Best regards.
Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis
Drat showing my age again... Blesssed book that i really rate been OOP for 20 years... (Don't time fly when you're having fun....).. The Shire Archaeology Books are really good for inspiration, but also show you how to work at a very low-tech level, something about not having the latest in technology not being a bar to some very fine pots... Several of them also suggest methods of firing as used in the period (bonfire firing, simple kilns etc) that are of use today, kinda like having a museum on your bookshelf.... Where abouts in the world are you, as i get access to a couple of Museums unshown collections (i live in SW UK) Hugs Eddie
For me it would be, because in addition to going into single firing (which is the majority of what I do now) it covers making various sorts of wheel, Kiln design, and instructions on building a 5 Cu.Ft. Top loading gas kiln in addition to some other subjects.
Ahhhhh. That's not quite what I was after. I don't have a load of space for my "hobby", so building huge kilns and such would be out of the question. I already have a wheel, and will stick with that one until I can handle it. Thus, a book telling me how to build _equipment_ is not what I had in mind.
As I am Norwegian, I have surfed around and found several pictures of old viking pottery and design, which I will "copy" at some stage.
I am not interested in low-firing my goods, as they will then be less durable. Also, I have no possibility of doing it where I live - neighbours wouldn't appreciate it :-)
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