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Knitted Wire Jewelry: Techniques. Projects. Inspiration

Knitting.about.com has provided a very thorough review on this book. Many knitters are familiar with the concept of knitting with wire to make basic jewelry pieces. But Samantha A. Lopez takes the concept of combining knitting and jewelry making to a new level with her Knitted Wire Jewelry: Techniques, Projects, Inspiration.

Knitting takes on a whole new esthetic when coupled with wire to create beautiful pieces of jewelry. The lacy, delicate nature of the projects featured in Knitted Wire Jewelry is unlike those seen in other jewelry making books. You will be surprised by how the fine gauge and simple beauty of the pieces sets them apart. Learn from twenty-five projects that span a variety of techniques such as increases and decreases, incorporating different colors of wire, adding beads and more.

Samantha A. Lopez was born in Mexico City but spent most of her time in the countryside of the state of Morelos. She moved to New York City to study at Pratt Institute School of Art and Design, where she received her degree in fine art with a concentration in sculpture. After graduating, she continued to combine the knitting skills she had learned from her family with unusual materials as she had done in college, but in a much smaller scale. These mini sculptures eventually evolved into the jewelry pieces she makes today.
The Knotstudio line of jewelry can be found in select boutiques and galleries in the New York City area. The pieces have been featured in online publications, the Swedish magazine XOXO as well as the Mun2 TV show Vivo. Most recently, a book on her interpretation of jewelry, Knitted Wire Jewelry: Techniques. Projects. Inspiration. was published by North Light Books. She has also been a contributing designer to other publications such as Crafty Superstar and Take Along Knits.

You can buy the book from Amazon.com.

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Download lots of free jewelry making tutorials at www.diylessons.org too!

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Chain Mail Jewelry: Contemporary Design from Classic Techniques

Released in the spring of 2006, projects include European, Japanese, Byzantine and Spiral pattern variations, some of which incorporate beads and other accents that bring chainmail fully into the world of contemporary jewelry design. Based on some customers review on the book, I gather it is a good book for those who started to explore chain mail jewelry.

Amazon Reviews:

I have just begun getting into chain mail jewelry making and found this book exceedingly helpful. There's no soldering required for the projects in the book, just pliers, which as a beginner, I appreciated since at the moment I have no interest in getting into soldering.The book begins with some basic information on chain mail jewelry, which gave me a good idea of what I was getting myself into. Then it proceeds into several projects ranging from basic, intermediate, and advanced. The pictures, and illustrated instructions were so precise that I, with no previous experience of any kind, quickly made two of the basic projects as well as one of the intermediate. Each project begins with a picture of what the design will look like at the end, a list of the items required for assembly, then launches into detailed step by step instructions, each illustrated to show you exactly what to do. This book is very well written, thoughtfully laid out, as well as clear and concise. In addition, the assortment of jewelry projects are both beautiful and varied, sure to appeal to pretty much everyone. The gallery section at the end showcasing artists' work provides inspiration for those wanting to make designs of their own. I highly recommend this book if you're getting into chain mail jewelry making.

Ebay Reviews
"This book is excellent for the beginner jewelry maker and has patterns for the intermediate and advanced as well. I had purchased books in the past that were confusing and hard to follow. Chain Mail Jewelry is very detailed and the instructions are simple. The patterns are well marked and do not confuse you and the instructions are striaght forward and easy to follow. You will be making beautiful chain mail in no time with this book! "
Lark Books
"Thanks to its exquisite, easily mastered techniques and elegant lines, chain mail--the classic art of linking metal rings--is enjoying a creative resurgence among jewelry makers. This attractive resource is the first full-color book on the market to help beginners and intermediates get in on the craze. With computer-generated illustrations that show every step, it thoroughly introduces all the key construction procedures, including the proper methods of winding, opening, and closing the metal rings. The 30 projects include a simple pendant encasing a large semiprecious stone and a flat chain-mail neckpiece that colorfully combines copper and blue titanium rings. Plus, there’s advice on polishing the pieces, tips on adding pearls or beads, and a gallery of works by professional jewelers."

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Chain and Bead Jewelry: Creative Connections,

The second book, Chain and Bead Jewelry: Creative Connections, is published by Watson-Guptill, released in July 2009. This new book continues the author's exploration into beaded chain jewelry designs that he began in his first book, Handcrafting Chain and Bead Jewelry, a bestseller in its category, selling over 30,000 copies since its original publication in 2006.

Chain and Bead Jewelry takes you on a wire-wrapping adventure through 28 jewelry projects and dozens of techniques. Join him through this 160-page quest to balance metal and mineral, from the basics of metal wire, aspect ratio-precise jump rings, gemstone beads, and simple hand tools to the essential techniques you'll need to master jump ring assembly, setting headpin beads, forging S-clasps, and bending identical earring backs from teardropped Argentium silver wire. Discover wire-wrapping techniques that progress from simple earrings to embellished bracelets. More complex techniques are explored in the later chapters where gemstone beads are used to embellish a variety of age-old chains, from the Byzantine, Flower, Mobius, Dubious, Japanese, Inca Puño, and European, to the infamous six-sided Snake chain.

