Everything you need to know about entering the exciting and lucrative field of Natural Stone Engraving. Using the sandblasting method, Randi Hodges walks you through everything you need to know about the art and the markets for Natural Stone Engraving.

As the name indicates, 75 Ways to Happiness is an invaluable collection of 75 value-based stories written and compiled by the well-known author, J.M. Mehta. Each story begins with a line of wisdom expressing the crux of the story and teaching a simple, but important value of life which should be imbibed by one and all to remain happy and become successful.It is a fact that in our busy lifestyle of today, we rarely get the time to understand the singificance of values which form the basis of our lives and help us to remain happy. The value-based stories given in the book basically aim to carve out this happiness and teach us the ways to lead a happy life. There is also a box at the end of each story named "e;Something Extra"e;. This is where the author has emphasised the deep, inner meaning hidden within the story highlighting the moral value associated with it to stay happy and contented in life.Therefore dear readers, go through these 75 invaluable collection of stories and enlighten your mind and soul. #v&spublishers

On Diary is the second collection in English of the groundbreaking and profoundly influential work of one of the best-known and provocative theorists of autobiography and diary. Ranging from the diary’s historical origins to its pervasive presence on the Internet, from the spiritual journey of the sixteenth century to the diary of Anne Frank, and from the materials and methods of diary writing to the question of how diaries end, these essays display Philippe Lejeune’s expertise, eloquence, passion, and humor as a commentator on the functions, practices, and significance of keeping or reading a diary. Lejeune is a leading European critic and theorist of diary and autobiography. His landmark essay, "The Autobiographical Pact," has shaped life writing studies for more than thirty years, and his many books and essays have repeatedly opened up new vistas for scholarship. As Michael Riffaterre notes, "Lejeune’s work on autobiography is the most original, powerful, effective approach to a difficult subject. . . . His style is very personal, lively. It grabs the reader as scholarship rarely does. Lejeune’s erudition and methodology are impeccable." Two substantial introductory essays by Jeremy Popkin and Julie Rak place Lejeune’s work within its critical and theoretical traditions and comment on his central importance within the fields of life writing, literary genetic studies, and cultural studies.

By the second quarter of the nineteenth century both stipple engraving and aquatint, regarded by Fielding as an art 'invented for the torment of man', were no longer widely used by publishers for large-scale reproductive engravings. Line engraving with its 'beautiful but more or less mechanical arrangement of lines' was also losing ground to the freer style attainable through lithography. The manufactured demand for the 'beautiful productions of our best engravers' through literary annuals 'flung with a prodigal hand before the public, at a price for which they should never have been sold, and which only an excessive sale could render profitable', had outpaced both the supply of engravers and the speed with which such fine plates could be executed. It was therefore to an adaptation of the tonal characteristics offered by the eighteenth century mezzotint that artists such as Fielding turned, to offer a speedier means of producing the softer tonal qualities demanded by the lastest taste. Written in the midst of this period of technical experimentation Fielding's manual is particularly important in detailing the engraver's response to new commercial pressures."The first book to have a chapter solely devoted to all aspects of photography" (Quayle). Particular reference is made to J.N. Niepce, who took the first photograph in 1826, but whose achievement was not made public until 1841, and there is also a section on Daguerre. "...contains information on what were then the most up-to-date matters, including lithography and electrography. Fielding quotes Partington extensively, almost verbatim in parts, describing his source as a "celebrated work on engraving", but he commences with a highly critical view of steel engraving and its evils, having very little to say in its favour. [Fieldings book] was used extensively a year or two later by W.L. Maberley, who published The Print Collector in 1844." from Hunnisett p34. see also Dyson, Pictures to Print p.118 for good reference to this work. See also Printmaking and Picture Printing A28 for details on the plates.