Customer Reviews

Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders: Creative Wirework Projects for All Levels

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I also buy my fair share of jewelry making books. I have to second the above reviewer that I am usually disappointed. I have learned to rely on Amazon reviews though, and I just wanted to add another 5 star review for Irina's book, and point out a few more great details.

This book is very well thought out, and gave me many ideas to tweak my existing style and techniques, in fact some techniques that I have been scouring around for turned up in the advanced section (pg 78 Beaded Leaf). Instructions are clear for the beginner, and creations vary nicely so that it is not page after page of repeated ideas. I consider myself an intermediate-advanced wireworker and this book is truly a great addition to my reference library. True, many of the design concepts have at one time or another turned up in Step by Step wire magazine or other beading magazines, but this is a great comprehensive collection where they are all in one place.

I love how the book is sectioned off and color coded on the exterior pages, so that if you want to go directly to the intermediate section you just have to flip to the brown pages, the advanced section is color coded in green. This is a GREAT idea.

Good work

I buy alot of books on jewelry making and I am usually disappointed in them. This is the first book I've gotten that actually got me excited to try all of the techniques. The instructions are easy to understand and the sample projects are beautiful either to copy exactly or to use as a jumping off point for your own designs. I think everyone, whether a beginner or more advanced wire worker will be inspired by this book.

This book is an excellent addition to any wireworker's library for a wealth of useful techniques and design inspiration. Techniques are clearly illustrated in excellent photograph form as well as well done written directions and each design is shown in wonderful variations. These designs come from a talented artist who creates wearable lovely pieces that don't all look alike. This book would really help a beginner and also inspire advanced wire working artists. Thank you, Ms. Miech, for sharing your talents with us!

Something great about this wire working book is that Irina Miech has a sensitivity to wire which is obvious and clear: she LOVES it. This love then conveys itself into the unique projects, which go from beginner to advanced. If you want to stress the technique of wire working in your jewelry making, go for this book! It is so fun and so worth your while!
What makes it good? For one thing, it is arranged very nicely: if you like, you can give yourself a full course, even if you haven't tried any wire worked jewelry before, ever. The author makes sure that she shows the tools and quick techniques right up front and then she catches your eye with a set of beginner projects which are stunning and tempting enough even for seasoned wire workers. For example: her blue toned "Burst of Color" necklace and earring set was lovely...so special it made me want to get out my pliers right then and there! Although I can make things like this already, I haven't made this. But now I want to!
I think that whether you already know how to make her projects or not is not the point...Irina has a true sense of beauty when she creates.
She is also very playful. You can see this sense of playfulness appear more and more when she is released from the strictures of having to keep things more simple. For example, in her intermediate section, she has a project with a number of variations called "Wire Wrapped Heart". It is GREAT! Having the variations (she wraps a drusy, a sand dollar, and more!) really expands your understanding of what you are doing, and it is as if you are taking a class with a teacher right in your own home. I like the section in the intermediate part on how to make your own findings as well. I am always curious about other designer's work and she has a noticable amount of fun with these. I can't believe how amazingly intricate some of the projects looks in this part of the book. That is one thing about it which makes it very wonderful. Her step by step approach truly does work to bring you right up to the bar when wire wrapping if you take it slowly and just read the very clear, well photographed instructions.By the time the reader arrives at the advanced section, the cuff on the front looks far less daunting and much more enticing than it might have before reading the earlier parts of the book. It is very much a part of her organic style: fanciful and flowing. Trust me: you will want to try to make that cuff! Ms. Miech also has a stunning "Celtic Knot" set in this section, very worth making.

Many sizes and gauges of wire are used in Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders, mostly sterling, with some chain.

This fabulous book truly makes you want to learn new ways of wrapping wire. Irina Miech has created an inspiring and terrific book to have permanently in your
jewelry design library!

After reading the positive reviews on this one I bought the book and what they said is absolutely right on. I also have bought many disappointing beading books, and I was so happy to find this one does not fall in that category. Not only are the designs actually attractive and creative, this book goes into detail about many techniques and tools that you need to go beyond the usual wire wrap loop and it has detailed step by step photos and projects are arranged by difficulty level. The intro suggests that each project teaches you a new skill, and that if you do the projects in order each one builds on the other, so it is like a class that you can take at home. I look forward to expanding my skills with this book!

Irina Meich now turns her attention to wire jewelry after putting out the excellent trio of "Metal Clay for Beaders" books.
Most wire jewelry books usually cover just one aspect of wire work such as basic and wrapped loops or maybe its devoted to wire binding.This book is very well thought out. The beginning of the book show some wire baskets she made as a child and she proves herself as a master wire worker.
Irina Meich covers a broad spectrum of techniques such as basic and wrapped loops, jump rings, making components. However, she also adds a variety of cabochon wraps and other techniques for stones without holes. There are also wire-shaping techniques in the advanced section.
Each project has clearly written step-by-step instructions and photographs
along with a gallery of variations once the technique is mastered.
The design are fresh but they are also classic at the same time and won't look dated as jewelry trends come and go.

