Teach Yourself Visually Jewelry Making and Beading - Softcover

Michaels, Chris Franchetti

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470101504 ISBN 13: 9780470101506

Verlag: WILEY, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

A step-by-step, full-color VISUAL guide to the art of jewelry making

A 2006 study found that beading and jewelry making is the nation’s sixth most popular craft. This guide shows readers how to do everything from basic bead stringing to wire wrapping, all in the series’ easy-to-follow, full-color format. The book includes 20 detailed patterns for making earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and more.

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Chris Franchetti Michaels is a writer and jewelry artisan specializing in beaded designs, wirework, and metal fabrication. She has written extensively about jewelry and jewelry making on the Internet since 2003, and she is the author of Beading VISUAL Quick Tips, Wire Jewelry VISUAL Quick Tips, and Teach Yourself VISUALLY Beadwork. Chris has also appeared on several episodes of the DIY Network television show Jewelry Making, and her designs have been featured in popular jewelry project books. Visit her website BeadJewelry.net for more help and inspiration.

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You've probably coveted jewelry you've seen in artsy boutiques and fashion magazines or envied friends who have the perfect bling to accent everything. With this book, you'll learn to craft designs that are chic but inexpensive. With hundreds of detailed photos, this book covers tools and supplies, bead stringing and weaving, wire wrapping, and more. Terrific projects will get you started and inspire you to create your own jewelry and beadwork designs.

Concise two-page lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick review

• Each skill or technique is defined and described
• Detailed color photos demonstrate each step
• Step-by-step instructions accompany each photo
• Helpful tips provide additional guidance

Aus dem Klappentext

You've probably coveted jewelry you've seen in artsy boutiques and fashion magazines or envied friends who have the perfect bling to accent everything. With this book, you'll learn to craft designs that are chic but inexpensive. With hundreds of detailed photos, this book covers tools and supplies, bead stringing and weaving, wire wrapping, and more. Terrific projects will get you started and inspire you to create your own jewelry and beadwork designs.

Concise two-page lessons show you all the steps to a skill and are ideal for quick review

• Each skill or technique is defined and described
• Detailed color photos demonstrate each step
• Step-by-step instructions accompany each photo
• Helpful tips provide additional guidance

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Teach Yourself VISUALLY Jewelry Making & Beading

By Chris Franchetti Michaels

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2007 Chris Franchetti Michaels
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-10150-6

Chapter One

Introduction to Jewelry Making and Beading

Become a Jewelry Artisan 4 Beads and Beading Supplies 6 Wire and Wirework Supplies 18 Macram Knotting and Braiding Supplies 24 Jewelry Findings 26

Are you interested in learning how to make jewelry and work with beads, but unsure where to begin? Let this book guide you through the basic skills and techniques you will need to create the most popular styles of jewelry and beadwork. In this chapter, you will learn about the essential tools, equipment, and supplies used for common tasks. Then you can set up your work area and start exploring this creative hobby.

Become a Jewelry Artisan

Jewelry making and beading are very personal and rewarding crafts. With some basic supplies and a little creativity, you can adorn yourself, and the people in your life, with beautiful objects that communicate your inner feelings and your sense of style.

People have been crafting jewelry and beading for thousands of years. Throughout human history, jewelry and beads have symbolized social status, wealth, and spiritual beliefs. Some cultures even attribute magical powers to their jewelry and gemstones. Today, many people still view jewelry as more than mere decoration; they use it to symbolize love and commitment, religion, politics, life experiences, the birth of children, and important memories. Our choice of jewelry conveys important information about us. It helps us-and those around us-to understand who we are.

When you begin making your own jewelry and beaded artwork, you will use many of the same techniques that ancient crafters used thousands of years ago. Your designs will be special because you made them by hand to your own specifications. You will experience the satisfaction of making jewelry you really love (and that fits you), while avoiding the cheaply made, mass-produced jewelry that you see at so many retail stores.

You can also save money by making your own jewelry. Using the basic techniques covered in this book, you can affordably make jewelry that is very similar to expensive designer jewelry from department stores and boutiques. You will also find that gift-giving becomes far less challenging for the jewelry and beadwork lovers on your gift lists.

