Ceramics Books and Magazines

Author: Susan Peterson
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$65.00~~
Buy New: $36.85
You Save: $28.15 (43%)

Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

9 reviews
Sales Rank: 92034

Media: Hardcover
Edition: 4 Sub
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.9
Dimensions (in): 11.1 x 8.8 x 1.4

ISBN: 1585674761
Dewey Decimal Number: 738
EAN: 9781585674763

Publication Date: October 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-9 of 9

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An excellent guide to working with clay April 16, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is a great book for anyone who wants to work with clay. It is clearly written with prospective and actual studio potters in mind.

The book originally came out in 1992, and is now in its fourth edition. And, after mentioning some safety issues, it has plenty of instructional material on how to shape clay, and what tools to use. There are sections on hand building: pinching, coil building, and slab building. Then there's plenty about the technique of "throwing" clay on a potter's wheel, with nice sequences of photos. This takes plenty of skill and practice! As the author says, the wheel is very sensuous, rhythmic, and hypnotic. Peterson is always warning us to treat clay properly: if you attack it in one way and then hit it from another direction in the same place, you may find cracks there in firing, induced by the strains you imposed on it. It's simply wrong to overwork clay.

Still, many potters and artists like to produce many objects with the same overall shape. And that means making and using molds made from plaster, and making casting slips, so Peterson shows us quite a bit about these. After this comes a discussion of decoration. This involves artistry and visualization.

There is a good discussion of types of clays, and explanations of what earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain are. We're shown different types of clay bodies, including terra sigillata and raku (a process which requires a clay body that has some dirt mixed in with it to make it porous enough to avoid thermal shock). And there is a wonderful chapter on glazes. Following that, there is plenty about kilns and firing, including using cones, inconel tubes, and pyrometers to measure temperature.

A technical section explains how to do calculations on glazes, and there are charts of coefficients of expansion, data on frits, color charts of clay and glaze combinations, and much more.

There is a historical overview, which includes a discussion of the studio potter movement and the contributions to it from Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada. And we see some of the work of Maria Martinez and Lucy Lewis in Pueblo Indian ceramics. There is also an excellent portfolio of interesting works. I especially like some of the low-fire ones.

This is a very useful resource and I highly recommend it.

5 out of 5 stars

For the Serious Potter's Library (Beginner to Advanced) March 11, 2004
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

I received this book as a Christmas gift in 2003 from my boyfriend, as I had just started learning to throw forms back in September. I'm still taking classes and this is the best and most complete reference I've seen yet. I've purchased and looked at quite a number of books, but nothing else I've seen compares to this one.

But I have a caution for the beginning potter; there is absolutely no substitute for studio experience and classes. My instructors told me right from the beginning, quite rightly, that the art of claymaking requires hours and hours of practice. No way around it. This book is not intended as a stand-alone reference. Perhaps it could be for the more experienced potter.

But for a beginner such as myself, it is a great reinforcement for what I'm learning in class. It also gives me great ideas on glazing, types of pots to throw, etc.. I need to work with my instructor on much of this, but I still find it extremely useful.

The book expands on subjects that we don't really discuss in detail in class. It talks about things such as: what are glazes (composition and origin) and how does the chemical process work? What are the main glazing techniques? What are all the various types of clay and where do they come from? How does one choose a clay to work with? Since the art and history of clay making varies from culture to culture, a lot of different styles and techniques are included, making this a well-rounded book.

Many parts of the book are very technical (a little intimidating to me) and are probably best suited for the 'master' clay artist. However, I still find it extremely useful. It's really the "Oxford Dictionary" of Claymaking.

This book should definitely be a part of a serious claymaker's library (but not the only book!)

4 out of 5 stars Could of used more step by step pictures September 11, 2003
5 out of 8 found this review helpful

The book had many pictures of finished products and a lot to read. I am visual and was thinking maybe it would show step by step pictures and how it is done. I have never used clay or done any sort of pottery, so it didn't really help me. I bought it for my class in college, but I never used it. Instead, I just got my hands dirty and learned by doing.

5 out of 5 stars Great book August 11, 2003
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

If you want to learn all the techniques about clay work, you need this book, it is great and with a loat of beautiful pictures.

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