Ceramics: Tools and Techniques for the Contemporary Maker [Hardcover]

Books on ceramics are numerous and as the scope of the subject matter is so very wide and varied, the writer has many challenges when setting out to tackle the breadth and depth of the material in a manner that is useful, informative, accurate and most importantly, appealing so you want to return to it again and again. Few books have achieved this, Susan Peterson's The Art and Craft of Clay springs to mind, also her biographies of Shoji Hamada, Lucy Lewis and Maria Martinez and closer to home, Jack Doherty's and Peter Lane's books on porcelain also have the same tone of authority balanced by photos of exemplary work. But books that attempt to capture a fuller picture of ceramic tools and techniques are smaller in number and the excellent ones are even rarer.

Louisa Taylor's book is engaging and captivating from the very start. The photography is simply excellent so just a quick browse through leaves you with an initial visual impression of the content and it looks promising already. As I went through the sections on the second run at a slower pace, it was the scope of the material that came to the forefront and again, I was very impressed by the span of topics covered. Louisa treats each section with a methodical and methodological attention to detail which makes for clear instruction and subsequently a response of gratitude for such precise writing and considerable research. As you go from section to section, you can feel and appreciate the vision and effort required to produce this book which must have required huge reserves of the love of making and even more amounts of commitment to see the project through.

The editing and layout of the book is another area of delight. The graphics are excellent as I said but how the text and illustrations are laid out and the choice of colours for the backgrounds and sections, these all work to create an atmosphere of creativity, of beautiful design and most importantly, of encouragement to the maker regardless of their status, background or reason for reading the book. Another clever aspect of this book is how this vast body of information has been divided into types of techniques and products (tableware, vessel, sculpture etc) and so instantly, a sense of context has been employed to provide a basis for deep instruction and insights from the author. Louisa then profiles contemporary makers in each of these contexts to provide yet more tips and insights from the experts themselves. Although a lot of writers use the profile as a tool to augment the content of their overall book, few have managed to merge the profile with the overall character of the book as well as this one.

Only 2 niggles from me - the bigger one being the odd juxtaposition of clear British English with American spellings. So moulds become molds and the practice of clay becomes the practise which to this reviewer is always a verb and not a noun. I think the publisher should consider releasing a British version as soon as possible. The second query is about Louisa's approach to reduction firing in which she recommends only one firing regime. As a reduction firer myself, I know that different glazes respond to different firing regimes so perhaps this section was a little too focused. But these two observations do not detract from the quality of this publication. It belongs in the hallowed ranks of reference books so get it, do not hesitate at all.

I have read alot of different ceramics books over the years none of which made quite as much sense as this one. All of the featured makers are current and work that I was familiar with so it was great to get a insight into their processes. I would definatly recommend this book as I immediatly wanted to go and make things.

Despite the five star reviews, I found this book to be something of a disappointment.

It is well produced, the photographs (of which there could have been more) are excellent, it is a large chunk of book for a very good price on Amazon. The work it shows is of the cool, clean and very contemporary kind, and everything in totally up to the minute. There are sections on all the basics such as preparing clay, coiling, pinching, throwing etc, as well as more advanced techniques. There are several (rather short) bios of contemporay ceramists with examples of their work, and it would have been less annoying if these could have been a bit longer, or if there had been more of them. It is a book that would grace any coffee table - if that is what you want. (But this is not what the title implies).

And yet...ultimately I personally found it disappointing. Although the book is elegantly hefty, somehow there doesn't seem to be very much in it, and at the end I didn't feel satisfied. Maybe the autor tried to include so many aspects of ceramics that nothing was really covered in enough depth to be really helpful.

Although the photographs are excellent, for me the whole book gives the feeling of being rather too minimalist, too 'cool'. Probably intentionally so, given it's very contemporary nature - which I have no argument with - it does make a change from seeing the work of the same chosen few all over again, and there is certainly nothing of the twee or overly traditional in the book. The images are new, with none that I have seen in other books - which does sometimes happen.

It makes a fine looking book for the coffee table or book shelf, and there is actually quite a lot of reading in it - but is it one that I would return to over and over again for inspiration or guidance? I own other books which untimately are of more use to me technically, and still others which show the work of contemporay ceramists in more detail. It is difficult to do both at once without falling a bit short in one way or another.

There is a useful page on Ceramic Materials Conversion, showing US terms and their equivalents in the UK, which I wished could have been longer, but at least I now know some of the equivalents to their seemingly endless range of frits. For this I am grateful.

I feel mean only giving it three stars, as it is a beautifully produced book...just not very useful, and sadly does not live up to the hype.