Customer Reviews

500 Necklaces: Contemporary Interpretations of a Timeless Form (500 Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As an avid collector of jewellery books, jewellery designer, maufacturer and teacher, I was waiting with baited breath for this to arrive. I am unfortunately disappointed with it. ( Having loved brooches, rings and Polymer ). This book heavily focused on Sterling Silver, ( where was Precious Metal Clay - not one example - appalling!, I hope this was not bias by the esteemed juror??). Not enough examples of mixed media and many of the photos contained in other publications. Some were truly beautiful and inspirational, whilst others were an insult, they should be in a 500 garments, they were shawls!(Carol Fishers Canvas), or Christoph Freier's wonderful granite bolders with two gold bolders, placed as a necklace on lawn were fabulous but they were sculpture. Taking the title "Interpretation" to the extreme you see 20kg rocks on grass, yes they are a representation of a necklace but it does not belong in this book, I am looking for jewellery. In fact, I was sorely disappointed as at least 50% of the items were so over the top or shaped so that they could not ever be worn. Perhaps they should have made this book two - 500 Wearable and 500 Non Wearable! I wait for 500 Earrings with concern now. I just hope Lark can bring back the original high standard of this series, together with a wider diversity of media and certainly not leaving out important media such as Precious Metal Clay. Paper, wood and glass-lampwork, felt, were either non existent or poorly represented. Borrow from the Library, save your pennies and purchase the spectacular Art Jewelry Today by Dona Meilach.

As a jewelry professor at a majoy university, I used to recommend these books to my students along with Tim McCreights books. However, unlike McCreight, Lark Books outsourced all the work to China for printing and never review the editorial material before they publish it. The result? A group of objects by jewelers that are poorly shot, badly laid out and really don't aid the jeweler OR the jewelry collector in knowing anything about the current happenings in the world of jewelry design.

With way more than 500 amazing necklaces out there in the world that could have been in this book, it's frustrating to have some of the pages dedicated to what would better be described as "scarves" or to see the redundancy of including many similar pieces by the same artists (for example, one piece from the "Guarded Gestures" series would have been enough). While I don't expect everything to be wearable, I would have thought the editors would have narrowed their definition of "necklace" to exclude a 2.5-meter arrangement of rocks on the ground. Overall, it's a good picture book with some amazing pieces, but it could have been better.

This was a gift for my daughter - a jewelry major. This is NOT for those who are making "beaded jewelry". The pieces shown are pieces of art - some wearable and others simple art. Some are elegant, some very unique. Do not buy this book if you are looking for traditional necklaces. It is a great book for those who appreciate jewelry as an art form.

The work in this book, as with the others in the series of books from Lark, is truly amazing. Forget your preconceptions of the necklace. This is art, some of which is wearable and some isn't. The pieces are beautiful and a testament to the creativity of jewelry artists around the world. I am in awe of the other artists.

Very few of the images are necklaces in any traditional sense - Most of the selections are as far from jewelry as the Paris fashion runways are from clothing that people buy...As a jewelry craftsperson, I was hoping for inspiration but what I found was a bizarre collection of extremely futuristic items perched on the necks of models..

Wish I'd been able to flip through this before buying. This series by Lark is generally pretty wonderful, but in this case, I was underwhelmed. Of course the photography was great; but I found the contents was very heavy on unconstructed work that didn't seem cohesive. There were a lot of pieces that looked very tossed together. My definition of contemporary and theirs just didn't mesh.

I LOVED "500 Earrings" & had high expectations for "500 Necklaces" so imagine my disappointment to receive a book full of 'art jewellery project work'. Some of the work was interesting & I was intrigued w/ the use of found & recyclable objects & I like when artists are edgy & imaginative in their approach, but one pretty necklace would have been greatly appreciated & the only really lovely piece was the boulders & gold stones depicting a necklace.

Fabulous. What could be better than 500 great examples of artists who think out side the box. I wish I had every one of the books in this series.Well done.

I bought this book to help me think about my own designs for jewelry and products. The wide variety of shapes, materials and techniques is exactly what I wanted to see. Recommended to beginning and intermediate students.