Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing

This book is great to review the basics of various techniques without too much fluff. Nicely organized, laid out and illustrated, and written well. I am learning metalsmithing, and it was very helpful in reviewing and complementing the techniques I've learned, and gave me some new ideas too.

Thank you for this amazing book! This book was recommended to me by a friend who does metal work jewelry and she told me that this was the only book one needed to get the job done! I believe she was right! Even a simpleton like my self can follow it! It's Amazing!

This book is a required book for a college class I'm taking. Normally, required books are seldom used because the information is not up to date or not easy to understand. Tim McCreights book is excellant. It is instructive, and visually appealing. It includes great examples of metalsmithing projects of not only his work but many other contributing artists. It is inspiriring.

This book was a heaven send to me. It has beautiful pictures and very well written text and explanations. It's a must-have book if you are thinking about working with metal.

The fact that McCreight has been teaching for 25 years really shines through. The little tips he slips in are great and his suggestions for improvising and making your own tools would save you the cost of the book in short order. There are flashes of humour and the illustrations are inspirational. One of the editorial reviews mentions that the book contains no projects. While strictly true this is slightly misleading. McCreight includes a number of step-by-step sets of instructions for achieving particular results, but doesn't arrange them into end-to-end projects - leaving you free to think up your own, which personally I prefer. One of the customer reviews also notes that the illustrations and text are not directly tied together. This is also true, but I was able to make the connections myself in 90% of cases. In the section on hinges, the illustrations show pieces with hinges, and so forth. They are there to stimulate your creativity rather than to tie in tightly to the text. If you buy no other jewellery crafting book, buy this one.