The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction to the Jeweler's Art [Paperback]

Carles Codina (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 28, 2006

This amazingly comprehensive guide to the jeweler’s art is a goldmine of information—big, beautiful, and with hundreds of color photos. It’s simply the handsomest, most complete sourcebook available, with its enlightening discussion of basic metallurgy (alloying, smelting, annealing, and pickling), and professional-quality techniques for cutting, piercing, soldering, and making closures and rings. Learn the tricks of the trade for enhancing surfaces; etching, combining metals, creating textures, adding color; engraving; enameling; and gem setting. Seven magnificently presented projects include a silver repoussé pendant, an articulated gold bracelet with clasp, a multiple loop-in-loop chain, and a square hollow-construction ring to die for.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The Complete Book of Jewelry Making is a beautifully illustrated guide to jewelry-making techniques. In content it is similar to Jinks McGrath's The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques (LJ 11/1/95) with the addition of a very useful chapter on the properties of metals (gold and silver) and seven step-by-step projects for contemporary jewelry. When the techniques have been mastered, it is time for Jewellery: Design Sourcebook, a gallery of photographs of jewelry as art featuring the creations of over 75 contemporary artists. From a practical standpoint most of these are unwearable, but this is a rather fascinating look at the art jewelry of today. Both of these books are for larger or specialized arts and crafts collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

When jewelry is no longer defined by the precious metals or stones used, the new meaning enables amateurs and professionals alike to stretch their imaginations. And so does this first book by a Barcelona teacher and practitioner. He concentrates on ensuring that readers have a good understanding of the basics, from the ABCs of metallurgy to such complicated techniques as enameling and lacquering. In fact, included are a few resurrected methods; for instance, niello, an easily accomplished form of enameling, is often seen in eastern European silver pieces but rarely in the U.S. Most of the examples are contemporary, taken from European designers, and all blessed with great color photographs--as is the grand finale, the step-by-step how-tos of seven different pieces, detailed with words and in pictures, though none are really intended for rank beginners. An introduction for buyers as well as for budding artisans. Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (August 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579903045
• ISBN-13: 978-1579903046
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb introduction to jeweler's techniques for serious amateurs., January 12, 2008

By 

Joshua G. Feldman "Technophile" (New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction to the Jeweler's Art (Paperback)

I've been doing basic stone setting and soldering fabrication for a couple of years and have been looking for a good introduction to more advanced jeweler's techniques to help inspire me to take it to the next level. There are a multitude of beautifully illustrated and produced books that attempt to do this - but fail because they don't show you enough (in an misguided attempt to keep it simple) - The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques comes to mind as an example of this problem. This book - Carles Codina's The Complete Book of Jewelry Making - is the real deal. It serves as a basic introduction, but gives enough detail to really get you off the ground and doing projects. I learned new wrinkles on techniques I thought I knew - and got really good insight into new techniques I've been wanting to learn, such as bead setting, engraving, bright cutting, granulation, reticulation, patination, enamel, etc.. Impressive as getting this right is - this book goes further: it gets into the cultural history and significance of jewelery art and is full of really inspiring examples of jeweler's art. Simply having pictures of great art isn't impressive - but really connecting the achieved vision of that art with the techniques described is. So, you don't just get a good idea of how to do the technique and what it looks like - but you also get a real sense of why; of how the technique pays off artistically.

This book starts off with a brief introduction of where jewelry fits in human civilization. Then it moves to introducing the bench and basic techniques and then moves on to advanced techniques. The basic techniques section mentions important details such as collecting and organizing your scraps and assaying metals. The techniques section illustrate each technique step by step and each one shows you a finished project. Finally it does a series of project illustrated step by step that make use of multiple techniques in a real applied fashion. Each part of the book is illustrated with sumptuous photographs showing the technique and tools. The text is brief, but doesn't lack detail. The artistic vision of the artist is modern - but whether you love the pieces shown or not, there is no debating that they utilize and illustrate the craft in an admirable fashion. This book fires me up and gets me working.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not another tacky project book!, August 15, 2005

By 

Bookworm (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction To The Jeweler's Art (Hardcover)

Finally, a jewelry making book that is more than just another tacky project book. This book covers a wide range of techniques and materials. No, you will not master all of these techniques by reading this book, but you will find a wealth of information and inspiration to make your own jewelry. There are projects at the end of the book, but you do not have to make the items in order to understand the technique being demonstrated. This is an inspiring intermediate to advanced book.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful book, August 15, 2004

By 

H3-D Technology (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction To The Jeweler's Art (Hardcover)

I acquired this book at about the same time I started taking courses in Jewellery design. The images and the deceptively easy breakdown of processes inspired me to be ambitious with my own work. This is certainly one of those books designed to get you enthusiastic about working in the craft, even if many of the techniques are not for the beginner.