Customer Reviews

The Materials and Methods of Sculpture (Dover Art Instruction)

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This is a very good technical reference manual on the various types of sculpture mediums (including earth-clays, plastic, plaster of paris, casting, metal, stone, wood, and others). It goes into very specific detail on the metalurgic, chemical, and physical composition of the various mediums. I am just learning about sculpture but since I have a chemistry/engineering background I found the book very informative. This book will probably be difficult for those without a true passion to learn this much technical detail or without some solid science coursework.

While I am not qualified to pass judgement on sculpture as far as methods of actually creating works of art,as a art foundry owner,I have reasonable background in usage of diferent materials connected with sculpture. I found this book to be of rather limited use to anyone seeking information on materials in use today. Almost all refererences are very dated and may be considered useful if a study of yesteryear's practices are intended.It appears to me,that information on various metals and their processing in particullar is more or less imprecise and in some cases wrong altogethrer-for example:to aneal common aluminium alloy to "pink" heat means going past melting point!To sum up,if you intend to learn current practices, go elsewhere.

I have over 45 years of sculpture background. Since I don't work in a traditional manner - ie start with a chunk of stone so on I most often create my own methods. My sculptures start with a "energy" line and how to put that into 3d space was the problem. One must first learn of the chemistry of materials (I have a background in biology/chemistry as well)and this book I found is an excellent book to learn of past methods many of which can be used now... and safely (it not as toxic as say fiber glass or epoxy's - resins).

I have found that in any area - learning past information can be of great assistance... (50 years of raising fish and designing sculptural aquariums - it amazes me that the young thing many of what goes on now is "new" - if they knew the history of this area they'd realize it is not... My older Dr. Innes book from 1930's has it all there as another example).

So I cherish older out of print books for their education in past methods - and this one certainly qualifies.

I did almost one years worth of research from this book and others found at the library in NYC. From artists long gone... much was not recorded and one had to look at the historical data. I did research for example on plaster (one of many many areas).... one can add wheat paste to slow down (by days often) drying time. (this in the book on the section on plaster) Whether used as a break away mold, or building a mock up or even final product this is valuable to know). Example: *artist long passed, created patina's over plaster casts of horses so on when he was starting out (ie broke)... looks like modern methods in metal casting but until he gained a paying audience these beautiful forms were created in hardened plaster and imitation metallic patina's). *Artist - Marino Marini.

Now after a building fire and resulting chemical injury I am nor wish to work with modern products such as epoxies (fiber glass techniques) and other petro products.

I was able to actually fulfill long thought impossible sculptures drawing on this earlier research with no toxic products. This book and the historical data assisted greatly in that.

As in all science, current ideas are based on the past...this book provides an excellent amount of information for those wishing to learn of properties of what then was common sculpture materials - many of which can still be utilized or combined with the more modern ones.

It is a detailed book that gives an overview of different mediums of sculpting. Helpful facts on procedure and properties of the different raw materials used in the processes.

This is one of the few books I have bought on materials for sculpture, and am very pleased with it's description of traditional materials. I personally lean towards the use of more traditional materials (I abhor fiberglass), so I don't miss any technological updates on plastics and such. There's a lot of solid useful variety of information in this book, and recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning about traditional techniques and methods.