Customer Reviews

Altered Paper Jewelry: Artful Adornments from Beautiful Papers

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm an avid beader and I love to make beads from polymer clay, and I'm also a scrapbooker who loves all paper crafts. For years I have been looking for a book that combines jewelry design and paper since I have such a HUGE stash of beautiful patterned paper that I've always wanted to incorporate into my jewelry designs. I also have tons of stamps and inks and paper crafting supplies on hand that I have wanted to do more with.

This book is EXACTLY what I have been looking for. Almost all of the "paper jewelry" books I own are more inclined towards bookbinders, metalsmiths, resin artists, or origami fans. This book is perfect for those of us who do not make our own paper or do not want to invest in complicated supplies from obscure internet sources to make something beautiful and durable.

This book covers a wide range of jewelry design (necklaces, bracelets, rings, cuffs, etc.) and elements (beads, pendants, tiles, folded flowers, etc.). EVERY project in this book can be easily accomplished with items that most scrapbookers/paper crafters already have on hand or easily purchased at any local craft store: patterned paper, water-based adhesives, wire, inks, stamps, embellishments, paper glazes, shrink art, markers, etc.

The jewelry designs are all simple (none require more than one page of instruction) to complete yet very tasteful, and the "feel" of each piece comes from the paper chosen to complete it. So you can take the same project and completely change it based on the paper and supplies you choose to complete it. The finished jewelry is really lovely and can be adapted for anyone's tastes.

I also loved the format of the book- every thick page is in full color. For every project there is one full-page photo showing off the piece and the facing page contains the instructions.

This book provides limitless inspiration and ideas. I'm really excited to get my supplies out and give these projects a whirl. Finally, a way to combine paper crafting and jewelry making, without requiring new supplies or skills. I hope there's another volume in the works...

I bought this book and was very disappointed. The majority of projects involve sticking paper onto things -- dominoes, wooden beads, acrylic items etc. The necklace on the cover is not made of paper beads, as I thought, but is a paper covered domino as pendant. The pretty green beads are purchased glass beads. The bracelet featured on the cover is paper glued to acrylic links, and so on. There was only one folded paper project, (an origami lily, and the instructions for that were not very good) and a couple of projects using rolled paper beads (again, the instructions, if you were new to the idea, were inadequate.) No mention of paper weaving, quilling or the many other ways of using paper. As someone said, some of the ideas shown in chapter 6 were interesting, but no instructions were given, thus chapter 6 is virtually an advertisement for various artists. There are dozens of techniques to create jewelry out of paper and very few of them are included. Frankly, there are better projects freely available on the internet

some interesting projects, nothing outstanding and nothing i haven't seen before. the more interesting ones seem to include materials for which no sources are given. C+

This book was ordered as a Christmas gift for a friend. It arrived in plenty of time, was in excellent condition and just what I was looking for. Incidentally, the receiver of this gift loved it.