Customer Reviews

The Workbench Guide to Jewelry Techniques

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a new book by second time author Anastasia Young. Her website is located here: [...] . Her first book, Jewelry Techniques: The Essential Guide to Choosing and Using Materials, Stones and Settings, was a well received reference source.

The Workbench Guide is a high quality hardcover, 320 page text which a reader might like to consider adding to his or her permanent library of "how to" books. Packed with 400 photographs, 200 illustrations and 100 charts, it doesn't allow your mind to wander for a second as it guides you step by step through the five sections it is divided into. Whether purchased by a serious student of jewelry design and technique, or just by a passionate lover of jewelry who privately, safely teaches herself as much as she can, there is valuable knowledge to be found in this book.

I am not a believer of choosing one book as the "be all and end all" for any process of learning. I am well aware that there are fine books in existence already [ here are a few, for example ,
1. Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing (Jewelry Crafts) by Tim McCreight
2,The Complete Jewelry Making Course: Principles, Practice and Techniques: A Beginner's Course for Aspiring Jewelry Makers by Jinx McGrath

3. Jewelry Making Techniques Book (Quarto Book)
Elizabeth Olver .

There are many, many more ]. However it is a good idea to stir up new energy and insight by adding to older favorites, whether you are the teacher or the student. Artists create amazing new styles of jewelry all the time and some of them are exhibited in here. How to make them is explained, carefully.

Some of the subjects covered are shown as part of the design on the front of the book :
Engraving, Chasing and repousse, Fusing, Riveting, Enameling (one of my favorite parts), Drilling, Piercing,
Cutting, Filing, Annealing, Soldering, Pickling, Wirework, Fold Forming, Bending Metal, Hammering, Carving, Mounting and setting stones, polishing, Stamping, Dappling/swaging, Forging, Anticlastic raging, Hydraulic press, Wax carving and modeling, and masses more.

The book's sections are as follows:
First there is a history of jewelry making. Then come the five sections, very clear and extremely helpful if you are searching out something specific.
Chapter 1: Work Space, Tools, and Materials
Chapter 2: Techniques
Chapter 3: Design
Chapter 4: Going Into Business
Chapter 5: Reference (for example, Directory of Gemstones,Conversions, Suppliers and more)

As I said, any one book is not sufficient to teach a reader every aspect of jewelry making, design , photography, selling, and more, no matter how good that book is. But if you are building yourself a solid library of jewelry technique books, I recommend this consistently fine addition: The Workbench Guide to Jewelry Techniques, by Anastasia Young. I think you will be happy to own it. It truly is quite successful as a text which attempts not to leave anything out!

A few months ago I purchased Complete Metalsmith: Professional Edition by Tim McCreight. As much as I love his book, I love this one even more.

This is a beautiful book with gorgeous photographs and a wealth of information. I've been a Silversmith for about 15 years and even I learned some new tricks and techniques.

This book, along with Tim McCreight's Complete Metalsmith is a must have for any metalsmith's library. But if I had to choose between one or the other, this is the one I would choose.

I'm a huge "How To Book" reader and most How To books fall short of what I'd like to see in them, but this one actually surprised me by giving me more than I expected.

Love it!

This book has great step by step photos of jewelry making techniques. Could almost be used as a substitute to taking a silver jewelry making class. I'm still digesting this book, but it was worth the money. Certainly good for a beginner.

I am in my first year of Metal Arts at the Community College Level. As much as I appreciate the great teachers, I need something written and organized to review at the end of each class.

The Workbench Guide is the book that I needed. The clear directions and great photography make it a resource I can review as I learn each new skill. The organization happens to fall along the same line as the classes I am taking, I assume because certain skills build on each other.

The description and use of the tools at the beginning of the book helped me immensely in putting together a basic tool box, definitely something a beginner needs to be smart about because of the costs.

I was also looking for some basic charts and information of which several are gathered at the back of the book. The Index is comprehensive. Several other jewelry books I have looked at are spotty at best so this is a definite help.

Overall, I use the book on an almost daily basis.

The review above covers the content of this book, so I'll just go on to add my own observations.. This is a lovely, fully illustrated book - full of photo's and a good variety of work. It covers a lot of techniques and gives a brief demo of them. These are not in depth though, they don't go into great detail and if a certain technique interests you or you want to learn it, I'd say you would probably need to find further, more detailed, reference. It covers a lot, so this was to be expected. I think its a very good book for showing the large variety of techniques available to us and it does a really good job of introducing the reader to the various methods with photo's and work examples.. It also has some great sections near the back of the book covering personal design work and the business side of jewellery making - what jewellery do you make? ie; is it studio jewellery, fashion jewellery, fine jewellery etc.. These sections are really useful to read. The author, anastasia young, is a lecturer at central st martain's in london and the work that comes out of that university is incredible. Having visited there I can confirm that it is a high achieving course and the students push themselves utterly. Considering the work that emerges from this university, I find it very exciting that one of its lecturers/tutors is now sharing her knowledge and thoughts/processes/techniques in beautifully put together books.. She has also added a section on outsourcing - getting work electroplated, cast, set etc.. this is a brilliant resource - particularly for us brits! (as it has extremely useful addresses and contacts) (O:

To sum up, this is a beautiful and useful book - somewhat of an encyclopedia of techniques - it is definately worth having and will be informative. However, it does not cover all these workbench techniques in great detail, sometimes not really enough to successfully achieve a result, unless you already have some experience - so perhaps bear this in mind.. I am glad I got it and I would not be without it now in my growing library! I think that this cover vers is also the nicest.. (I got mine from the states as the UK vers has a different cover and came out a little bit later)

I rarely write reviews, but I just received this book and regret that it was not available a few years ago when I started jewelry making. It is beautifully laid out, nice pictures, and very comprehensive. Although comprehensive, unlike other overview books, it provides the detail of how-to. I especially like the indicators provided that indicate whether the tools are "must have basic", basic, or intermediate. Unfortunately, the basic level is very broad. It would have provided better start-up guidance if they had reduced skill level of basic and added the category of advanced.

The complete Metalsmith is a nice reference that every jewelry maker should own as a quick reference. But if you can only buy one, I would recommend this one. I consider myself at the basic/intermediate level but I would expect this book would be a great reference and inspiration for the more advanced jewelery artists as well. And a side benefit, the text is big enough that I don't need reading glasses to read it :)

This book covers everything from the tools required, work space & studio set up, techniques and several projects. It's also accompanied by pictures on all the tools, work space, how-to pictures and the lovely gallery pictures. It's the most complete book I have in my library and I recommend it to novices and professionals alike. This book is not loaned to anyone and I keep it near my work bench for not only instructional guidance but also for inspiration. If you only have one book in your library this is it!

As a novice metal smith and experienced designer, I have found the book to be invaluable! Many processes and use of materials and tools are explained clearly. It is a great bench reference book. I am excited to try my hand at some new techniques.

This is a wonderful book. Every Jeweler should have a copy of this well made hardback book. It covers ever facet of Jewelry making techniques. I am constantly referring to it for inspiration. This is one book your studio just can't live without.

The Workbench Guide includes numerous techniques with clear, detailed descriptions, yet not too long. Techniques are well illustrated, with clear examples. Each section found me fascinated.