May 14, 2004

Support your local glass-related virtual bookstore.

Most people in the business know of this bookstore, but here it is anyway -

The best resource for used and out of print stained glass related books is Whitehouse Books in Corning NY. Corning is, of course, a glass company town so the selection has even more glass books than stained glass books. They don't have everything but they have more than any other single resource.

and if you must (as I have mixed feelings about the idea of supporting a megalithic online bookstore), I have had good luck with searching for used books through Amazon. Recently, I got a copy of Narcissus Quagliata's From Mind to Light for $12, including shipping!

Posted by Tom at 11:26 AM

May 07, 2004

Looking at Design Blogs 1

Every so often, I look for other design/art/craft blogs. Just to see what is being done in the creativity-oriented "blogosphere". The most interesting blogs are the 'design' blogs. Perhaps because 'design' people are more computer and web savvy. More than 'artists' and certainly more than 'craftspeople'.

Here's a sample of a few design blogs I encountered one day last week -
The session started after I realized this - if there is any group that would lend itself to blogging, it must be the curiously obsessive world of typographers. Thus, after a Google search, I found Typographicom. Only on a site like this can you link to things like this, where the worlds of Shakespeare, typography and bed linen can harmonically converge.
It also linked to Foreword: a book design blog, a very nice blog linking to many other sites related to book design. The tone is a bit chatty for my taste, but I like the focus being just on book design. I especially like to read about and see examples of book cover design. I've never been able to pin down the 'why', but I have always been drawn to this as having some kind of a parallel to designing stained glass windows.
This site then led to Social Design Notes, with very good concise descriptions of design issues in the everyday world, with a social and political bent. Well thought out.
And then there is one site just for the fun of it...
I have yet to come across any other quirky idiosyncratic design blog related to stained glass. I shouldn't be too surprised. I'm still getting the "What's a blog?" response when telling colleagues about what I'm doing here.

Posted by Tom at 07:30 AM