Basic Jewelry Making Techniques [Paperback]

Jinks McGrath (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2003

Nothing is more gratifying than receiving a compliment on a piece of handmade jewelry. However many regard making jewelry as being too difficult and tedious. Basic Jewelry Making Techniques shows how, after mastering only a few basic techniques, crafting even the most complicated jewelry pieces becomes an easy task.

Readers will learn to use techniques such as soldering, texturing, and enameling on wood, acrylic, glass, precious stones, and more. Detailed instructions and illustrations accompany each project, and designs are flexible enough to be modified. Professional jeweler, Jinks McGrath explains how to optimize minimal workspace with suggestions for home workshop designs. She also reviews the necessary tools to begin and the larger equipment to buy as skills develop.

* Teaches how to optimize space for effective workshop design at home * Includes instant reference tables for conversion formulae and melting point temperatures * Features projects using silver, wood, acrylic, and more that utilize all modern jewelry-making techniques

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Professional jeweler Jinks McGrath has been running craft workshops and managing a gallery for many years. Preferring to craft jewelry on a commission-only basis, she is passionate about her career, especially designing and making individual items for galleries and exhibitions. Enameling is her specialty. Jinks works out of her home in East Sussex, England and happily divides her time between designing, teaching, and parenting. She is also author of The Rings Book, published by Krause Publications in 2003.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Krause Publications (October 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873497155
• ISBN-13: 978-0873497152
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,494 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beginner or intermediate book?, August 15, 2005

By 

Bookworm (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Jewelry Making Techniques (Paperback)

The beginning of the book has lots of basic information about various tools and workshop layouts. There are plenty of photographs of the tools and diagrams of workshop layouts. Helpful for a beginner. There are lots of photographs of finished jewelry and processes throughout the rest of the book. Several projects are demonstrated as well. I found these to require many expensive tools that the beginner would not have. Likewise, the instructions would make sense for someone with experience, but if you have not done the technique before, the author frequently does not give enough information for you to correctly do it on your own. I am not sure if this book is written for the beginner or intermediate jewelry maker. Instead, I recommend Tim McCreight's books which are very similar, but easier to follow.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Typical of a Jinks McGrath book: visually wonderful, June 12, 2000

By 

Meredith Arnold (Shoreline, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Jewelry Making Techniques (Hardcover)

Like other books by Jinks McGrath, et al, this book is visually appealing with great photos and clear instructions on a number of projects involving metal working skills. While not the end-all, be-all, it is informational enough to help one become practiced easily with simply written explanations and clear visuals. This is a nicely formatted book, worthwhile for introductory and beyond skill building.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars People really have to read the "Inside This Book section"!, April 8, 2006

By 

PTSideshow "GRP" (Macomb County Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Jewelry Making Techniques (Paperback)

You would think that some person shopping for a book would read the "Inside The Book" section of the sales page before getting to the reviews. This Jinks book is divided into four sections
1.Planning a workshop
2.Designing a project
3.Basic techniques
4.Advanced techniques
Then finishes up with technical info and glossary. As with her other books. The pictures are clear, and follow the flow of work being described.The workshop section will give an idea of what you need to start and what is needed to carry on with some of the fancy work. With ample text to cover the beginners who will pick up this book. It moves one through a couple of projects with varied materials. The advance section is as she states "introduces some additional techniques" along with the statement that you can use one or all the techniques and that any one of them could be the subject of a book. Also she states that if you don't have the tools and or equipment take a class. In The US Adult Education, enrichment classes or community colleges all have classes.
The biggest problem with books on the subject of any hobby/avocation. Is that after you own three or so they all will cover some of the same ground.
I do have to confess I have vary rarely met a book I didn't learn something from. And in the art metal arena, there are as many ways of doing some thing as people doing them.
If you are a beginner and this is your first book you will find it useful to give an overview of the jewelry arts and a nice glimpse in to what is needed in the advance work area and the tools needs to start. I own it and use it.