Customer Reviews

Create Jewelry: Stones (Create Jewelry series)

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

 

 

This is not a beginners book on making jewelry, even though the basics are discussed in the back, but rather a focus on natural stones that are commonly used in today's jewelry designs. I have to admit I am biased due to my background in geology and my own designs using natural gemstones and even common stones. This book appealed to me for that reason but also in how the stones are discussed with minimal but satisfactory info regarding the hardness of the stones, its common sources, and interesting facts...so non-geologists can easily understand the stones and their beauty. The designs are wonderful (some remind me of my own!), but also take in consideration that natural stones are often heavier than glass, crystal, and seed beads. Therefore the earring designs do not pull at the earlobe - a common mistake of some jewelry designs. The combination of stones in several designs are a sight to behold and have opened my eyes to even more lovely color/stone combinations that can be developed by me and other artists interested in using natural gemstones for their own jewelry designs. So BRAVO to the authors for producing this wonderful book of unique designs.

Create Jewelry : Stones is the newest offering in the Interweave Press Create Jewelry series. Like the other books in the series, it's a gorgeously photographed book with simple projects. The focus in this one is stones.
The introduction explains stone basics, the hardness scale, the difference between semi-precious and precious stone, and has a beautiful full color list of a lot of common stones in beadwork, then it goes into the projects.
The projects are simple, and a lot of them have really wonderful beads that you may not find at your local bead store. Not to worry, there is a really well laid out resources list at the back of the book so you can find the beads the authors used. Most of the projects are strung, although a few of them have bead weaving as accents. I really love the Earth and Sky earrings. The inspire me to try something similar.
The projects are, as I said, simple, but they are lovely. Multistrand bracelets, instructions for wrapping briolettes, and ideas for using center drilled stone flowers. They are a nice mix of very delicate to chunky designs, so there is something in here wearable for everyone.
As much as I like the projects and introduction of this series, my favorite part of these books is the little "Did you know" pages with pictures of amazing historical uses of the subject matter and the story about them. I think I'd love a book just made up of all those lovely bits of ornamental trivia.
If you're looking for a book with complicated ideas and that will teach you techniques, these are not the books for you, but if you enjoy stringing, and want inspiration and information for color combinations and ideas for multistrand bracelets and necklaces, these books are lovely and a good foundation.

Having just started making jewelry, I decided to make everything worth my time by using high quality materials and findings. This book has a guide to semiprecious stones that is interesting and helpful. I will know what to buy at our next local bead show. There are some very nice projects in this book. I also own Create Jewelry: Pearls. Would recommend both books to anyone who is interested in turning our quality jewelry.

This book had stunning photos of the jewelry but little info that was useful in making the examples shown. They told the reader the materials and some ideas on using the materials, but not complete. I am an experienced jewelry maker but could not duplicate the examples.