One of the most rewarding aspects of jewelry making and beading is that your creations can serve any purpose and match any style that you choose. If you love fashion, you can be your own personal fashion jewelry designer. If you're interested in a particular culture, religion, spiritual path, or time in history, your designs can reflect what's important to you. You can even reassemble your old jewelry into new, updated designs.

As you work through this book, allow yourself plenty of time to experiment and play with new techniques. You may master some skills quickly, but others will take practice. Be patient, and keep in mind that you will be able to complete projects faster over time. Enjoy each new accomplishment, and use your newfound talents to bring more creativity and enrichment into your life.

Beads and Beading Supplies

Beads are the most popular and widely available jewelry-making components. You can find them at craft stores, bead shops, and on the Internet. (See pages 282-283 for a list of bead resources.) Typically, beads are categorized by material, shape, and size.

Common Bead Materials

GLASS BEADS

Glass beads are available in just about any color and style you can imagine. Their quality is often linked to where and how they are made. For example, many glass beads currently made in China and India are less consistent in size and color than glass beads from Europe; however, they typically are less expensive than European beads.

Some of the most popular glass beads from Europe are made in the Czech Republic. These are often referred to as Czech glass beads. Some Czech glass beads are pressed, or manufactured in molds. You can find them in a lot of fun shapes like flowers, animals, and even fruit. Other Czech glass beads are fire polished. Fire polishing is a special process that gives glass extra shine and sparkle. But fire-polished glass beads are not quite as eye-catching as crystal beads. Crystal is glass that contains a small amount of lead. The lead makes the glass softer so that it can be cut into more precise shapes. It also changes the way light reflects within the glass, creating extreme shine. The highest-quality crystal beads are made in Austria and Czech Republic, but less expensive variations are also manufactured in China.

Seed beads are tiny glass beads that are commonly used to create woven beaded fabric. You can also use them to make thin, beaded strands. As with larger beads, seed beads vary in quality depending on how and where they were made. You will learn more about bead weaving and selecting quality seed beads in Chapter 5.

Although most glass beads are made by machine, some are individually handmade. Lampwork beads are an especially popular style of handmade glass beads. They are crafted by manually applying molten glass to metal rods.

Other beads are created by a combination of mechanical and handmade methods. For example, some manufactured glass beads are hand faceted, or cut to have multiple flat surfaces, to mimic the look of gemstone beads.

GEMSTONE BEADS

Most gemstone beads are made from semiprecious natural stone. Semiprecious stone is more abundant, and less costly, than the precious gemstones used in fine jewelry settings. Agate, jade, quartz, jasper, and turquoise are examples of common semiprecious stones. You can also find semiprecious varieties of more expensive stones like ruby, amethyst, emerald, and citrine.

Gemstone beads are usually shaped by hand. Like glass beads, their quality and cost often depend on where they were made. Some of the most affordable gemstone beads are made in India. They are colorful and beautiful, but their shapes and sizes are less consistent than more expensive gemstone beads from China.

Many gemstone beads are treated, which means that they may be dyed, oiled, heated, irradiated, or injected with waxes. Treatments improve the look of lower-quality stones, but treated stones remain less valuable than Higher-quality, untreated stones. Treated gemstone is not the same as synthetic gemstone. Synthetic gemstone beads are not really made from stone; they are another material made to look like stone. Many synthetic stones-especially synthetic quartzes-are made from glass. They can be very beautiful, but they are typically considered inferior to natural stone.

CERAMIC BEADS

Ceramic beads are made from earthen clay. They can have a simple, natural look or be highly decorative. Colorful ceramic beads are usually painted, printed, or glazed. With painted ceramic beads, the paint is brushed on or the beads are dipped into paint. A coat of lacquer may be applied to seal the paint in place. Printed ceramic beads are either stamped with paint or have designs transferred onto them from other surfaces. Transferred designs are usually applied using heat, but otherwise they are similar to stamps. Printed and transferred designs are less time-consuming to create,...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: WILEY
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0470101504
• ISBN 13: 9780470101506
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 290
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Wiley-VCH GmbH; product_safety@wiley.com; ; Boschstrasse 12; Weinheim; 69469; Deutschland