"Since the beginning of trade between East and West, discerning Europeans and Americans have looked to the Orient as a source of exotic and beautiful objects, materials, textures, and colors. A wide diversity of Oriental artifacts, motifs, and color schemes has enriched the vocabulary of Western design. Now, the increasing accessibility of many of the countries of Asia has opened up an even greater range of objects and designs that can be used as...

A guide to using special effects to enhance digital photographs that explains how to use the latest software, filters, and image-editing techniques to create different images.

"The Shakers were nineteenth-century America's largest and best known communal utopian society. By 1840, nearly 6,000 celibate Brothers and Sisters lived and worked in 18 communities from Maine to Kentucky. The Shakers were famous for their unusual way of life, for the excellence and simplicity of their work, and for the dance worship that gave them their name. For more than 200 years the Shakers pursued their unique way of life, based on principles...