Vintage Redux [Paperback]

Brenda Schweder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2008

Brenda Schweder is back to show readers how to use fun finds and collectibles in modern jewelry pieces that work with today’s fashions yet reflect the past. Thirty-five projects use jewelry from nearly every decade of the last century and show readers of all skill levels a multitude of "re-do" design possibilities.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brenda Schweder, a contributor to BeadStyle magazine, is the author of Junk to Jewelry. Her projects have been featured in Bead&Button, BeadStyle, and Art Jewelry magazines. She lives in Waukesha, WI.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Kalmbach Books (September 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871162660
• ISBN-13: 978-0871162663
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #147,894 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Upcycling for Your Box of Grandma's Jewelry!, November 9, 2008

By 

Cindy Gimbrone "Glass Beadmaker" (New York State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vintage Redux (Paperback)

How much dust has collected on the jewelry grandma gave you? It's time to pull it out and upcycle it. How you ask? Enter author Brenda Schweder who has the answer for you in her new book, Vintage Redux: Remake Class and Collectible Jewelry. Schweder begins by defining vintage and what is collectible versus "redux-able." There's a section on cleaning, repairing and storing jewelry that I found particularly useful. A re-stringing project at the very beginning gets you in the frame of mind to remake jewelry.

Next are the projects organized into three major categories, New Order Redux, Unexpected Redux and Heirloom Redux. New Order Redux includes projects where vintage is remade into modern pieces. Unexpected Redux shows the reader how to use vintage buckles, buttons and even a cape closure and make them into accessories. Heirloom Redux adds modern designs to your heirlooms without altering your treasure. The "Classy Rings" heirloom project using 1940's high school rings for a bracelet was a favorite.

I'm what Schweder describes as a purist, i.e., a person who likes to keep pieces intact. I'm glad to see a whole chapter dedicated to heirloom redux. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief when I realized I don't have to take every piece I own apart, drill and glue it to make it modern.

Having said that, I may have to change my ways. The allure of Schweder's creative projects is almost irresistible. A couple of my favorites are "Mona Lisas' Smiles" modernizing a graduated cameo necklace with chain and "Mod Squad" that takes the big flower pins of the 1960's and makes them into cool bracelets.

Each project page has a little story attached to it. Schweder shares the inspiration and/or story behind each piece making the project page more than just a listing of materials. Every project needs a list of materials and steps,however, and each is well written and easy to follow. On the right page, "the old" is shown in its original condition. Under it are the "new" additions. On the opposite page is a full picture of the finished projects. Schweder adds helpful jewelry making tips through out.

Vintage Redux is so inspiring, you'll be running to your stash of grandma's jewelry or if you don't have grandma's jewelry, you'll be running to the flea market to get a stash of jewelry! Schweder's book is awesome upcycling of Grandma's jewelry!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to Recycle Your Costume Jewelry and Keep Up with the Hottest Trend Going!, December 15, 2008

By 

Jean Yates "jean, jewelry designer, book and... (United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Vintage Redux (Paperback)

Let's face it! In this day and age, we don't have a penny to spare. When this simple fact is combined with our newfound interest in repurposing jewelry "finds" from earlier times, such as the era of the nineteen fifties for example, you come up with a winner of a book: Vintage Redux by Brenda Schweder.
Brenda Schweder is a writer and designer who often appears in BeadStyle Magazine, Bead and Button, Art Jewelry, and other Kalmbach publications. That is nothing to sniff at, as those are some of the greats in the industry!
There a reason she has such appeal: her approach to making jewelry, and in this particular book, "remaking" jewelry by using pieces which have lived earlier lives in different forms, is clever and never forced or facile. She is able to take a piece of jewelry which is almost impossible to imagine as anything but what it started out to be, for example a high school class ring, and make it into a clasp for a glamorous bracelet ("Classy Ring"), with an appropropriate toggle bar which suits the nature of the design to perfection.
I found some of her pieces used color in a way which I never personally choose...and yet I respected every piece which she created in the book. Why would this be? Because she makes sense with each item she redesigns. So what if I am not a brown girl, or a deep red girl, or a coral girl? I was able to LEARN something from each project!
Additionally, there was plenty I certainly did like and even love!
Items I was attracted to in particular were, for example, "With a Click of Her Heels" a fantastic, "luxe" cuff bracelet which the designer made from a rhinestone shoe buckle. With its background of wide black velvet ribbon, I coveted this sparkling bauble!
As a jump ring maniac, I also admired the "Newfangled Old Bangles"! These are a set of five 1950's silver bangles from Mexico, each one different, which get the jump ring and charm treatment by Brenda. What an instant update! Really easy and really great!

The author knows her vintage, too. Just take a quick look at the interview she conducts with her pal Merilyn Lauria, who sells costume and vintage jewelry. I have never been so enlightened by two people discussing vintage costume jewelry in my life. Absolutely fascinating stuff, even if you think you know a bit about the greats in the costume jewelry industy! Learn, learn, learn from this book!

I had a ball studying the incredibly clever manner in which she used buckles, chandelier parts, a resin filled pocket watch and a bell pull (this was a project she did with a friend and called "Monk's Timespiece"--really nice), berry clusters which came from a millinery store circa 1910, which she remade into the focus of a pretty choker, a thimble which became the pendant in a project called "A Change Will Do It Good", and many others, all fun to see, study, and to examine.

This is a fascinating and unique book.
If you have a hip jewelry designer in the family, or you want to BE a hip jewelry designer, check this book out! I would say that the push toward unique inspiration alone which you will get from this book, Vintage Redux, by this highly intelligent and charming designer, Brenda Scheweder, makes it worth purchasing, learning from, and enjoying!

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Re-Purpose Your Treasures, November 3, 2008

By 

Erin L. Prais-hintz "Tesori Trovati Jewelry" (Stevens Point, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vintage Redux (Paperback)

I pre-ordered Vintage Redux by Brenda Schweder simply because the title intrigued me. I am so glad that I did! This book is filled with fabulous eye-candy. Brenda has a knack for taking those treasures that are lurking in the back of your jewelry box, the flea market table or the dusty box in the antique store and turning them into one-of-a-kind statement pieces. I am an independent jewelry designer and I, too, have been "upcycling" similar treasures into the most fabulous jewelry. When I got this I was at work but I couldn't keep myself from peeking inside at it's pages until I found that I had read the entire book! I appreciate Brenda's funny, conversational style...it seems that she is right there with me as she shares her secrets on re-purposing. I love that you can create new from old, combine eras as a link from past to present, reuse materials that might otherwise have been viewed as junk destined for the landfill, and come up with something so unique no one else has ever seen nor will they ever be able to duplicate entirely! That is true creativity. Elevating the ordinary and the forgotten is a true art, and Ms. Schweder is indeed a true artist. Buy this book if you are seeking real inspiration, not a "how-to" of copycat designs.