Center of Gravity: A Guide to the Practice of Rock Balancing
Product ID: 28775328
Buy anything from 5,000+ international stores. One checkout price. No surprise fees. Join 2M+ shoppers on Desertcart.
Desertcart purchases this item on your behalf and handles shipping, customs, and support to Kyrgyzstan.
Rock balancing is a growing art form that uses ordinary rocks to create startling ephemeral sculptures. Artist Peter Juhl tells about how he discovered the magic that could be worked with just a few stones, and how like-minded balancers around the world have found one another, forming a generous and cohesive community. Using photos from well-known balance artists, he illustrates a sampling of popular styles and techniques. The rocks are kept in place by shape, weight and friction alone: No glue, metal rods, photo manipulation, or other artificial means are used. A comprehensive Why and How section first explains the physics behind the art, then gives a detailed tutorial that applies those principles with exercises in real-world balancing. Beginning with the most basic skill, and working up to the more challenging, the tutorial uses plenty of diagrams to illustrate the creation of various styles of balance art.For those who want to take their new interest further, a Beyond the Basics section shows how to create more interesting and compelling work, and how to use photography to capture it. A collection of miscellaneous tips and techniques help to make the creation of this fascinating art easier and more fun. Whether you are new to balancing and want to learn from the ground up, or have some experience and seek to broaden your artistic skills, this book gives you a comprehensive guide and reference to the art of rock balancing. Review: Thoughtful, practical, personal, informative - I really enjoyed this book, which describes how one can create art/meditate/commune with nature/seek peace using perhaps the simplest and most plentiful artistic medium available to humans: the lowly, or perhaps exalted, rocks and stones that you can find on a shoreline or in a ditch. I love how the artist/writer uses these simplest of materials to create, and photograph, temporary artwork that is truly captivating. The book recounts how the author became interested in balancing rocks, explains the physics involved in rock balancing, tells how to get started and how to improve one's rock-balancing skills, describes a number of distinct aesthetic approaches people use, and provides tips for capturing one's work photographically. It includes quite a few really interesting pictures showing the work of the author and a number of other rock balancers. The pictures are great - check out the "Look inside" feature to see a few of them. Though this is a thorough and well-organized how-to manual for aspiring rock balancers, this book is more. The author shares his personal voice and made me feel like I was in a thoughtful conversation as much as reading a primer on how to approach an art form. I really did enjoy this as much as any book I've read in recent memory. If you have any curiosity or interest in the topic, this book will be worth your while. Review: Great way to start or further develop your rock balancing - As a life-long rock balancer, and a teacher of balanced rock sculpture for over 7 years, I'm thrilled (and a bit awed) to see such a skillful and comprehensive guide. The "how-to" section for beginners includes a series of "lessons" with carefully considered instructions, elegant diagrams, and suggested materials for learning and exploring an array of basic techniques. The "Beyond the Basics" section delivers on the promise of its title, including a wide array of information extending even to techniques for photography and a discussion of the "illusion of impossibility" elicited by some balanced rock sculptures. The currently active worldwide network of rock balancers are using a wide variety of techniques - well represented in inspiring color photos throughout. I'll be recommending this book to my students, and have purchased a few copies to bring to my public events.
| Best Sellers Rank | #436,242 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #83 in Sculpture Appreciation #170 in Rocks & Minerals |
| Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 102 Reviews |
E**K
Thoughtful, practical, personal, informative
I really enjoyed this book, which describes how one can create art/meditate/commune with nature/seek peace using perhaps the simplest and most plentiful artistic medium available to humans: the lowly, or perhaps exalted, rocks and stones that you can find on a shoreline or in a ditch. I love how the artist/writer uses these simplest of materials to create, and photograph, temporary artwork that is truly captivating. The book recounts how the author became interested in balancing rocks, explains the physics involved in rock balancing, tells how to get started and how to improve one's rock-balancing skills, describes a number of distinct aesthetic approaches people use, and provides tips for capturing one's work photographically. It includes quite a few really interesting pictures showing the work of the author and a number of other rock balancers. The pictures are great - check out the "Look inside" feature to see a few of them. Though this is a thorough and well-organized how-to manual for aspiring rock balancers, this book is more. The author shares his personal voice and made me feel like I was in a thoughtful conversation as much as reading a primer on how to approach an art form. I really did enjoy this as much as any book I've read in recent memory. If you have any curiosity or interest in the topic, this book will be worth your while.
Z**H
Great way to start or further develop your rock balancing
As a life-long rock balancer, and a teacher of balanced rock sculpture for over 7 years, I'm thrilled (and a bit awed) to see such a skillful and comprehensive guide. The "how-to" section for beginners includes a series of "lessons" with carefully considered instructions, elegant diagrams, and suggested materials for learning and exploring an array of basic techniques. The "Beyond the Basics" section delivers on the promise of its title, including a wide array of information extending even to techniques for photography and a discussion of the "illusion of impossibility" elicited by some balanced rock sculptures. The currently active worldwide network of rock balancers are using a wide variety of techniques - well represented in inspiring color photos throughout. I'll be recommending this book to my students, and have purchased a few copies to bring to my public events.
D**S
Perfect book on the subject.
I've been a rock balancer for three years now, and it's very nice to read a book on the subject which is written by someone with lots of good rock balancing experience. Peter really covered the subject thoroughly, with good examples and diagrams and nice photos. He also covers the science of rocks in balance, which I imagine, can really give someone a head start if pursuing rock balancing further. I'm glad there's finally a book on the subject, and it was well written. I'm totally satisfied.
K**E
Easy read
This book was simple to read and easy to understand. I appreciate the author's care in guiding you through the history and basics of rock balancing.
A**7
Wonderful Book
I gave this as a gift to my brother-in-law who loves to stack rocks. He loved the book and is looking forward to trying some of the examples in the book.
E**1
The best guide on rock balancing out there!
A delightful read- very informative and witty too! I've always been entranced by rock balancing, and now that I have a better understanding of this artform, Im more confident and ready to practice on my own. I look forward to reading more from this author,and would highly recommend this title to anyone wanting to start working with rocks in a new way.
N**H
Juhl does a great job of explaining basic concepts
Mr. Juhl does a great job of explaining basic concepts, and he does this in a way that allows one to go from the basics into more complicated balances. He presents concepts in a great order. Rock-Balancing is such a terrific hobby/practice. It will teach you a lot about yourself!
D**L
good :-)
The book is what it is, a good written about the art of balancing rocks. No fancy word porn and so. Are you in to or like to get it to, this can be a good book for the inventory :-)
S**T
Practical and an interesting read.
A well written and useful guide to the art of rock balancing. Shares the method and magic of creating balanced sculptures of rocks.
H**O
Center of Gravity
Ein wunderbares Buch von Peter Juhl über die Kunst der Steinbalance. Die Anleitungen für diejenigen, die selbst einmal die verschiedenen Techniken ausprobieren möchten, sind sehr hilfreich. Die Schilderungen seiner eigenen Erfahrungen beim Bauen der grazilen Kunstwerke, die großartige Fotos und vor allem auch die Tips zum Fotografieren gefallen mir besonders gut. Leider gibt es das Buch bisher nur auf Englisch, aber vielleicht findet sich ja einmal ein Übersetzer ins Deutsche.
T**S
My dad loved it!
Within hours he was balancing his own rocks, I think it really helped him in a meditative way.
A**R
Four Stars
A different present.
N**M
If you like to balance rocks and life this is the book for you
a wonderful guide on how to learn and improve on a unique art form that captures the imagination
Trustpilot
2 days ago
1 day ago