Ceramics: Mastering the Craft, 2nd ed., Zakin

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In this book, Richard Zakin takes you on a comprehensive journey through the information and ideas of the potter’s craft.

He includes photographs of pieces made by leading artists, as well as comments by them concerning various aspects of their work. This book is unique in its scope and the depth of its information and photographic documentation.

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Zakin is one of the leading experts in ceramics. He shows us just how vast his knowledge is and how clearly he can structure and explain the wide variety of ceramic art material to us. This book features more than 300 beautiful color photos of the most innovative work being done in the ceramics field. Works by leading artists are showcased in sections on utilitarian pottery, non-utilitarian pottery, sculpture, and work in the wall piece format.

The perfect blend

Ceramics: Mastering the Craft is a perfect blend of the technical and aesthetic aspects of ceramics, featuring historical background information, analysis of image creation strategies, and numerous technical photos. Several photo essays show such processes as raku, throwing on a wheel, hand forming in a press mold, and working with colored clay just to name a few. Potters will find invaluable advice on buying and formulating clays, choosing and applying glazes, firing clay bodies, and much more.

Comprehensive

In Ceramics: Mastering the Craft, Richard Zakin provides information on ceramic materials, color development, clay bodies, vessel forms, creativity, imagery, surfaces, glazes, recipes, glazing, kilns, ceramic history, analysis, safety and more. This comprehensive journey through the information and ideas of the potter’s craft includes photographs of pieces made by leading artists as well as comments by them concerning various aspects of their work. This book is unique in its scope and the depth of its information and photographic documentation. There are many fine books that give us various pieces of the puzzle of ceramic technology, but this book attempts to be the one book we need to cover most of the ground. Few people could do a book like this and even fewer would ever dream of trying.