Arbuckle CERAMICS booklist
Suggestions for reading in relation to studio practice
to below
Art/craft ideas, philosophy, aesthetics, and psychology
Art And Fear: Observations on The Perils (And Rewards) of Artmaking
Bayles, David & Orland, Ted.
Thoughtful, readable short book that deals with blocks and fears that creative people face. Everyone in creative pursuits should read this.
Art And Visual Perception: a Psychology of The Creative Eye
Arnheim, Rudolf
The Art of The Maker
Dormer, Peter
About the role of craft (i.e. skill) in art-making. Very helpful, inspiring
Conceptual Blockbusting, A Guide to Better Ideas, 3rd Ed
Adams, James L.
Helpful guide to expanding your thinking and creative problem-solving.
Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft
Fariella, Anna
Shop Class as Soulcraft: an Inquiry into the Value of Work
Matthew Crawford
Crawford grew up on a commune, got a PhD in Philosophy, and quit a thinktank job to open a vintage motorcycle repair shop. Provocative look at contemporary culture and connection between brain work and hand. My local library has this as a downloadable audiobook. Sort of an update on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Good info about why smart people find problem-solving with a manual component (e.g. ceramics) a lifetime challenge.
The Culture of Craft
Dormer, Peter, ed
Excellent book on the issues surrounding hand-made items and their implications by thoughtful authors. Highly recommended.
The Nature and Art of Workmanship
David Pye
Woodworker Pye talks about quality, design, and one of my favorite ideas: the difference between the workmanship of risk (handmade) and the workmanship of certainly (machine-made).
Functional Pottery
Hopper, Robin
A thorough treatmend of how to make good functional forms. Includes design issues, functional considerations, good historic and contemporary resources, helpful tech info.
Making Marks: Discovering the Ceramic Surface
Hopper, Robin
A good catlog of the many methods of manipulating surface by a master.
Ceramics - Materials and Glaze
Ceramic Faults and Their Remedies
Frazier, Harry
Helpful tech reference. Wonder why is cracks, why it has matte patches in the glaze? The answer is in here.
The Potter's Dictionary of Materials and Techniques
Hamer, Frank and Janet
This is like the bible for materials info. They will tell you more than you wanted to know about everything from cracks to cristobalite. My go-to book when I have materials and process questions. If you only have one tech resource, this might be the one.
The New Maiolica
Matthias Ostermann
Very thouough, useful book to learn more about international majolica methods and considerations by the late Matthias Ostermann, a master in the field.
Maiolica
Daphne Carnegy
Handbook by English majolica potter.
Throwing
Phethean, Richard
Well-illustrated contemporary resource for learning to throw. Pottery Making Illustrated had an excerpt on throwing bowls from this book. This article is not online, but you find other things from this author on their site.
Flight of Fancy, the Banishment and Return of Ornament
Brolin, Brent
Re-issued as “Architectural Ornament: Banishment and Return”. Brolin is an architect whose mother-in-law was ceramics designer Eva Zeisel. He writes in depth about the ideas surrounding ornament, from a time when it was valued to a time when it was considered in poor taste to like decorated things. A good material culture read.Revealing about where ideas suirounding ornament.
The Sense of Order: a Study in The Psychology of Decorative Art
Gombrich, Ernst
Informative book about thinking and analysis of how man perceives pattern, the meaning of ornament, and more.
Ceramics
Rawson, Philip
Part of Rawson’s series of art appreciation subjects. Excellent information about looking at pottery. wordy - buy your own copy and highlight the gems of information. Includes ideas about concave vs. convex forms, implied completion, memory traces, and meanings of color and reflectivity. Everyone should read this, prefereably with a buddy to talk about it, and in small chunnks.
Design Language
Tim McCreight
Comes in a pocket-sized text version or a larger Interpretive Edition that has illustrations. Design terms and definitions. I find this a resource to which I return. Prods my thinking.
Principles of Form and Design
Wong, Wucius
Wonderful thumbnail guide to design principles with illlustrated examples, e.g. reflection, rotation, etc. Makes a lot of visual sense. Helpful when you're looking for ways to organize space.
The Designer's Eye
Brolin, Brent
A book not possible before Photoshop. Challenging design resource. Brolin, an architect, takes an image if a building, changes a detail, and gives you a few sentences below about how the change impacts the visual reading of the piece. Someone needs to do this for pottery. Basically a picture book, but will engage your eye and thinking about design.