Customer Reviews

Materials & Techniques in the Decorative Arts: An Illustrated Dictionary

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Over a thousand entries in this illustrated dictionary provide extensive descriptions and details for glass, ceramics, textiles, paint and other media; all designed to enhance a technical understanding of decorative arts materials. Having all this reference material under one cover eliminates the needs for numerous titles covering the basics and makes it easy to cross-reference materials or techniques in the field as a whole. Highly recommended for art library collections.

This book is a must-have students in the Decorative Arts and museum professionals. It provides succinct and clear definitions to any and all materials and techniques. Unlike so much information today, lots of decorative arts vocabulary is not well-defined on the internet so it can be frustrating to come to a word and not have a ready means of defining it. Having now used the book for reference for a semester, I have yet to find a definition that it does not contain. It is especially thorough for ceramics and textiles.

I only wish that there could be more illustrations. Of course, it is not possible that every entry be illustrated but photos or drawings for some of the definitions would be very helpful. For example, "patchwork" is defined as "a group of embroidery techniques that employ pieces of fabric cut out and shaped in such a way that, when sewn together, they form a complete, and usually regularly patterned, flat cloth." It may be difficult for someone to visualize "patchwork" with such a definition without a visual aid. It is still a wonderful reference though.

This book is especially helpful when paired with The Penguin Dictionary of Decorative Arts by John Fleming