Customer Reviews

Vintage Redux

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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!

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!

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.

Like most artists and craftspeople, I collect stuff to use in my work. Some of that "stuff" is vintage (read: old and/or out of style) jewelry.
I've taken apart several pieces, especially to use interesting clasps. Most of the time I go no further than that, so have plastic storage boxes full of this vintage jewelry. It's hard top figure out to do with some of the pieces, so they sit and age along with their shiny friends, waiting for inspiration.

Enter Vintage Redux: Remake Classic and Collectible Jewelry by Brenda Schweder. The goal of Vintage Redux: Remake Classic and Collectible Jewelry is to show reader how to take a drawer or box or bin full of forgotten jewelry and make something new and fun.

The author begins begins by defining vintage and what is collectible versus what is fair game for recycling. No sense taking apart a valuable piece of costume jewelry when there is plenty of sparklies out there with little monetary value but with a lot of potential for recycling into something wonderful. The book also contains a useful section on cleaning, repairing and storing jewelry that is useful.

Schweder has organized the projects into three 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 other pieces. Heirloom Redux adds a modern touch to your heirlooms without altering your treasure.

With more than 30 projects, those who like traditional and those who like totally over-the-top will both find inspiration here. Each project is presented in step-by-step instructions and photos.

In addition to the author's projects, this lovely book also contains a gallery of work by other artists.

There is a lot of inspiration between the covers of this book. Even though you probably won't make a project exactly like those shown in the book (face it---who is going to have the same "stuff"?) you will be inspired to dig out those forgotten pieces and make something, fun, original and fresh.

I'm so happy with this book. I went antique shop hopping and came home with so many vintage and unusual pieces but drew a blank on how to even begin designing new pieces into jewelry that i would wear or give as gifts. This book is really going to be helpful. I was nervous about taking anything apart and how i would go about changing the way to attach it (think old brooch with a pin backing or clip on earrings) This showed those exact types of peices and different ways they were reused.

VINTAGE REDEUX is a book with nice step-by-step instructions, that a reader will find most helpful. Also, the photographs are trmendously inspiring. Some of the ideas are more fun to look at rather than actually wearing (eg: the asymmetrical chain necklace on page 73, or the high-school ring bracelet on page 80).... but still, I liked many of the ideas because they can inspire a reader to modify their own version of an old jewelry piece & try something different and unique. I think a reader would have to add their own ideas to similar pieces, in order to make some of the heavier pieces wearable. Yet, this book allows the reader's creative juices to flow, and for that, this book is worth keeping in one's own Library.

Here's a brief description of some of the pieces that intrigued me & inspired me:
1) The thimble necklace using an old thimble as a focal pendant; 2) Redoing the older bangles project into a new bracelet; 3)The tapestry ribbon bracelet; 4) The rhinestone buckle ribbon bracelet; 5) The cream-colored necklace using old plastic necklaces and white trinkets; 6) The colorful ribbon belt made by using a bunch of old plastic buckles in an evenly spaced row; 7) The bangles transformed into a new piece by glueing old trinkets and rhinestones all around.

In my opinion, some of the pieces are for an intermediate-level jewelry maker and not for the novice. However, anybody can be inspired by the photos, no matter what level of expertise.

I returned this book and would never have bought it if I'd seen it in person. I felt the designs lacked any design at all. Just take whatever you have, attach it to something else and wear it! There wasn't one project I like or would be caught dead wearing. I have two other books covering the same subject and they are wonderful inspirations for my own designs. This would be a great book for a teenager or young girl. There wasn't anything I liked about the book, sorry. Since it's not here at hand I cannot be more specific.

Lots of great ideas, and a lot of inspiration for projects using my old pieces. Reuse, recycle, repurpose, yes!!!! Good photos and the gallery is really grea.
I highly recommend this for anyone who has "stuff" in their drawers that they can't part with, but no longer wear.

Overall, a good book with some interesting pieces - more newer jewelry than I was looking for but some great ideas in terms of construction that could be used with jewelry from any era.

"Vintge Redux" has a "scattering" of jewelry ideas using parts of other jewelry, combining them into a new piece. There are other books that have given many more ideas on how to re-style, and the process to make different pieces of jewelry. I expected this book to give more details and examples of "Vintage Jewelry" that a person could create! Please check other Amazon selections for similar books~