Read a review written By N. Smith in Amazon:
I am a huge fan of his first book and had this follow up pre-ordered for a very long time. I'm so happy to report that it didn't disappoint! You don't NEED his first book if you're new to the craft. The introductory section has great information on wire, rings, making rings, and everything you need to know to get started. The later projects all have step by step photos with clear directions. If you're a veteran, I'm pleased to say this book added a lot of information, particularly about tumbling and shining up your pieces. There's also great photo tutorials and instructions to flawlessly incorporate magnetic clasps into the design! He also includes the math and aspect ratio (AR) breakdown for more gauges per weave than he did in the first book. As I said, I loved his first book, and ordered this one on faith since I was NOT actually a fan of the cover "chaos wrapping" design. Pages 44-59 are dedicated to this chaos link in necklaces/bracelet/earring form. I like the intricate pattern and symmetry of chainmaille so the chaos just doesn't do it for me. Fear not! The rest of the book is his usual bold strong designs, with a different style "tornado" wrapped link, using beads in new ways, and I really like his play with different colored metals in this book which creates a whole new look and brings out the patterns. I'm sure I'll make everything BUT the cover piece at least once! ;-) If you're new to the craft, you could easily start with his first book or this one. As a more experienced "mailler" now, I highly recommend BOTH books make it into your collection! The second book does not supersede or repeat the first so much as it complements and expands on it nicely if you love his style!

Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire & String

Rachel Nelson-Smith, author of Seed Bead Fusion, is a master beadweaver whose work is infused with her unique combination of fabrication techniques. With a wealth of knowledge and fearless adventure, needle and tools shape bold and vibrant works alive with enormous energy and dynamism. Finding inspiration in surrounding nature, pure color, and beads themselves, Rachel creates pieces reflecting the world she sees around her.

With her first book, "Seed Bead Fusion: 18 Projects to Stitch, Wire and String", Rachel Nelson-Smith has made her mark as one of today's best bead artists. Featuring 18 exciting projects presented with detailed step-by-step photography, color variations, and practical illustrations, this fresh approach to seed bead jewelry teaches crafters how to combine materials, techniques, colors, inspiration, and design ideas for jewelry with a contemporary edge. Inspired by a wide range of sources—from Indian Punjabi folk costumes to Native American beading—the designs in this inventive resource fuse materials such as silver, copper wire, seed beads, Czech glass, and crystals into these traditional arts in order to achieve a unique outcome. All of the basic beadweaving stitches, wirework, and stringing techniques are explained and illustrated.

Some of the designs available in the book:

Just in case you aren't sure where to get some the materials for any of the projects, a full line of kits is offered on the Rachel Nelson-Smith website. These kits include everything you need to make the projects in the book, with the exception of needles and thread.

You can go to Amazon to buy this book:

Here is one of the book reviews written By Leanne (San Diego, CA) at Amazon:

I've been beading for about five years and have a fairly decent collection of beading books, but this is the first I've seen that includes small close-up shots that show most (if not all) of the steps for most projects, in addition to the written directions and larger photos. This is such a nice feature to have in case any questions come up while working on a project. Most of all, though, I really love this book since it features some of the projects by Nelson-Smith that I have seen, but have never been able to take a class for: her Ootheca Cuff, O. Berston Component, and Bhangra Fusion Bangle, in addition to fifteen other projects. She also provides several different samples in various colorways so you can easily see the possible variations for each project. There is a lot of lovely eye candy in her designs! Many of the projects combine the use of wirework and beading, and Nelson-Smith provides excellent instructions for the wire-phobic amongst us beadweavers. In fact, the first project that I want to make from the book is one that combines wires and beads, and normally I shy away from wirework in favor of bead-only projects since I feel so clumsy (despite numerous classes) working with wire. (Beading is more of my element.) This book is a great addition to your beading library -- and don't let the wirework scare you off since Nelson-Smith explains her wire techniques so well!

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Books & Tutorial Review

We are going to start this year by providing reviews on jewelry making and beading books. This includes those in the form of physical book or ebook. Watch out for this in our next post.

For authors of jewelry making books/ ebooks, you can submit your books for review. Contact us at diyjewelryclub at gmail dot com.

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Submit Your Jewelry Making Book Or Tutorial For Review and Listing in www.Handmade-Jewelry-club.com

If you write jewelry making books or tutorials, you can send details to us so that we can link them here under our tutorial or book session. You can also send us the softcopy of the tutorial or book If you would like me to write a review about them.

Wonderful Majestic Ring Tutorial

After mastering basic and intermediate skills of wire jewelry maing, I am sourcing for some challenging projects to work on. Emi Kaz recommended me his 'Majestic Ring' tutorial. I claimed I know how to make it myself but he challenged me to show him my work! After having more thoughts, I realise it is not as easy to come up with this solid structure! So I proceeded to try out the tutorial. And of course, I have no regret about it.

The tutorial was well written with clear pictures and step by step guides. Pictures are taken very professionally and notes are given in the picture for better clarity. I think the tutorial and the design are not just artistic. It requires someone who can think like an architect to come up with this solid designs with well constructed structure. The tutorial is worth the few bucks that Emi is charging for the effort he puts in to develop the tutorial.

For beginners, this tutorial also comes with a supplementary tutorial on caging a bracelet with leaf links that teaches on some basic wire techniques. So there should not be a problem for beginner to follow this tutorial quality. I think for someone who is moving into intermediate or advance skill, you should look no way but to try out this project!

You can buy Emi's tutorial here:

http://www.jewelrylessons.com/tutorial/majestic-ring-woven-ring

http://emikaz.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html