Review Thursday: Fiber Gathering

Fiber Gathering by Joanne Seiff is a celebration of the fiber arts. Rather than simply offering patterns for knitting or crocheting, Seiff introduces the reader to fiber festivals around the country. Traveling coast to coast from Maryland Sheep and Wool, one of the oldest and largest in the country, to the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene Oregon, the reader gets a picture of the vibrant culture of the fiber community. Each festival has its own character where Seiff met “warm, kind people who rushed to embrace this idea of festival as much more than just buying and selling.”(xi) She made me want to pack my bags and spend a year going from festival to festival. If you can’t do that, she tells you how to build your own.

This book is not just a travelogue. Each festival provides inspiration with patterns to try or instructions to follow. Seiff has included a wide range of fiber activities for you to try. For example, have you ever wanted to paint your own yarn? Detailed instructions are here. Or, what on earth do people do with the fleece as it comes off the sheep? This book will show you. Knitting, crocheting and rug hooking are not forgotten either. So, whether you are just curious about the fiber arts or if you are an experienced artist, there is something in this book for you.

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters

Welcome to the first digital collection review of 2010. "Vincent van Gogh: The Letters," sponsored by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, includes a total of 902 digitized and translated letters, both to and from van Gogh. Most of the correspondence is between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo. The letters show that van Gogh painted with words as well as he painted pictures. His vivid and lyrical descriptions of people, places, and even the weather, give us insight into his inner life, his art, his relationships, and the places where he lived and painted.

The database is free and very easy to use, despite its large volume of material that includes digitized versions of the original letters, translations into English, annotations, and bibliographical sources. The letters are searchable and browsable by time period, correspondent, or place. Browsing can also be limited to the letters that have sketches. Advanced searching allows the viewer to limit by source, including any combination of the original letters, the English translations, the annotations, and the bibliographical references. Hyperlinks within the letters provide easy access to cross-referenced terms. Clicking on a hyperlinked word or phrase in a letter brings up a list of additional letters that include that term.

This collection is a fantastic resource for anyone with an interest in van Gogh, from high school students to adults. For patrons looking for additional resources, the Van Gogh Museum maintains both a blog "written by" van Gogh that draws on the museum's materials, and an iPhone application called "Yours, Vincent" that provides access to van Gogh's letters on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

I have a customer who has asked me for information on the value of a painting. Are there sources out there that can help me find the value of a paint

Ideally the customer will have the name of the artist that did the painting. Sometimes customers cannot find a name on the painting and this makes the research process difficult. You may want to try checking various signature and monogram books. It is also important to differentiate between a painting, print, etching etc. In all instances we provide a discretionary caution that we cannot give appraisals, but we have resources for research.

Searching for work by the artist that has recently sold at auction will help determine a relative value for the work. Some suggested books and Web sites include:

Davenport’s Art Reference and Price Guide - Price listings of works of art that have sold at auction houses in America and Europe.

Gordon’s Print Price Annual - Fine art prints.

Artnet Auctions

AskArt - American Artists

You may also want to recommend that the customer contact an appraiser. In all cases, it assumed that these professionals will impose a service fee.

How to Find an Appraiser Fine Arts and Music Show-me guide, requires flash

American Society of Appraisers

Essential Resources and Other Sources: Fine Arts and Recreation

The Fine Arts and Recreation Department of the State Library Resource Center covers such subjects as art, music, architecture, dance, antiques, and sports.

Essential Resources

The Dictionary of Architecture and Construction offers comprehensive coverage of architectural and construction terms, with nearly 25,000 definitions and 2,500 illustrations.

Grove’s Dictionary of Art is a 34 volume encyclopedic reference set covering all aspects of art, including history, techniques, places, artist biographies and more.

Janson’s History of Art is considered one of the definitive reference sources on Western art, this book is arranged chronologically from ancient times to postmodernism, and includes a helpful glossary.

Maloney’s Antiques and Collectibles Resource Directory is a first source subject guide to identify collectors, dealers, experts, businesses and publications that assist in the location, authentication, replacement, repair, and valuation when and buying and selling antiques and collectibles.

The ESPN Pro Football Encyclopedia includes statistics, standings, and historical information on the history, growth and game of professional football.

ESPN Sports Almanac offers an in-depth look at the previous year in sports, updated annually.

Hoyle's Rules of Games contains rules and advice on how to play many different card games and board games.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is, despite its name, a hugely comprehensive encyclopedia that informative entries about music, musical terms, composers and performers.

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music covers popular music from 1900 to today with entries about everything from Broadway musicals to heavy metal music.

The Harvard Dictionary of Music is great for shorter, easy to understand explanations of musical terms.

Other Sources

Kovels’ Antiques and Collectibles Price List offers an alphabetically arranged price guide for collectors, with historical backgrounds of the items included.

Warman’s Antiques and Collectibles Price Guide is an illustrated, large-format guide that also refers readers to pertinent publications, museums, collectors, clubs and auction houses.

The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms is a concise dictionary containing over 2,000 entries on the subjects of painting and sculpture, architecture and photography, as well as the decorative, applied, and graphic arts.

The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques is an excellent resource for detailed information related to the technical side of painting, including descriptions of pigments, different paint media, a pigment catalog, and an extensive index.

Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport is a four volume set that covers the histories of world sport, as well as issues that affect and have affected the history of sports around the world.

International Encyclopedia of Dance set covers all forms of dance as well as biographical information about its most well known practitioners in a six volumes.

Martial Arts of the World contains a wealth of information on many forms of martial arts from around the world.

The Great Song Thesaurus includes information for over 11,000 popular songs from the 16th century to the 1980’s.

The Popular Song Index, now on it’s fourth supplement, is one of the best sources out there for finding sheet music.

This Business of Music is considered the standard text on music business, with information about recording contracts, copyright, performance rights and much more.