Customer Reviews

Jewelry From Nature: 45 Great Projects Using Sticks & Stones, Seeds & Bones

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

 

 

I feel guilty for not donating this book to my public library! Cathy Yow has filled this work with beautiful illustrations and fantastic ideas for unique, one of a kind pieces that reflect the abundance of nature. She even includes instructions for making jewelry from ten bean soup mix! Instructions are simple and easy to understand, even for the beginner. Standard jewelry making tools are used for most projects. A drill or dremel is required for many. An absolute treasure to own and a highly valuable book for those who sell their jewelry and want to offer something out of the ordinary.

With elegant illustrations, Cathy Yow shows us just how abundant Mother Earth really is. Your creative spirit will soar and the possibilities are endless. Beans, bones, shells and sticks become beautiful, one of a kind pieces. The projects require a bit more work than traditional beadwork, but the most complicated tool required is a drill or dremel. Many of the projects could be completed by children with adult supervision and would be quite educational. I found a project that I could easily complete with shells that I already have an abundance of the first time I looked through it. If you make jewelry to sell, you will be inspired to create true one of a kind pieces. If you don't have an interest in making jewelry, this is a wonderful coffee table book and would be a valuable addition to any public or school library. Highly recommended.

Cathy gives us "45 great projects using sticks and stones, seeds and bones." The next time you go to eat fried chicken, save the bones! Cathy has a great use for them, as indeed she has for many other natural materials. Here is a partial list:

Corn, Rudraksha seed, Snuffbox bean, Candlenuts, Sea Heart, Green seashells, Bedouin clove, Rose petals, Olive wood, Bamboo, Beetle wing, Tagua nut, Snake vertebrae, Mescal bean, Chinaberry, Beach glass

Just look around your yard (grass, leaves, twigs) or check your spice rack (cloves, nutmeg seeds, bay leaves). Anything is fair game for jewelry making for Cathy.

I didn't like this book, I was thinking a book that made jewelry like pine needle crafts etc... the indian methods that were almost entirely natural, it seemed like I would find some interesting ideas and I was imagining natural dyes etc.... There is metal in here though, and you use a lot of things that you would buy at a regular craft jewelry store anyway. A little boring - also it had a bunch of Christian stuff which seems to be the trend these days - write a book on something seemingly benign like a craft and sell you religion. There were rosaries and etc.... If I wanted a religious book I would've bought one - I wanted a craft book. I don't like being deceived all the time. Everything out there is subversive political, or religious crap. I just want what it's supposed to be. A.craft.book. It's deceptive and I resent it because I hate Christianity also - it's so vile and woman-hating, I want away from it and everywhere I go I spend money and end up being tricked with crap I'm trying to spend my life avoiding. Can you please just write a book without child sacrifice and hating woman stuff slathered in it? Who has the money to publish this stuff relentlessly? Is it possible to get out of this network of controlled crap? Why are there few books published without subversive propaganda anymore? The only redeeming feature of this book were the examples of the many kinds of beans and natural things you can try to make something with. I could've probably figured it out on my own though.