Ceramics Books and Magazines

Overall I found the encyclopedia 'gimick' to not really be very helpful.


The mosaic bible   May 24, 2002
 24 out of 25 found this review helpful

I think this is an awesome book. I don't like books with projects because I like to design my own projects and don't like to cookie cutter from a book. So, this is fantastic because it reminds even experienced mosaic artists of all the endless possibilities of techiniques and materials. It goes through EVERYTHING!! And if you are reserching a particular techinique or anything it is all listed in the back and you are ready to go. Tons of important info, might be a little overwhelming for the beginner but it is truly my bible. I recommend this book to all my customers!


Belongs in a mosaicist's library   April 15, 2002
 69 out of 69 found this review helpful

This book, as it's title suggests, is more of an encyclopedia than a project book. I would not recommend it to a beginner because it doesn't take you through a number of projects step by step as many mosaic books do. But I HIGHLY recommend this book for someone who has started doing mosaic and wants to increase skills and knowledge. I learned a lot about design, in particular: using colors effectively, including the grout colors, and how to place tiles in the design and in the background in directions that affect the flow of the design. An eye-opening section showed common mistakes, which if one studies before starting a project, can be avoided. There are a few projects that are given to demonstrate certain techniques, and there are photos of many incredibly beautiful works. The patterns are not given for them, so you'd have to attempt to draw them yourself, or let them serve as inspiration. The materials and equipment section is very extensive and helpful. This is a great book you would study to become a better mosaicist, but not use as a project guide.


Nice photos, poor organization   September 22, 2001
 15 out of 19 found this review helpful

This book documents the mosaic processes pretty well with its photos, but the fact that it's organized alphabetically is absurd. It really is a horrible way to organize this book and I wish they had skipped this "a-z of techniques" idea. The pictures are really nice though and there are some great ones in the gallery section.


Superb resource for new/intermediate mosaicists   October 8, 2000
 153 out of 154 found this review helpful

Emma Biggs has used the "Encyclopedia of Mosaic Techniques" to share her wealth of knowledge and experience with us.

It doesn't fit the standard (and effective) format for beginner mosaic books (history, gallery, techniques/materials and projects). In fact there are no projects at all. Instead, the book is broken up into different topics. Here are a few selected at random to show how broad the scope of the book is: "Design Sources" (getting inspiration from tropical fish, fabrics, etc), "Colour in Mosaics", "Workshop Setup", "Cutting Techniques", "Borders", "Central Motifs", "Common Mistakes", "Indirect Method on Paper" (one of the many techniques covered), "Finishing and Fixing" (how to get a professional finish), "Gallery" (finished works with an analysis of what makes each one work, eg use of colour, contrast, light effects, realism).

Because there are no set projects, this is not the easiest book to start with. Unless you're really confident I would recommend Leslie Dierks' "Making Mosaics" instead. However, once you've tried a few of the step-by-step projects in that (or a similar book), this should be your next purchase. It will teach you to create your own projects instead of following someone else's.

The only think I really didn't like about this book is the way the topics were grouped alphabetically instead by theme. I imagine this is the standard for the "Encyclopaedia of..." series, but it doesn't work for me. If you're going through the book sequentially you go from "Double Reverse Method" to "Finishing and Fixing" to "Glass and Silicone" to "Grouting" to "Indirect Method on Paper".

I would have preferred to see all the methods grouped, all the material-related topics grouped, all the design-related topics grouped, etc. But this is a fairly minor niggle given the high quality of the book.

Highly recommended!