The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction to the Jeweler's Art

I've been doing basic stone setting and soldering fabrication for a couple of years and have been looking for a good introduction to more advanced jeweler's techniques to help inspire me to take it to the next level. There are a multitude of beautifully illustrated and produced books that attempt to do this - but fail because they don't show you enough (in an misguided attempt to keep it simple) - The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques comes to mind as an example of this problem. This book - Carles Codina's The Complete Book of Jewelry Making - is the real deal. It serves as a basic introduction, but gives enough detail to really get you off the ground and doing projects. I learned new wrinkles on techniques I thought I knew - and got really good insight into new techniques I've been wanting to learn, such as bead setting, engraving, bright cutting, granulation, reticulation, patination, enamel, etc.. Impressive as getting this right is - this book goes further: it gets into the cultural history and significance of jewelery art and is full of really inspiring examples of jeweler's art. Simply having pictures of great art isn't impressive - but really connecting the achieved vision of that art with the techniques described is. So, you don't just get a good idea of how to do the technique and what it looks like - but you also get a real sense of why; of how the technique pays off artistically. This book starts off with a brief introduction of where jewelry fits in human civilization. Then it moves to introducing the bench and basic techniques and then moves on to advanced techniques. The basic techniques section mentions important details such as collecting and organizing your scraps and assaying metals. The techniques section illustrate each technique step by step and each one shows you a finished project. Finally it does a series of project illustrated step by step that make use of multiple techniques in a real applied fashion. Each part of the book is illustrated with sumptuous photographs showing the technique and tools. The text is brief, but doesn't lack detail. The artistic vision of the artist is modern - but whether you love the pieces shown or not, there is no debating that they utilize and illustrate the craft in an admirable fashion. This book fires me up and gets me working.

This book is one of the best I have,I still refer to it whenever I am in a creative slump.As a full time jewellery Designer/Maker running a businesss I never have any time to try new techniques or read books but this one was so clear and easy to follow,so full of really interesting techniques and many many pictures that I refer to all the time.I have hundreds of jewellery books but none have been as useful and inspring as this one.I tried all the projects and they all came out as shown,I learnt more than I did in jewellery classes I've taken. Unlike other books in mentions the use of micromotors and abrasives etc instead of pre historic tools and there are many wax projects,some really great examples of jewellery by spanish designers,and information on alloys - everything you need to know.Best $29.95 I ever spent.Made my work interesting again,will be looking out for further books by this Author.

Finally, a jewelry making book that is more than just another tacky project book. This book covers a wide range of techniques and materials. No, you will not master all of these techniques by reading this book, but you will find a wealth of information and inspiration to make your own jewelry. There are projects at the end of the book, but you do not have to make the items in order to understand the technique being demonstrated. This is an inspiring intermediate to advanced book.

I acquired this book at about the same time I started taking courses in Jewellery design. The images and the deceptively easy breakdown of processes inspired me to be ambitious with my own work. This is certainly one of those books designed to get you enthusiastic about working in the craft, even if many of the techniques are not for the beginner.

This book is great for intermediate to advanced metalsmiths. It provides detailed instructions in many basic techniques as well as some more obscure. Find hints on making hinges, clasps, settings. Basic metalsmithing techniques are well covered. Patination, reticulation, granulation and many others are well described.