Customer Reviews

Chain Style

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sometimes it's hard to find jewelry books with anything new in them. NOT SO with Chain Style. This book is filled with beautiful and original designs using all sorts of chain. A great jumping off place for your own designs, or make them as they're shown, full resources are given.
This book is a keeper!

Chain Style is one of those books that everyone should have on their book shelves. It's got everything from traditional jewelry designs, to modern, contemporary designs. A great how-to section is included to teach the basics of simple jewelry techniques, which can be applied to every design featured in the book. Each design project is well written and can be created by the beginner, to the advanced jewelry maker.
I especially love the photography of each piece. The jewelry pops off the page in the clear pictures with neutral backgrounds. I guarantee you'll be flipping through this book again and again when looking for inspiration! Buy it, you won't regret it!

Chain Style has the perfect mix of necklaces and bracelets that everyone will connect to and love. Jane not only designed some really cool ones herself, but she has chosen really unique, desirable pieces to balance out the collection. Whether you are experienced or just starting out, Chain Style is a great place to get new necklace and bracelet ideas, and a total must buy!

I am a jewelry designer who prefers asymmetrical designs with contrast and texture. I sell my designs at a Fine Arts Museum gift shop, a local gallery downtown, holiday fairs, as well as to friends. I am always searching for a new "reference" book to help push me to a new level of design; and this book as done just that. I just received it today, gave it a quick, but thorough glance; and my mind is already scanning my inventory to come up with a new design. This book is great.

Chain is one of the hottest trends in jewelry design. This book gives you all kinds of wonderful inspiration for creating beautiful designs with chain. Some of the projects only take minutes to make. Imagine that! A fabulous necklace in just 15 minutes! You'll love this book. Great designs, clear directions, and beautiful chain jewelry!!

More for a beginner or just for inspiration. You don't need a lot of skills to make anything in the book. Most of it just requires you to learn basic wire work. You don't actually learn how to make any chains, you are just given ideas about what to do with them. I have gotten better ideas from catalogs. My biggest problem was that the whole book relies on your ability to find unusual beads and chains. There are no cutting edge techniques or interesting ways to make anything. Basically buy some chains and beads that you like and put them together. I was thrilled to see this available at my local library, but now I am relieved that I did not purchase this book. Check it out and save some money.

This book really stands out in a sea of other jewelry making books and is I think one of the best. Definitely the best I've seen.

It is a great reference book that shows pictures of the various types of chains, with their names. This is really helpful and I find myself going back to it over and over again.

It lists the tools of the trade -- their pictures, names, and what they are used for. I'd been very frustrated at not being able to find out how to do a couple of specific tasks with wire because I did not have the correct pliers and kept getting terrible results on my own. This book enlightened me as to the necessary pliers for the job! Yeah! Unfortunately, it does not say WHERE to buy these lovely tools! That is my only complaint with the book and why I did not give it a full 5 stars. There is a list of resources in the back, but the book does not tell the reader which one of these many places these great pliers that are pictured in the book can be purchased from.

This book also gives basic how to procedures, including great up close photos, on making loops of all kinds, coiling, jump rings, links, hooks, etc. You can clearly see exactly how to do them up close and personal.

After the initial general information about chains, wire, techniques and tools, the book features 50 fabulous pieces of jewelry by different artists, each with its own 2-page spread that shows a great picture, the materials needed, and step-by-step instructions. Superbly done! The designs are fresh, incredibly creative and appealing and very inspiring!

What I'd like to see added to this book in future revisions: a few pictures of the artists actual workshops and their personal studio set-ups, and as already mentioned, where to get the fabulous tools pictured and described in the book. I need to know brand names and online sources so I don't get more junk tools!

I've checked out boatloads of this kind of book from the library, but this is the first one I've considered adding to my library.

I have found this book very interesting and informative. There are some very good projects that seem good for beginners and those that have been doing it for awhile.

I just received the book in the mail. I made the front cover necklace the first night. I can't wait to start on a few more. It has great directions and tips plus a resource directory. It is nice to be able to copy a design in detail. I am relatively new to working with chain and found this to be a good resource for inspiration and learning to balance the designs.

This book offers both needed instruction for the beginner (me)and creative ideas for variety of types of jewelry. I would've liked a bit more on the general information section, i.e. discussion of gauges, and appropriate chain and wire sizes/types for different uses. As a beginner, I have found that ordering chain by link mm size alone can be a problem.