Ceramics in America 2020


Book Description

The 2020 volume of Ceramics in America is a celebration of the depth and diversity of ceramics in the American context. Beautifully illustrated articles explore the use of clay from the most basic building bricks to refined earthenwares promoting the political and economic issues of the American Revolution. Of special interest is the origin of the ceramic manufacturing spark in America, looking at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia cited by historians and connoisseurs as the height of recognition of achievement for ceramic production in the United States. The archaeological discovery of rare "black delft" teapot fragments from Charleston's Drayton Hall is recounted in an exciting collector's narrative. Other articles will include a profile of North Carolina potter David Stuempfle who continues the old-age tradition of producing wood fired stoneware, a study of Thomas Jefferson's Chinese porcelain, and Pueblo pottery collected by a German Museum in the early twentieth century.




Ceramics in America 2019


Book Description

A diverse range of essays, new discoveries, and book reviews on the latest research of interest to ceramics scholars.




Kintsugi


Book Description

A broken pot is made whole again, and within its golden repair we see a world of meaning. Kintsugi is the art of embracing imperfection. In Western cultures, the aim of repair has been to make the broken item 'as good as new'. Kintsugi on the other hand, is a Japanese art that leaves an obvious repair – one that may appear fragile, but which actually makes the restored ceramic piece stronger, more beautiful, and more valuable than before. Leaving clear, bold, visible lines with the appearance of solid gold, it never hides the story of the object's damage. Kintsugi traces memory, bringing together the moment of destruction and the gold seams of repair through finely-honed skills and painstaking, time-consuming labour in the creation of a new pot from the old. There is a story to be told with every crack, every chip. This story inevitably leads to kintsugi's greatest strength. an intimate metaphoric narrative of loss and recovery, breakage and restoration, tragedy and the ability to overcome it. A kintsugi repair speaks of individuality and uniqueness, fortitude and resilience, and the beauty to be found in survival. Kintsugi leads us to a respectful and appreciative acceptance of hardship and ageing. Author Bonnie Kemske explores kintsugi's metaphorical power as well as exploring the technical and practical aspects of the art, meeting with artists and ceramists in Japan and the US to discuss their personal connection to this intricate technique. With the inclusion of diary entries, personal stories, and in-depth exploration of its origin and symbolism, this book shows kintsugi's metaphoric strength as well as its striking aesthetic, making it a unique and powerful art form that can touch our lives.




Pots, Pans, and People: Material Culture and Nature in Mesoamerican Ceramics


Book Description

This book explores material culture and human adaptations to nature over time, with a focus on ceramics. The author also explores the role of ethnoarchaeology and ethnohistory as key elements of a broad research strategy that seeks to understand human interaction with nature over time.




Materials Chemistry


Book Description

This book is an introductory work on the broad topics included in Materials Science. It encompasses a number of different materials classes and properties with a focus on the structure-property relationships between them. Each class of materials will include and discuss recycling techniques and other green methods of production. Materials Chemistry: For Scientists and Engineers is ideal for all newcomers to the fi eld as well as for those seeking a knowledge of solid state chemistry.




Global Objects


Book Description

A bold reorientation of art history that bridges the divide between fine art and material culture through an examination of objects and their uses Art history is often viewed through cultural or national lenses that define some works as fine art while relegating others to the category of craft. Global Objects points the way to an interconnected history of art, examining a broad array of functional aesthetic objects that transcend geographic and temporal boundaries and challenging preconceived ideas about what is and is not art. Avoiding traditional binaries such as East versus West and fine art versus decorative art, Edward Cooke looks at the production, consumption, and circulation of objects made from clay, fiber, wood, and nonferrous base metals. Carefully considering the materials and process of making, and connecting process to product and people, he demonstrates how objects act on those who look at, use, and acquire them. He reveals how objects retain aspects of their local fabrication while absorbing additional meanings in subtle and unexpected ways as they move through space and time. In emphasizing multiple centers of art production amid constantly changing contexts, Cooke moves beyond regional histories driven by geography, nation-state, time period, or medium. Beautifully illustrated, Global Objects traces the social lives of objects from creation to purchase, and from use to experienced meaning, charting exciting new directions in art history.




Glass-Ceramic Technology


Book Description

An updated edition of the essential guide to the technology of glass-ceramic technology Glass-ceramic materials share many properties with both glass and more traditional crystalline ceramics. The revised third edition of Glass-Ceramic Technology offers a comprehensive and updated guide to the various types of glass-ceramic materials, the methods of development, and the myriad applications for glass-ceramics. Written in an easy-to-use format, the book includes an explanation of the new generation of glass-ceramics. The updated third edition explores glass-ceramics new materials and properties and reviews the expanding regions for applying these materials. The new edition contains current information on glass/glass-ceramic forming in general and explores specific systems, crystallization mechanisms and products such as: ion exchange strengthening of glass-ceramics, glass-ceramics for mobile phones, new glass-ceramics for energy, and new glass-ceramics for optical and architectural application. It also contains a new section on dental materials and twofold controlled crystallization. This revised guide: Offers an important new section on glass/glass ceramic forming Includes the fundamentals and the application of nanotechnology as related to glass-ceramic technology Reviews the development of the various types of glass-ceramic materials Covers information on new glass-ceramics with new materials and properties and outlines the opportunities for applying these materials Written for ceramic and materials engineers, managers, and designers in the ceramic and glass industry, the third edition of Glass-Ceramic Technology features new sections on Glass/Glass-Ceramic Forming and new Glass-Ceramics as well as expanded sections on dental materials and twofold controlled crystallization.










At Home in the Eighteenth Century


Book Description

The eighteenth-century home, in terms of its structure, design, function, and furnishing, was a site of transformation – of spaces, identities, and practices. Home has myriad meanings, and although the eighteenth century in the common imagination is often associated with taking tea on polished mahogany tables, a far wider world of experience remains to be introduced. At Home in the Eighteenth Century brings together factual and fictive texts and spaces to explore aspects of the typical Georgian home that we think we know from Jane Austen novels and extant country houses while also engaging with uncharacteristic and underappreciated aspects of the home. At the core of the volume is the claim that exploring eighteenth-century domesticity from a range of disciplinary vantage points can yield original and interesting questions, as well as reveal new answers. Contributions from the fields of literature, history, archaeology, art history, heritage studies, and material culture brings the home more sharply into focus. In this way At Home in the Eighteenth Century reveals a more nuanced and fluid concept of the eighteenth-century home and becomes a steppingstone to greater understanding of domestic space for undergraduate level and beyond.