Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques (Lark Jewelry Books) [Hardcover]

Marthe Le Van (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lark Jewelry Books | Publication Date: May 1, 2005

After exploring the exquisite ideas and 35 projects showcased in this one-of-a-kind jewelry collection, you'll never look at "found items" the same way again. There are countless suggestions for recycling everyday objects, from electrical wire to soda cans, and uncovering their vast potential for beauty. Begin transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary by examining various metal types and forms, and the techniques for shaping and cold-connecting them. Select from a range of surface finishing treatments, and find out about special skills often used for working with stones, shells, plastic, wood, and bone. The wildly creative pieces include a driftwood brooch, a bracelet with wooden game pieces, and a pendant featuring old boat charts. A Selection of the Crafters Choice Book Club.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Just because the raw materials for these projects are castoffs--small forks, pencil stubs, broken glass, old magazines--it doesn't mean the results are second-rate. Nope. The projects here are pretty classy, and definitely not for crafters unwilling to put some time into learning basic metalworking techniques, such as soldering and sawing. Fortunately, some technical instruction, including a preamble about tools, prefaces the 40 funky, gorgeous, and sometimes outrageous jewelry designs (contributed by 16 artists) to adorn neck, ears, ankles, and wrists. The projects, even the fairly easy ones such as laminated stamp earrings, are demanding, though the step-by-step text is pretty straightforward and accompanying illustrations help visualize the instructions. Along with photos of the projects are pictures of dramatic creations credited to other artists. These occasionally overwhelm the photos meant to illustrate the procedures, but they still provide a dazzling array of jewelry-box options to make in the future. Stephanie Zvirin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"* "A dazzling array of jewellery-box options." - Booklist * "A comprehensive study of the genre at its best." - Art Jewelry" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579905625
• ISBN-13: 978-1579905620
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 8.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,162,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marthe Le Van is an editor for Lark Jewelry. Since 2000, she has written, edited, juried, or curated more than 40 titles. The books she's authored on making jewelry include 30-Minute Earrings, 30-Minute Necklaces, Stitched Jewels, Prefab Jewelry, Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects, and The Art of Jewelry: Paper Jewelry. Marthe has also served as the editor for all jewelry books in Lark's popular "500" series, as well as the juror for 500 Wedding Rings and the curator for Masters: Gold. She is a member of the Art Jewelry Forum and the Society of North American Golsmiths. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Inspiration, not Necessarily for Beginners, April 1, 2006

By 

Biffybeans - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

Like all Lark books, this book is exceptional in it's choice of imagery. There are so many outstanding examples of found object jewelry, that this book is enough to give anyone's muse a hefty jolt of adrenalin.

I would like to emphasize that I do not believe this would be the best choice for a novice artist looking to learn techniques for making such assemblages. Many basic and advanced skills such as sawing, riveting and soldering are briefly covered, but I do not believe that they are meant to be the main focus of the book.

Projects included in the book list step-by-step instructions, but none show photos of the work in progress. This appears to be a major oversight, but it does allow the instructions be open to interpretation of the reader for future projects.

If looking to learn more about the various jewelry making techniques which could be used in found object jewelry, I highly recommend Joanna Gollberg's "Making Metal Jewelry: Projects, Techniques, Inspiration" which specifically covers cold connection techniques, (connections made without the use of heat) Tim McCreight's "Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing" for cold connection and soldering techniques, or Carles Codina's
"The Complete Book of Jewelry Making: A Full-Color Introduction To The Jeweler's Art."

As a side note, I was quite amazed that no pieces were represented from two of the most prominent found object artists, Thomas Mann and Keith Lo Bue.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Found Objects=Fun Book, January 6, 2007

By 

R. Eberhard "Eclectic Studio" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

Marthe Le Van has put together a fun collection of easy to locate "found objects", the designs are usually funky and are achievable if you have a gerneral understanding of jewellery making. With written directions only, no pictures of the step by step, this is not for a beginner. There is a good introduction, listing the tools and terms together with basic instructions at the start of how to do certain tasks - i.e soldering, wire wrapping etc. Loads of ideas from pencils, to toothpicks,fur, bone and broken records etc. I especially liked the Check it Out section contained in each project, this section gives a brief overview/history of the material used. Not all projects have a Track it Down Paragraph, but when it is listed it is very handy, listing ideas such as "The electrical wire in the brooch came out of an old radio". Gallery was good but not brilliant as it could have been. Overall a nice book,glad I added it to my collection. I am sure my Mixed Media Jewellery students will appreciate it.

28 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Clever ideas with surprising materials, October 29, 2005

By 

Beader in Michigan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fabulous Jewelry from Found Objects: Creative Projects, Simple Techniques (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

I paged through this book at the store, and was pleasantly surprised by the clever variety of jewelry shown. Necklaces and bracelets are made with all sorts of things, from Scrabble tiles to colored pencil stubs to laminated dried rose petals to bottle caps. Additionally, there was some great photography of funky jewelry by other artists, including a rosary made of earplugs and a bracelet made with tiny lightbulbs. The projects seemed to range from beginner to fairly advanced, but I mostly looked at the photos, so I can't say much about the text. Usually when I look at jewelry books I see a few good ideas and a lot of stuff I wouldn't want to make, so I was surprised by how much cool stuff this book had. I might go back and buy it.