I loved this book as both a fervent beader and someone who's just starting to work with wire. There's a nice incline of projects from beginner to more advanced that's just challenging enough but not so difficult that you end up putting the book on your shelf of "maybe someday I'll learn how to do that."

The photos of the projects are very clear with great close-ups, and Ms. Miech gives really excellent directions that aren't too advanced or overwhelming for a newbie. She also includes a very nice list of tools, terms, wire you'll generally need and things like that at the beginning that is very accessible to the general jewelry maker. Nothing intimidating!

I was thinking the only problem I had was even the marvelous bead shop I have locally didn't carry the awesome beads I saw in the book and then at the back, reading Ms. Miech's bio, I saw she has her own bead store not two hours from me and just down the road from my brother's house - guess who's going to get a visitor!

I highly recommend this book for, as the title says, beaders looking to add wire features to their work. It's very inspirational, even if you don't follow the projects shown to the letter.

As beaders and jewelry makers we are living in a wonderful time. Blogs, websites and beautiful books are everywhere. The inspiration and education encompassed in these books is mind boggling.

Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders by Irini Miech crossed my desk this week and it certainly gets a thumbs up from me. Published by Kalmbach Books and designed and edited in their easy to follow, well thought out style, this book contains step-by-step project instructions for all skill levels. As someone who does not follow instructions, I'm happy to say that each project also teaches techniques that can be applied to your own designs and projects.

Beginning to wireworking basics and progressing to advanced cabachon wraps, I think this is a beautiful book that will appeal to a broad cross section of beaders and jewelry makers. I especially loved the Framed Pearls and Celtic Knots projects. They are elegant and very wearable.

Admission time, I bought this book because of the full page advertisement I saw in the May issue of Art Jewelry Magazine. The bracelet featured in the ad is very much my style of wire work, so I bought the entire book for one project.

However, Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders by Irina Miech is so much more than one project. The book is set up as so many of these books are. It starts with wire, tools, and supplies and explanations for them. One handy thing in this section is the chart that shows the conversion of wire guage size to inches AND mm. Often when I am buying beads and need to know the hole size that will fit with the wire, the beads are given in mm while the wire is in inches. Then I have to look up the conversion each time. I am thinking I will photocopy the chart and post it on the wall for easy reference.

The next section is very basic wireworking techniques needed to know to do any wirework at all. Although they are explained again in the the beginner projects, it is a good reference section for beginners to turn back to without wondering which project they saw the instructions for how to make a basic loop or a spiral.

Next the book is divided into Beginner, Intermediate and then Advanced. Each project builds from the previous project. For example, the first project in the Beginner section uses basic loops to construct a necklace and earrings. The second project covers making a necklace and earrings using wrapped loops. By the end of the Beginner section, you could potentially have a full jewelry box AND a set of basic skills that results in beautiful pieces. Although I had all the basic skills down, there are some really cool ideas that I never would have thought of in that section.

Intermediate starts out with instructions for 3 different Whimsical Pins and covers a wide range of projects from pendants, to rings, to creating your own findings.

And guess what? That bracelet I was so entranced by? It's the 2nd to last project in the Advanced section of the book. Let's just say I skipped ahead and started on the Spiral Cuff first. However, Irina's cuff uses a variety of sizes and materials of beads in her demo cuff and I decided to do my first one in copper (cheap if I screw up!) and used all 4mm swarovski bicones. Honestly, I don't like the look of all bicones. So, I am going to cut the wire used to coil the bicones on and redo it using a variety of stuff laying around.

Interestingly, I didn't like some of the advanced projects. It is mostly due to my wire wrapping style and what appeals to me asthetically. I prefer a more organic, loosey goosey look. My first foray into wire wrapping was the more rigid, almost architectural look using square wire, etc. I hated it. I still have that piece, but gave up playing with wire for a long time until I learned not all wire wrapping has to be like that.

However, the fact that there are 21 projects in this book and I don't like 2 or 3 of them...is a pretty darn good deal. One of the best features is that immediately following the instructions for each individual piece is a gallery of ideas for other ways to use what you just learned. Many books have a single gallery. This book has a gallery for each and every single project. I think I got as much out of those as the original piece shown.

Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders really has something for everyone: from the beginner that has never picked up a pair of chainnose or a wire cutter, to the most seasoned wire worker, this is an excellent book. There are very few wire working books that I personally love. This is one of them and I think you will love it too.

This is a beautifully illustrated book for jewelry makers who want to work in wire. I've been beading for a few years (stringing) and have been interested in learning something new. This book takes you a step at a time with illustrations throughout, from simple wiring to gorgeous complex projects, which still say, "You can do this!"

I love the fact that the author also shows several other finished applications for using each lesson to get your thinking "out of the box."