Handmade

A Scientist’s Search for Meaning through Making

Anna Ploszajski

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Paperback

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English

Bloomsbury Sigma
01 August 2023

Material culture; Popular science; Materials science; Handicrafts, decorative arts & crafts

A fresh and entertaining perspective on materials science involving the

craftspeople who have built their careers around working with

materials such as clay, stone, steel and wool.

From atomic structures to theories about magnetic forces, scientific progress has given us a good grasp on the properties of many different materials. However, most scientists cannot measure the temperature of steel just by looking at it, or sculpt stone into all kinds of shapes, or know how it feels to blow up a balloon of glass. Handmade is the story of materials through making and doing. Author and material scientist Anna Ploszajski journeys into the domain of makers and craftspeople to comprehend how the most popular materials really work.

Anna has the fresh perspective of someone at the forefront of the field. Each chapter features her accounts of learning from masters of their respective crafts. Along the way, Anna builds a fuller picture of materials and their place in society, as well as how they have intersected with her own life experiences – from land racing on American salt flats to swimming the English Channel. She visits a

blacksmith, explores how working with the primal material, clay, has brought about some of the most advanced technologies, and delves down to the atomic scale of glass to find out what makes it ‘glassy’. Handmade affords us a new understanding of the materials we encounter every day and an appreciation for the skills needed to fashion them into objects that are perfectly formed for the jobs they do.

By: Anna Ploszajski
Imprint: Bloomsbury Sigma
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm,
ISBN: 9781472971081
ISBN 10: 1472971086
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 01 August 2023
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Prologue Glass Plastic Steel Brass Clay Sugar Wool Wood Paper Stone Epilogue Acknowledgements Index

Anna Ploszajski is an award-winning materials scientist, writer and storyteller. She’s a materials generalist, equally fascinated by metals, plastics, ceramics, glasses and substances from the natural world. A patent holder by the age of 22, Anna has packed a lot into a short space of time – her career has seen her work in labs at NASA in Florida, attempt to break a land-speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and power Glastonbury Festival using hydrogen. Anna also works as a freelance science communicator, regularly performing live science shows to audiences across the UK and internationally. As a stand-up comedian, Anna brings materials science to life at venues ranging from the local pub to the Edinburgh Fringe, and is on a mission to train scientists and engineers in storytelling skills. A frequent presenter on radio and TV, Anna is the host of her own podcast about materials and making (also called Handmade).

Reviews for Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning through Making

By meeting with makers and playing with materials, Anna creates a beautiful picture of what these substances really feel like and what they are capable of. This book will make all your senses tingle. * Roma Agrawal, structural engineer and author * This book is a wonderful journey through the art and science of materials… beautifully crafted and very personal. Highly recommended to anyone who loves ‘stuff’ and is curious enough to want to delve into its inner secrets. * Mark Miodownik, scientist, broadcaster and founder of the Materials Library * Brimming with curiosity and humanity, I devoured this book. An extraordinary account of a life through materials; I’ll never look at a mini roll in the same way again. * Andrew Smyth, Aerospace engineer and baker * With wide-eyed wonder and a sense of humor, she examines the techniques behind the making of brass, paper, plastic, pottery, steel, and sugar, among other goods, and shares her attempts to produce them herself … Ploszajski is a talented science communicator, using analogies to illuminate the molecular world … and the zany accounts of her fieldwork are lots of fun. This pop science adventure delights. * Publishers Weekly * Captivating… Anna brings materials to life, and shines a light on the people who work with them everyday. * Professor Lucy Rogers, The Guild of Makers *