The Beginner's Guide to Hand Building
Functional and Sculptural Projects for the Home Potter
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Join the home pottery revolution!
Whether you have access to a communal studio or not, hand building projects can travel just about anywhere. Take your clay outside or work at the kitchen table, with instruction from best-selling ceramics author Sunshine Cobb. In this book, you’ll find all the necessary fundamentals, including a thorough discussion of clay as well as helpful tips for keeping your body and mind in top shape. Then pick the path that’s right for you in the chapters that follow.
Develop new skills and unlock your own creativity as you explore:
Sculptural projects like miniature animals and plants. Functional items like scoops, a citrus reamer, and a coffee pour-over vessel. Mixed media projects including a candlestick holder, mobile, and a soap dish. All along the way, skill-building is front and center, with conversational instructions and tips to help you make pieces you’re proud to show off. Gallery work from some of today’s top artists are sure to inspire potters of all levels. What will you make first?
For beginners and those returning to ceramics, the Essential Ceramics Skills series from Quarry Books offer the fundamentals along with fresh, contemporary, and simple projects that build skills progressively.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ceramicist Cobb (Mastering Hand Building) marries form and function in her masterful debut, a look at "the mysterious and magical world of clay." She begins with an overview of best practices for posture and breathing at the wheel, as well as stretches to warm up one's hands for working clay. Once the preliminaries are out of the way, on come the projects. There are 16 of them, equally divided into sculptural and functional sections, and ranging from handheld to heftier items: "Creatures" offers a fox sculpture perfect for a cottagecore aesthetic; "Mobiles" pieces together raindrops and clouds for a darling ceiling piece; and "Candelabra," the star of the sculptural section, is an intricate challenge. Cobb posits that "beauty can impact our daily life," and that sentiment is reflected in her functional projects: a rustic scoop for measuring ingredients, a citrus reamer ("use your hand size... to help inform the handle shape"), and a match striker to complement the candelabra. With ideas ranging from beginner to advanced, this inimitable guide is one for the long haul.
