Christmas money!
Yup. I still get a check in the Christmas card from my folks, and one from Mr. ShellHawk's dad. I am so lucky!


One of the newer ones I've wanted was In the Potter's Kitchen, by Sumi von Dassow. I've been curious about making things for the kitchen, and this recent release looked like a good place to start.

Since I, like many others, am enamoured of Japanese (and Asian)ceramics, picking up a copy of Inside Japanese Ceramics: Primer of Materials, Techniques and Traditions, was a no-brainer. The simplicity and beauty of those old ceramics just sucks me in, and I can't wait to start this book!
Among the other technical books: Chinese Glazes: Their Origins, Chemistry and Recreation and Simon Leach's Pottery Handbook.

I re-purchased my copy of The Gilded Vessel: The Lustrous Art and Life of Beatrice Wood, which had been gnawed on by my tiny little puppy, Sam (now 3 1/2 and 86 pounds small...), when he was a pup. I'd never heard of Lucy Rie before I ran across a reference to her in Ceramic Arts Monthly magazine, so I thought I'd get a biography on her. Lucy Rie: Modernist Potter is on the way! And since I already purchased a book by him, I thought I'd pick up a book about him: The Last Sane Man: Michael Cardew: Modern Pots, Colonialism, and the Counterculture.
Lastly, I got one book on the value of crafting by hand: The Craftsman, by Richard Sennett, and one book completely outside my usual field: Animation From Pencils to Pixels: Classical Techniques for the Digital Animator, by Tony White.
All these in addition to the business building books I got to learn how to run the ShellHawk's Creations Etsy store better and more effectively!
Yes, it's a tremendous amount of reading material, but if you only read ten pages a day, every day, that's roughly a book to a book-and-a-half a month! That's a bunch of new knowledge every year, isn't it?
And really, learning new things has always been one of the strongest drives in my life. Since I am not a college graduate, and going back to college would mean a couple of years' worth of remedial-level algebra (because I am not math girl, and I can't even remember basic algebra) to get through my AA degree, I need to expand my knowledge in other ways. So, this works!
I can't wait to dig in! Now, where to start...
Ah yes, I'm no stranger to the glory that is books bought with Xmas moola. This year I got myself "Too Much Horror Business" by Kirk Hammet, "Phantom" by Susan Kay, "Lords of the Left-Hand Path" by Dr. Stephen Flowers, and "Enter if you Dare! Tales from the Haunted Mansion" by Nicholas Stephens. All very good reads. Happy reading!
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