Photographer Poul Beckmann's first collection of larger-than-life beetles was hailed across the globe. The Houston Chronicle called it "one of the season's happiest marriages of science and art." The Wall Street Journal declared it an "original and beautiful book," while American Photo praised its "dazzling colour and sumptuous production values." Now Beckmann has compiled an entirely new collection of gorgeous beetles that are ready for their close-up. Magnified multiple times their normal size and photographed in rich colour, their true magnificence is revealed: page after page of luminescent golds, electrifying greens, fiery reds, and unearthly blues. There are beetles with leopard spots and zebra stripes, beetles shaped like rhinos and dragons, beetles with long horns and shining armour. While Beckmann's images represent the finest examples of nature photography, the presentation of his subjects takes these pictures to another level. Graphic designers, painters, architects, fashionistas, and entomologists will be amazed and inspired by the natural beauty of these tiny jewels.

Beautiful jewelry made from natural materials fill the pages of this sumptuous book. Organized by material--pearls, shells, coral, horn, wood, and much more--with an emphasis on important motifs of the jeweler's art, the book features more than 300 brooches, necklaces, rings, earrings, and bracelets from the collections of the Duchess of Windsor, Diana Vreeland, Elizabeth Taylor, Princess Grace of Monaco, and Ellen Barkin, as well as from the design archives of Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Verdura, Bulgari, Tiffany, and many other important jewelry designers. Every major period of jewelry of the past 200 years is covered--Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Retro, and Contemporary. Many of the objects appear here for the first time. The chapters include a variety of entertaining profiles on subjects such as David Webb; the changing fashions of the 1960s and 70s; Chanel; Orchids and Art Nouveau; the Grand Tour; Cartier and Art Deco; Ivory and the Nude; the Baroda pearls (the most expensive pearls to sell at auction); Paul Poiret; Boivin; A Mania for Motifs; JAR; Andrew Grima; and the Duchess of Windsor ("Small Woman, Big Stones"). Helpful sidebars cover various types of wood, famous pearls, and a lexicon of imaginary beasts in jewelry. "For those of us who consider jewelry part of enduring style, Living Jewels is a must. Here's a book that is welcoming and inspiring, and a tribute to the artists who have made these exquisite pieces. Living Jewels is a book I'll treasure." ~ Kate Spade "Living Jewels sends a message, loud and clear: there's more to fine jewelry than gemstones. A lot more, as it turns out. Ruth Peltason has assembled two centuries' worth of spectacular examples, showcasing materials and techniques long considered peripheral or inferior to the big rocks that have dominated the category and its history. The result makes an expert, irrefutable case for coral, wood, pearls, amber, shell, horn, and any number of nature's other sublime inventions as inspiration for exquisite artistry and design. As stylish, witty, and glamorous as the treasures it celebrates, Living Jewels is destined to become an instant, indispensable reference for connoisseurs and an irresistible delight for any woman who loves jewelry and wears it." ~ Holly Brubach

In Japan, breeding koi--a colorful and beautiful member of the carp family--has occupied a position between hobby and art form for more than two centuries. This stunningly illustrated book, compiled by a team of koi experts, shows and tells aquarium enthusiasts virtually everything they need to know about this fascinating activity. Koi are hardy fish, relatively large in size, and the most practical way to keep them is in an outdoor pond. Combining text with illustrations, an important section of the book explains the requirements of a garden pond for koi, showing the filtration system and pointing out how it functions. Most of the book concentrates on koi themselves, focusing on a brief history of koi, advice on buying koi, the fish's physiology, health care, feeding, breeding koi, showing koi, and joining koi clubs. An 80-page section tells all about koi variations, and features color photos of more than 100 varieties. Illustrated two-page spreads review each variety's history, and show both their more desirable and less desirable color markings. Here is a beautifully designed and illustrated volume that emphasizes the special satisfactions of keeping and breeding koi. Approximately 450 color photos and illustrations.

Inspired by memories of her beloved grandmother, photographer and author Alysia Burton Steele -- picture editor on a Pulitzer Prize-winning team -- combines heart-wrenching narrative with poignant photographs of more than 50 female church elders in the Mississippi Delta. These ordinary women lived extraordinary lives under the harshest conditions of the Jim Crow era and during the courageous changes of the Civil Rights Movement. With the help of local pastors, Steele recorded these living witnesses to history and folk ways, and shares the significance of being a Black woman -- child, daughter, sister, wife, mother, and grandmother in Mississippi -- a Jewel of the Delta. From the stand Mrs. Tennie Self took for her marriage to be acknowledged in the phone book, to the life-threatening sacrifice required to vote for the first time, these 50 inspiring portraits are the faces of love and triumph that will teach readers faith and courage in difficult times.

“Jewel is a truth-teller…this is a book that lingers in your heart.” – Brené Brown *The New York Times bestseller* New York Times bestselling poet and multi-platinum singer-songwriter Jewel explores her unconventional upbringing and extraordinary life in an inspirational memoir that covers her childhood to fame, marriage, and motherhood. When Jewel’s first album, Pieces of You, topped the charts in 1995, her emotional voice and vulnerable performance were groundbreaking. Drawing comparisons to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, a singer-songwriter of her kind had not emerged in decades. Now, with more than thirty million albums sold worldwide, Jewel tells the story of her life, and the lessons learned from her experience and her music. Living on a homestead in Alaska, Jewel learned to yodel at age five, and joined her parents’ entertainment act, working in hotels, honky-tonks, and biker bars. Behind a strong-willed family life with an emphasis on music and artistic talent, however, there was also instability, abuse, and trauma. At age fifteen, she moved out and tasked herself with a mission: to see if she could avoid being the kind of statistic that her past indicated for her future. Soon after, she was accepted to the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and there she began writing her own songs as a means of expressing herself and documenting her journey to find happiness. Jewel was eighteen and homeless in San Diego when a radio DJ aired a bootleg version of one of her songs and it was requested into the top-ten countdown, something unheard-of for an unsigned artist. By the time she was twenty-one, her debut had gone multiplatinum. There is much more to Jewel’s story, though, one complicated by family legacies, by crippling fear and insecurity, and by the extraordinary circumstances in which she managed to flourish and find happiness despite these obstacles. Along her road of self-discovery, learning to redirect her fate, Jewel has become an iconic singer and songwriter. In Never Broken she reflects on how she survived, and how writing songs, poetry, and prose has saved her life many times over. She writes lyrically about the natural wonders of Alaska, about pain and loss, about the healing power of motherhood, and about discovering her own identity years after the entire world had discovered the beauty of her songs.

Introduction to microscopic plants, diatoms, that live all over the world from the seas of Antarctica to the soil in your backyard. These small, one-celled plants are in a group called algae. One of the most special parts of a diatom is its skin; it is not soft but made of glass! Diatoms use energy from the sun to create food through the photosynthesis process. The food looks like small drops of oil. Diatoms are very important to life here on earth because they are the beginning of the food chain; diatoms create the food, insects eat diatoms, fish eat insects, people eat fish! They could be a source of fuel and solar energy in the future.