Metal Craft Discovery Workshop (Paperback)

~ (Author), Opie O'Brien (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Metal is the newest big trend, and crafters are hungry for ideas for using it in everything from jewelry and home décor to scrapbooking and mixed media art. In Metal Craft Discovery Workshop, artists Linda and Opie O'Brien show easy ways to manipulate, emboss, twist and join metal without using complex soldering or traditional metal-smithing methods. They provide:

-20 unique projects including a bottle cap bracelet, mesh book cover, magnetic photo card, tin can doll and mixed-metal clock

-An extensive technique section that teaches etching, hole punching, image transferring, and metal aging

-Creative approaches for using copper, tin, brass, aluminum, found objects and recycled metals

-A special gallery section featuring even more inspirational work

About the Author

Linda and Opie O'Brien are jewellery and stamp designers and mixed media artists. Their work has appeared in US galleries and museums, and they both teach workshops.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: North Light Books (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581806469
• ISBN-13: 978-1581806465
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,626 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything I expected and MORE!, January 13, 2006

By	Sharilyn Miller (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had very high expectations when I heard that Linda and Opie O'Brien were going to write a book on their metal crafting techniques. After providing Art Doll Quarterly with a fantastic metal doll project, as the editor I knew they were ready to write a book and encouraged them to do so. Is anyone more creative or more talented than Linda and Opie? I very much doubt it! They're amazing.
Their first book is truly exceptional; it might have also been titled "Approachable Metal Crafting" because it offers so much valuable information on how a newbie like me can get into the metal arts without taking hundreds of workshops and spending thousands of dollars on tools and materials. The "Basic Metal Techniques" section is quite lengthy and thorough, detailing everything from cutting metal pieces and deconstructing tin cans for art materials to making cold joins, etching, image transfers, and much more.
The projects are sensational. You'll learn how to make a tin-can art doll, a bottle-cap frame, a metal clock with a music box inside, a "purse" made by altering a metal lunchbox, shrines, assemblage art, lots of metal jewelry, and funky items for home decor. I'm in love with this book!
Very highly recommended by Sharilyn Miller, author of Bead on a Wire.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Comprehensive!, June 8, 2006

By	K. Hurley (Menlo Park, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm a mixed media collage artist, which very regularly implements metal into my design, this book is amazing! It shows different transfer techniques as well as giving your metal a patina (either with ammonia or patina kits that can be purchased at Michaels).
It has some great inspirational pieces.
I'm also a fan of product lists (instead of vague references), which this book has in spades. It will flat out tell you what product works best.
A++++

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nobody beats the O'Briens , May 15, 2006

By	Zoe (SW, New Mexico) - See all my reviews

It's finally here: a book by Linda and Opie O'Brien. If you ever wanted to work with tin, or metal and wondered how, this is the book for you. Linda and Opie O'Brien take you through each and every step, clearly, precisely and flawlessly enabling you to reproduce anything in the book. It is unlikely that any other two artists are as generous and forthcoming as the O'Briens as they work their magic and share it fully. I have had the privilege to take several classes with Linda and Obie, and it was as if I was in the same room with them as I walked from one project to another hearing their voices as they alternate between the art of using a punch or rivet gun, and then switch gracefully into demonstrating the mysteries of image transfers.

Take any one of the projects in this book and follow the instructions and you will realize quickly, easily and with great pleasure how terrific it is to work with metal. One or two projects in this book will make you feel as if you are a metal crafter. Why? Opie and Linda step you through each project with such clarity and with a love of what they create.

Until I took a class with the O'Briens I thought metalwork would be difficult, but wonderful. After a class, and now with their book in hand, I am sure to search out all those tins, and metal I might have otherwise passed by. I've already started my search!

I rank this book, part of a discovery workshop series, among the best and a must have.