The New Artisans

Showcases work by designers and makers who use craft techniques rather than mass-production methods to create stylish, whimsical, covetable objects. The practice of handmade craft has undergone a huge resurgence in recent times. This book captures the new mood—a return to the unique and the artisanal. The first part of the book profiles over seventy international artisans who represent an astonishing array of crafts. The profiles include information on what inspires each artisan and how they create their products, often in innovative or eco-conscious ways. The second part of the book consists of an invaluable directory of products, divided into categories: art, ceramics, furniture, glasswork, jewelry, lighting, metalwork, paper and woodwork, stationery, tableware, and textiles. More than 800 color photographs illustrate the huge variety of design work on offer—exquisite paper flowers, handthrown pots and jugs, beaded necklaces, folk-inspired knitted scarves, handblown chandeliers, wooden table lamps, embroideries, and more. Resources include: contact details for the artisans, recommendations of shops, websites, and blogs to visit.

"Collectable, one-of-a-kind artisanal objects--whether hand-woven textiles or handblown glass--have become a fixture of the modern home; and the artists who produce them are increasingly sought-after. In this follow-up volume to The New Artisans, design expert and lauded blogger Olivier Dupon continues his exploration of the most creative artisans working today."--

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A groundbreaking and endlessly surprising history of how artisans created America, from the nation's origins to the present day. At the center of the United States' economic and social development, according to conventional wisdom, are industry and technology-while craftspeople and handmade objects are relegated to a bygone past. Renowned historian Glenn Adamson turns that narrative on its head in this innovative account, revealing makers' central role in shaping America's identity. Examine any phase of the nation's struggle to define itself, and artisans are there-from the silversmith Paul Revere and the revolutionary carpenters and blacksmiths who hurled tea into Boston Harbor, to today's “maker movement.” From Mother Jones to Rosie the Riveter. From Betsy Ross to Rosa Parks. From suffrage banners to the AIDS Quilt. Adamson shows that craft has long been implicated in debates around equality, education, and class. Artisanship has often been a site of resistance for oppressed people, such as enslaved African-Americans whose skilled labor might confer hard-won agency under bondage, or the Native American makers who adapted traditional arts into statements of modernity. Theirs are among the array of memorable portraits of Americans both celebrated and unfamiliar in this richly peopled book. As Adamson argues, these artisans' stories speak to our collective striving toward a more perfect union. From the beginning, America had to be-and still remains to be-crafted.

Postdigital Artisans profiles 60 contemporary artists and designers, accompanied by rich illustrations of their postdigital work.

Can an artist claim that an object is a work of art if it has been made for him or her by someone else? If so, who is the author of such a work? And just what is the difference between a work of art and a work of craft? In the first book of its kind, Michael Petry tackles these questions head on.

Showcases sixty new artisans whose work exemplifies the growing handmade element in contemporary product design Collectable, one-of-a-kind artisanal objects—whether hand-woven textiles or handblown glass—have become a fixture of the modern home; and the artists who produce them are increasingly sought-after. In this follow-up volume to The New Artisans, design expert and lauded blogger Olivier Dupon continues his exploration of the most creative artisans working today. Divided into two sections, The New Artisans II is the ultimate reference to the vibrant, creative world of the handmade. The first section profiles a range of designers, including descriptions of their backgrounds and technical approaches alongside photos of them at work and samples of their stunning creations. This global cast of artisans employs an array of craft traditions including weaving, crocheting, ceramics, paper arts, furniture-making, glass-blowing, metalworking, and more. The second section is a directory of objects, categorized as art; ceramics; furniture; glasswork; jewelry, clothing, and accessories; lighting; metalwork; papercraft; tableware; decorative textiles and homewares; and functional textiles and homewares.

Shamanic perception has become your birthright. In this companion book to The Altar of the Initiate learn what modern shamanism is and how it is applied to attain wholeness; discover how seeing is a natural by-product of raising your frequency; learn surprising ways to connect with Spirit through the power of prayer, ceremony, and true meditation; awaken into your conscious awareness the dormant powers contained in The Five Tools of the Shaman in order to enter, decode, and navigate the rich and potent inner landscape from which the Shamans work becomes possible; discover the potential of reclaiming your multidimensionality through astounding but true accounts of encounters with Spirit beings in parallel worlds and what they have to teach us; and learn how the true masterpiece of you as The Artisan of the New Earth will be the crafting of the new paradigm of God as the male and female energy aligned in the heartThe Sacred Marriage.

Evoking Studs Terkel, Shen Fuyu delivers a rollicking deep dive into working life in a small village in rural China, tracing the last 100 years of history. Born in Shen Village in Southeast China, Shen Fuyu grew up in a family of farmers. Years later, Shen, now a writer, returned to his hometown to capture the village’s rich history in the face of industrialization. Through his own childhood memories and those of his ancestors, Shen resurrects the working life of Shen Village through interlinked stories of fifteen artisans as their lives intersect over the course of a century. While Shen's view of his hometown and his heritage is tinged with nostalgia, he does not romanticize it. Nor does he sugarcoat the backbreaking difficulty of life in rural China, but he still captures its small satisfactions and joys of loving one’s work with a great deal of care. In an acerbic, earthy and unsparing style that swings from poignancy to comedy, sometimes within a single paragraph, Shen evokes the spirits of these workers--a bamboo-weaver and his beloved bull, a carpenter’s magical saw, the deserter who became the village lantern-maker and a rebellious woman who beats up her own kidnapper. A reflection on the vicissitudes of small-town life during the epic shift from agricultural to industrial civilization, The Artisans vividly details the hardships, friendships and communal mythmaking of a disappearing community.

During the quarter of a century before the thirteen colonies became a nation, the northwest quadrant of North Carolina had just begun to attract permanent settlers. This seemingly primitive area may not appear to be a likely source for attractive pottery and ornate silverware and furniture, much less for an audience to appreciate these refinements. Yet such crafts were not confined to urban centers, and artisans, like other colonists, were striving to create better lives for themselves as well as to practice their trades. As Johanna Miller Lewis shows in this pivotal study of colonial history and material culture, the growing population of Rowan County required not only blacksmiths, saddlers, and tanners but also a great variety of skilled craftsmen to help raise the standard of living. Rowan County's rapid expansion was in part the result of the planned settlements of the Moravian Church. Because the Moravians maintained careful records, historians have previously credited church artisans with greater skill and more economic awareness than non-church craftsmen. Through meticulous attention to court and private records, deeds, wills, and other sources, Lewis reveals the Moravian failure to keep up with the pace of development occurring elsewhere in the county. Challenging the traditional belief that southern backcountry life was primitive, Lewis shows that many artisans held public office and wielded power in the public sphere. She also examines women weavers and spinsters as an integral part of the population. All artisans—Moravian and non-Moravian, male and female—helped the local market economy expand to include coastal and trans-Atlantic trade. Lewis's book contributes meaningfully to the debate over self-sufficiency and capitalism in rural America.