Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up is less a celebrity memoir and more an exercise in the poetics of performance. Written with the same economy and precise timing that made Martin one of the most influential stand-up artists of the late twentieth century, the book maps the career of a man who used absence and restraint … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting by Andrew Martin
Andrew Martin’s The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting stakes a clear claim to usefulness: it is a book written by a practitioner for practitioners, and it reads that way—methodical, economy-minded, and exquisitely practical. But what elevates this manual beyond a mere how-to compendium is the way the author balances procedural exactitude with … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – The Essential Guide to Mold Making & Slip Casting by Andrew Martin
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Metal Vessels: Contemporary Explorations of Containment, Edited by Marthe Le Van
Marthe Le Van’s 500 Metal Vessels arrives like a compact anthology of the everyday and the ceremonial — a taxonomy of containment that doubles as a meditation on form, function and the material imagination. If a vessel’s primary job is to hold, this book insists that holding is never neutral: it is a cultural act, … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Metal Vessels: Contemporary Explorations of Containment, Edited by Marthe Le Van
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Knives: Celebrating Traditional & Innovative Designs, Edited by Marthe Le van
Marthe Le Van’s 500 Knives is at once a catalogue of craft and a meditation on form. Like other volumes in the “500” series, it trusts the visual authority of objects to make an argument: that knives—tools born of necessity—have been consistently shaped by cultural priorities, technological change, and aesthetic impulse. The book’s pleasures are … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Knives: Celebrating Traditional & Innovative Designs, Edited by Marthe Le van
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Enamelled Objects: A Celebration of Color on Metal Edited by Marthe Le Van
Marthe Le Van’s 500 Enamelled Objects is an exercise in visual generosity: a catalogue raisonné of the enamelled surface presented less as dry typology and more as a sustained love letter to colour, light, and the tiny, deliberate acts of making that turn metal and glass into something incandescent. The book’s premise is simple and … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – 500 Enamelled Objects: A Celebration of Color on Metal Edited by Marthe Le Van
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection by Nobuo Suzuki
An Elegy to Transience: The Poetics of Wabi-Sabi in Contemporary Life Nobuo Suzuki’s Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection offers a contemplative and deeply felt meditation on the Japanese aesthetic philosophy of wabi-sabi—a worldview that finds beauty in imperfection, transience, and the unfinished. More than a cultural or artistic study, Suzuki’s work is a philosophical reflection, a poetic … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Review – Wabi Sabi: The Wisdom in Imperfection by Nobuo Suzuki
Weekend Book Reviews: Simple Homes: Calm Spaces for Comfortable Living by Mark Bailey
In Simple Homes: Calm Spaces for Comfortable Living, Mark Bailey delivers a work that transcends the conventional realm of interior design, offering an exploration of domesticity that is as philosophical as it is practical. Bailey’s vision is anchored in simplicity, and he champions an ethos of “less is more,” urging us to reconsider the complexity of … Continue reading Weekend Book Reviews: Simple Homes: Calm Spaces for Comfortable Living by Mark Bailey
The Adaptable Educator’s Book Reviews – Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
In Show Your Work!, Austin Kleon delivers a manifesto for the modern creative, advocating for openness, transparency, and generosity in the creative process. With its concise prose, visual flair, and actionable advice, this book becomes more than just a guide—it is a cultural critique of the solitary artist myth, updated for the age of social media. … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Book Reviews – Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
The Adaptable Educator’s Daily Book Review – Steal Like An Artists by Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist is a manifesto of creative liberation, packaged in a succinct, visually engaging, and refreshingly unpretentious format. This little black book, with its bold typography and sketches, may deceive at first glance—appearing to be a trendy coffee-table accessory—but beneath its simplicity lies a profound guide for anyone yearning to unlock their creative … Continue reading The Adaptable Educator’s Daily Book Review – Steal Like An Artists by Austin Kleon
Weekend Book Reviews: The Art of Handbuilt Ceramics by Susan Bruce
Susan Bruce’s The Art of Handbuilt Ceramics presents a richly detailed exploration of the timeless craft of hand-building ceramic art, blending technical precision with a celebration of artistic individuality. Through a careful and considered approach, Bruce offers not just a guide to the techniques and materials needed for hand-built ceramics, but a thoughtful meditation on the philosophy … Continue reading Weekend Book Reviews: The Art of Handbuilt Ceramics by Susan Bruce
The New Renaissance Mindset 