There are lots of project books out there with many inspirational designs. Less common are jewelry making resources which target common problems and offer solutions. If you get stuck with a problem, "who you gonna call" ? Well, ghostbusters sure aren't going to cut it in the jewelry making studio! Glitches do arise no matter how experienced the designer, so having a handy guide will help.
I recently received this book from Firefly Books for review -
Troubleshooting for Jewelers: Common Problems, Why They Happen and How to Fix Them
. It is by
Freida Munro, a British metal smith. The book is geared towards helping jewelry makers solve problems so the pieces are fixed and not trashed!
The book does not cover ALL aspects of jewelry making - no one book can do that. For instance, beading, metal clay, polymer clay and resin areas are not included. The casting section refers to the techniques needed for lost wax casting rather than for epoxy resin work. The book concentrates heavily on metal work with some wire work.
The book is well organized, making it easy to find specific issues and the solutions. It actually starts with the diagnostic charts - 150 of them - which are typically found at the end of many kinds of manuals.
The rest of the book covers specific techniques in broad categories -
Shaping, Decoration, Wirework, Casting, Stone Setting. Each category is divided into
Best Practices and
Fix-Its.
Best Practices makes sense as learning and practicing the correct way of doing things avoids the problems in the first place.
The pictures are clear as are the text explanations making this a highly readable manual.
Patination is one of the highlights from the book. Here the author offers many patination ideas. The section on stone setting is also very useful.
Less helpful is the page on plating which covered just a few points about plating thicknesses and how to mask off areas prior to plating. Most jewelers send out their plating to specialists so plating, unlike the other techniques in the book, is not something most would do.
This book is full of useful information and some tantalizing glimpses of beautiful inspirational pieces. Highly recommended as a manual in any metal worker's studio.
GiveawayIf you'd like to win a copy of
Troubleshooting for Jewelers please make a comment below. Make sure you leave contact info below if you do not have an online shop or blog.
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This giveaway is only for US and Canada.Extra entries if you become or are a blog subscriber or follower etc. If you also do shout outs about this giveaway, those will count as additional entries too! Please say so in the comments. (The exception is Facebook - just like/comment on the giveaway status there!!)
It ends in a week's time at
6 pm EST Monday, July 18 , 2016 . I will pick the winner randomly and announce the results as soon as possible after. So be sure to leave a contact email if you don't have an online link or make sure you come back and check! Otherwise I will redraw in a week. Good luck!
DisclosureI do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation.
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