Practical Jewelry Rendering (Spiral-bound)

by Tim McCreight (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This practical tool-in-a-book combines instruction on rendering techniques with unique guides that assist designers as they conceive jewelry and other works for the body. An envelop on the inside back cover contains a useful plastic template of circles, squares and other shapes as well as a ruler.

From the Publisher
This unusual book is offers not only instruction, but dozens of illustrations of the human figure that can be used as armatures upon which to design jewelry. By placing a sketch paper over one of these figures, a designer is able to see how a shape relates to the ear, shoulder or neck. The effect is dramatic, and leads to instant improvement in designing wearable jewelry.

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Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 96 pages
• Publisher: Brynmorgen Press (December 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0961598441
• ISBN-13: 978-0961598440
• Product Dimensions: 12.5 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,683,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great teacher knows just how much to present..., July 21, 2000

By	David Barnett (Western Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

My inability to draw held me back for years. Envisioning and creating without first drafting, while a worthwhile exercise, plays mischief with proportions and processes when you put tool to metal. Rendering allows one to develop a design, successively refining it until reaching for one's tools becomes logical and timely. And good visual skills avoid misunderstandings, false starts and waste in commissioned work.

Practical Jewelry Rendering gets right to the nuts and bolts. One is given explicit instruction in three media (monochrome pencil, color pencil, and gouache/watercolor) along a direct and viable path to an attractive, accurate image of what one proposes to make. The exercises are presented in a very few pages, succinctly, and with typical McCreight lucidity. No waste. Right to the point. The included template lets you jump right in without involved tedious drafting. You quickly attain facility and confidence. While the examples are simple, they're not overly so and certainly not uninspired, and most importantly, they're realizable. Sure, there are other artistic approaches, but the author never forgets the reader wants to show the design firstly, and will augment technique and develop style, later. One thing, plan to spend a hundred dollars for supplies and equipment, but rest assured this will last ten years and pay dividends in time, materials saved, more commissions and better craftsmanship.

This book perfectly fit my needs, and its brevity kept it from ending up on my shelf of things I intend to do 'someday'. It went right into service, didn't scare me off, and didn't overwhelm. A good tool gets used, and this is one really good, well-designed tool.

Tim McCreight is unaffected in his teaching. He hands you the most appropriate tool and shows you how to use it easily with the least distraction. If you want to design and fabricate jewelry, get ALL his other books. If you want to render jewelry, get this one. Seriously, you could be doing it in days, not weeks. It's made a big, big difference in my work.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Practical Jewelry Rendering, June 6, 2003

By A Customer

There are only 16 pages of helpful knowledge, the rest of the book is charcoal drawings called 'StructureGuides' which are charcoal drawings of people that are not even scale enough to draw a professional rendering. There is only one tidbit of information that other books don't have. ... if you have ever drawn, designed, taken a basic drawing class ... consider buying a more advanced book, this one is beyond basic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For experienced rendering artists, January 9, 2002

By A Customer

I am a beginning bench jewelry student. I bought and skimmed though the book. I was looking for information on how to draw faceted stones, rings and so forth, especially how to incorporate perspective and draw different views of a piece. This book is more for those with experience in rendering and how to make renderings in different mediums.