Simon Leach's pottery handbook

Simon Leach

Book - 2013

"Ceramics education is something that is typically taught in a classroom studio, where a teacher first explains a series of intricate and subtle movements, and then demonstrates them for the students. The student then sits down at a potter's wheel and attempts to replicate the techniques, but often with less than perfect results. To help both beginner and more advanced potters overcome some of the most common frustrations, Simon Leach has picked up where most classes fall short, creating more than 800 homemade videos available on YouTube that clearly demonstrate core techniques. Lively, informative, and full of original tips and techniques, Simon's videos have lit the ceramics world on fire, becoming a must-see supplement to ...most potters' educations. But therein lies the hitch--most potters don't want to take a laptop into a ceramics studio, so they must watch the video before or after class and hope to remember the tip as they work. Simon Leach's Pottery Handbook is meant to overcome this obstacle, encapsulating all of Simon's basic techniques in one easy-to-carry book, from studio design and set-up to basic throwing techniques, to adding appendages, trimming, glazing and firing. Simon Leach's Pottery Handbook is perfectly suited for the studio, as it is portable, and the concealed wire-o binding will help the book lay flat and stand up. For each technique, detailed step-by-step photography captures the subtle, intricate movements that typically fly by too fast to be noticed in a video. Plus the book includes a DVD with many of Simon's YouTube videos; callouts throughout the book tell readers which video goes with each section, so they can both read and examine the technique in the book, and also watch the technique in real-time"--

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Subjects
Published
New York : STC Craft/A Melanie Falick Book 2013.
Language
English
Main Author
Simon Leach (author)
Other Authors
Bruce Dehnert (author), Jared Flood (photographer)
Physical Description
239 pages : color illustrations ; 25 cm + 2 DVDs (4 3/4 in)
2 DVDs
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (page 234) , filmography (page 235) , and index.
ISBN
9781617690228
  • Introduction
  • Getting started
  • Down to the wheel
  • Trimming
  • Assembling
  • Decorating and glazing
  • Firing
  • Appendix.
Review by Booklist Review

Third-generation potter Leach, with technical and photographic assistance from Bruce Dehnert and Jared Flood, capitalizes on his celebrity with an amazingly detailed, step-by-step text for all major processes in ceramics. The in-depth perspective starts with his directions for making simple tools (a wire tool and a sponge stick) and is bolstered by charts and information-packed sidebars (e.g., for removing air bubbles and troubleshooting your first pull). Every topic that novices must master is covered, such as working basic shapes (cylinder and variations dishes) trimming, decorating and glazing, and firing. Color photographs illustrating the techniques are small but suffice.--Jacobs, Barbara Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

After eschewing the family craft for an engineering apprenticeship, events led Leach back to his kin's near-century-old relationship with the kiln. In 2007, he began posting videos of conversations about pottery on YouTube. Over 800 postings later, he has produced a definitive guide for every step of pottery making, from styling small tools to building one's own kiln. The beginner would likely be overwhelmed at the directions for use of kick vs. electric vs. treadle wheels, or the act of digging one's own clay from random rural samples. Those novices can consider this an inclusive dive into a not-so-exclusive club, where some members make their aunt a birthday bowl, and others ponder the ins and outs of decorating and glazing, cylinder variations, and pyrometric cone charts. A four-hour-long DVD completes the package. (May 7) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved