Making Metal Jewelry: Projects, Techniques, Inspiration

• Wrap, Stitch, Fold & Rivet: Making Designer Metal Jewelry (Lark Jewelry Book)
• The Jeweler's Studio Handbook: Traditional and Contemporary Techniques for Working with Metal and Mixed Media Materials
• The Complete Jewelry Making Course: Principles, Practice and Techniques: A Beginner's Course for Aspiring Jewelry Makers
• Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing (Jewelry Crafts)
• The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry: A Complete Guide to Essential Techniques (Lark Jewelry Book)

I have not had a chance to try anything yet, but I was impressed with how well it explained the different procedures for everything. So, I feel confident that this book will become one of my favorites. The closeup pictures will be most helpful when I begin to work on some of the projects.

This material is well explained and photographed, so that the novice is in good hands. It is a fine addition to my bookshelf. What's more, a nice variety of mataerials and techniques are presented.

There's also a section on patinas.The rest of the book (about sixty-five pages) provides a series of really interesting projects that use the techniques presented earlier. The photos that accompany each topic are excellent and really give you a good idea of what you should be doing and how it should look. Projects include earrings, rings, brooches, bracelets, and a couple of necklaces.The book concludes with a picture gallery of interesting pieces by a variety of artists.I like the author's approach - the text is clear and concise - easy to read and to remember. The early pages of this book cover the tools and techniques you need to create the projects that follow: transfering your design to metal and cutting it out, filing, sawing, drilling, making jump rings, cold connections, and working with wire to list a few. All the projects involved cold connections - no torch is required for any of these jewelry pieces. By the time you've read the book and completed a few of the projects, you should be well versed in making cold connections. Each project creates a complex piece of jewelry that you can be proud to wear and incorporates a number of jewelry skills in its production.

Best of all they are all made using cold connections so you don't have to have a torch to create them. I love this book. I have been taking Silver Jewelry classes for over two years and find that the projects in this book are excellent. Well worth the money. They are easy to follow and unique.

This is a great beginner guide with lots of fundamental information. I would recommend this book to anyone getting started in metal work. The pictures are very high quality and offer a lot of inspiration.