Customer Reviews

500 Bowls: Contemporary Explorations of a Timeless Design

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In addition to being beautifully presented, the bowls depicted in this trim 8" x 8" publication, run the gamet from functional to sculptural, not missing some wonderful stops in between. Leslie Thompson's Patterned Pueblo Bread-Raising Bowl is a perfect example of function - a utilitarian shape accented with a band of scraffito patterning - and at the same time, sculptural in appearance. Her Hatched Triangles bowl further back in the collection is just that, a sculptural interpretation of classic form! What's even nicer is that in many instances, more than one bowl is shown by the same artist, giving the peruser a sense of the creator as well as their creations. This book showcases clay artists chosen for their work rather than their notoriety, something many other contemporary epistles fail to do. A great compliment to this is Lark's previous publication, 500 Teapots.

For me the book is full of ideas, form, style, technique, decoration and color. I'm an amature potter who loves to make bowls and vessels. I find the book to be a great companion when I need help making decisions about what I want to make and where to begin. I sometimes need to be inspired with ideas or picture and then make it my own by evolving it into my creation. Sometimes I fine it very rewarding to see if I can recreate a vessle that I like. The results are always interesting although not the same, or necessarlly inspiring! I guess that is why I'm an amature but I love the effort and the place that working on my pottery takes me. The book has a permanate place in my studio.

I'm a clay artist who does hand building...My teacher brought in this book to share with our
pottery class. I and the rest of the class were simply blown away by the originality and brilliance of these clay artists. We spent half the class passing the book around and saying to one anothr "how about THIS one?"
None of us wanted to put the book down and get back to working on our own pieces.

The book is quite reasonable in price and I was so captivated by these beautiful photographs that I went ahead and bought the the other two books in the series which are specific to animals and teapots...The photographs on each page are simply spectacular...memorable....something I wouldn't directly copy in my own work, but much of it is just insipirational...and informative. Description of how the piece was fired...the method for it's execution (whether hand or wheel built). These books are a collection of the most original works I've ever seen. Although I don't build animals of out clay, I'm as thrilled to own each book from this series as I am
"500 Bowls".

I am astonished that anyone could find this book a dissapointment! Only, not,when I read the reveiws that were not too great were written by people who wanted a more functional or traditional result,perhaps...
I like it.Once again,this book opened up an area in my own artistic approach-to "think outside the Bowl"! If you are an artist,or sculptor that has been at it a good 10 or 15 years,as I am,and you need a new vien to tap,this is a great book to get.Mostly,I found it treated the surfaces,interior or exterior,like a canvas.not a vessel to be filled with cereal or mashed potatoes,but as an object,to be viewed,and give the onlooker an "eyeful" It's again,one of the best in the lark 500 books.

500 BOWLS & its companion 500 TEAPOTS is a source of inspiration for any potter. I hope the keep publishing these books. Oh, I love Lark Publications!

Well, I can only say that I found this book to be lovely. I enjoyed looking at the inspired creations of these artists. In my opinion, the functional is well represented and I could see myself using many of these bowls, were I lucky enough to own them. Congratulations to all these talented people and thank you for making the world a beautiful and interesting place.

I have a hunger for bowls. Objects that can hold other objects, particularly food, fascinate me. This book feeds my hunger with beautiful color photos of more bowls than my brain can hold in one sitting. Bowls that make me laugh, purr, gasp with amazement, and covet. Oh how I covet. Bowls that hold other bowls that hold other bowls...
And for the frustrated potter in me, the information on glazes and firing deepens my appreciation of each and every hemispherical vessel. I'll have this one, and that one, and the little one over there...

It is the simplicity of the bowl on the cover that draw us in, though it is difficult, as there is no cover credit in the edition I own, to find who that artist is. Deep inside we find that bowl and another by potter/artist Judy Motzkin. Patient searching pays off. This elegant little book, with this elegant saggar fired bowl on the cover is a treasure.

They've done it again! 500 Bowls is another expertly curated collection from the Lark 500 series. Highly recommend this along with all the other 500 series books for every artist and especially ceramicists. Wonderfully presented visual survey of what's going on in the world of contemporary ceramics. Really a pleasure to look through over and over again. I just keep coming back to these books!

I am a potter, and these bowls give me lots of ideas I can try.