Another "Looking for a Book"

[matthewj]

Hello all, I'm looking for a copy of a book that my late mentor had. Its been at least five or so years since I last looked at this book and I no longer remember the title, author, or even what the cover looked like. The book was sort of a survey of sculptural and artistic metal work, probably 200 to 300 pages. It had lots of nice pictures (black & white, but I remember a lot of color pictures too). It was the work of various people rather than that of one artist. It seems like there was some "how-to" stuff, but mostly pictures. Adam let me borrow a lot of his books over the years (his living room and some hallways in his house had floor to ceiling bookshelves) but he would never let me take this book out of his library. I remember him saying that it was out of print, that was probably around 2003.

 

I can only remember a few sculptural pieces that were in this book, but I'll try to describe them in hopes that they will be enough clues to help me figure out what book it was. 

 

In the first third of the book there were some stylized human figures made out of roughly shaped sheet metal.

I remember some pictures of stuff by Albert Paley.

It seems like there was a section with little box/container like things of various fanciful designs.

 

The thing I remember most was the textured back on a lizard or dragon or something... it was covered with rows off little spines which alternated pointing right/left. There was a diagram or something showing how the spines were made by chiseling columns of lines down the metal, then using a chisel to break each column up into spikes by setting the chisel perpendicular to the column and driving it in diagonaly to lift out each little spike. The spiked were then gently knocked to one side or the other.

 

That section seemed like it also had examples of various sorts of animal/beast heads, with a little bit of technique to make them. 

 

Does this book sound familiar to anyone here?

 

I've searched through the book threads here, but have had no luck since I don't even remember the title I'm looking for. I've searched through a lot of books on Amazon, and a couple look promising but I don't have money to start buying random books in hopes that it is what I am looking for. Is anyone familiar with this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0764312545/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

That is the only one I could find that looked promising.

 

Thanks all,

Matthew

 

[jeremy k]

When I get to my shop I'll look at my copy of "Direct Metal Sculpture" - Sounds like your right on about the book your describing - sounds familiar.

[Frank Turley]

Yes, that book and also, "Decorative and Sculptural Ironwork" both by Dona Z. Meilach.

[jeremy k]

Frank is correct - "Decorative and Sculptural Ironwork" by Dona Z. Meilach. has some Albert Paley stuff in it. Both books are writen by Meilach, Both books are very similar - lots of black and white photos from years ago and also both have color photos of more current works. Both books touch on Sculpture,Utilitarin Objects,Jewelry and processes. Both books are a must have for info reference.

[matthewj]

thanks for the replies, I should be getting both books in the mail soon.