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70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but somewhat obvious for the most part., June 22, 2010
This review is from: Steampunk Style Jewelry: Victorian, Fantasy, and Mechanical Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings (Paperback)
I'm getting into steampunk now, and I hate to be the only person on here writing a 3 star review. I hate to be writing it at all, actually, as I tend to review almost everything 5 star, but I have to say that I didn't really like this book. Or, I suppose you could say that if someone gave it to me as a present, I'd say, "Hey, cool! I love this!" And I would mean it. But I'm not going to spend my own money to get it. My husband and I sat at Barnes and Noble together and flipped through this book page by page and picked the projects apart, but we weren't overly impressed and decided not to get it. You may want to do something similar.
First of all, steampunk is really cool. I LOVE it. But a lot of the stuff you see out there is just too obvious. Like, ooh, I took a chunk out of a watch and glued some stuff on it and added a pearl and now my piece is steampunk. Or gears, too. Like, a crystal with a gear hanging off of it--that's steampunk. And it is, of course, and it's super cute. But it's obvious. This is what I'm talking about, and that seems to be most of what this book is.
This book is great if you already have a huge stock of watch parts and other hard to find objects just lying around your jewelry studio. If you don't have any of this stuff, though, or are just starting out, you really aren't given any super good information on how to create neat looking pieces with stuff you may already have on hand. There are a few charming projects in here (crystals woven onto a filigree finding, for instance, which was brilliant, and almost makes me put a fourth star on my review) and some great and fun information, but over all, I simply could not bring myself to purchase this book.
If you want a book that will give you a lot of information on how to take separate items and put them together in unlikely ways, one that focuses much on techniques and in setting you up for making many of your own future and awesome designs, get Semiprecious Salvage by Stephanie Lee. It's not specifically a steampunk book, but with only a couple of alterations and additions (for instance... watch parts and gears!) you can make many of your own steampunk gems. I'm using the etching process alone which I learned from this book to create my own pieces for my steampunk jewelry. I'm taking watch stamps and etching metal with their images and thus creating my own endless supply of watch-looking parts for my pieces. It's great!
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23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A visually appealing guide, February 7, 2010
This review is from: Steampunk Style Jewelry: Victorian, Fantasy, and Mechanical Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings (Paperback)
This book although short, covers the historical aspects of the genre with word and well photographed steampunk items. What surprised me was after showcasing a particular piece, they went through a materials list and a included a few pages on how it was made, in case you thought,"hey, that's cool, I bet I could make one of those!" Which is likely to happen especially if you buy this book. As a nice extra that a book like this should not go without, is a page listing websites on where to actually find and buy the pieces parts for a project outside of scavenging an estate sale.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Put on your goggles, we'll go for a ride!, February 21, 2010
This review is from: Steampunk Style Jewelry: Victorian, Fantasy, and Mechanical Necklaces, Bracelets, and Earrings (Paperback)
In the panoply of mixed-media art books which make their daily arrival to bookshop shelves around the world, Steampunk Style Jewelry by Jean Campbell stands out as a fantastic, darkly glittering, slightly encrusted gem.
Though the main function of Steampunk Style Jewelry is to provide detailed step-by-step instructions for re-creating (or re-interpreting) 20 "Victorian, fantasy, and mechanical necklaces, bracelets, and earrings", (I'm just mad for the Minerva's Folly Cuff) and Ms. Campbell and her artist/designers do that with extraordinary exactitude, the book is equally striking as a wonderfully comprehensive guidebook to the entire world of Steampunk style from the general "community" to the specific - gear (my husband picked the Wrist-fired Gatling Gun and Lord Cockswain's Blunderbuss as two faves) and clothing. There is a plentitude of historical context, and even an innovative discussion of Steampunk's green, environmental bent!
The author enlisted the aid of author Paul Di Filippo (The Steampunk Trilogy) in an illuminating forward and includes among her designers Margot Potter, Barbe Saint John, Andrew Thornton, and Jean Yates. The eight gallery pages are just one more element that makes Steampunk Style Jewelry worth every penny.
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