Professional Goldsmithing : A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Jewelry Techniques (Hardcover)

~ (Author), George McLean (Illustrator), Barry Blau (Photographer)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 226 pages
• Publisher: R A J a Press (January 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965104907
• ISBN-13: 978-0965104906
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,203,714 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and useful book, September 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Professional Goldsmithing: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Jewelry Techniques (Hardcover)

This book is essentially a programmed course of instruction in jewelry fabrication. It is tightly focused on goldsmithing and nothing else - not casting, not stone setting, not surface treatments, just fabrication. This focus allows a thorough introduction to the field. The book uses a series of projects to develop your skills in an incremental fashion. The projects progress from a simple forged and soldered bracelet to an extremely challenging cluster ring. The project instructions are an artfully crafted combination of explanation, instruction, and full-color photographs. I used this book while taking a one-semester course in metals and it allowed me to work a full year beyond my expected performance level. This is, without a doubt, the most beautiful and effective "how-to" book I have ever seen, and rates about twice as good as the nearest example I have ever read in jewelry fabrication. Bear in mind that the author expects you to have a fairly well equipped jewelry shop available, including a rolling mill (flat, round and square wire rolls) a good torch and a drawbench with a good range of drawplates. I would still recommend going to a school to learn jewelry fabrication rather than trying to go it alone with just this book. Having said that, this is a wonderful book just to look at, even if you never build anything.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great instructional book on Goldsmithing., December 23, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Scottsdale Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional Goldsmithing: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Jewelry Techniques (Hardcover)

Full of tips which would take years to learn in the shop. Well written, good photos, lots of projects. A definite must for anyone working in gold or silver at any level.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Professional Goldsmithing., May 27, 2003

By	Darrell J Evans (Rossmoyne, Western australia Australia) - See all my reviews

What a brilliant piece of literature. Any person who has not used such a book as this is definitely missing out.The instructions and the models are very good, and useable, and will enable any who use this book to attain a very high degree of skill.