Jewellery Book Wish List - Christmas 2013

Around this time last year I drew up a wishlist of jewellery books I'd love to look through, learn from, and generally indulge my reading head in. Looking back through the list, I see I managed a paltry two out of six in terms of this goal. Not great really. But rather than rehash the remnants of that old list, I've come up with a whole new set of books I'd love to find in my Christmas stocking...

I have a hankering to set stones again. I've done it on occasion in the past and loved how relatively fast it can be to gain amazing results, but I could do with some practice and a few refresher pointers. I  have a small selection of beautiful gems I would love to be able to wear, so Stonesetting for Contemporary Jewellery Makers by Melissa Hunt could help me out very much indeed.

I've read a little about Polymer Clay Master Class, on the web, how innovating and exciting it sounds, and would love to look, and learn from its pages. I treated myself to a pasta maker with some birthday money earlier this year, and not to make pasta with, but as yet it's still sitting in its box...this book could change that.

I love to solder. Yes, it always makes me slightly nervous, the naked flame, the heat, and the need to be ever so careful and then some. I keep a fire extinguisher near at all time. But I still love the alchemy of it, it and The Art of Soldering for Jewellery Makers by Wing Mun Devenney, would no doubt allow me to increase my skills and enjoy it that little bit more... (and I did get this for Christmas!)

Copper intrigues me but I have found it, at times, challenging to work with after spending so long soldering, piercing and hammering a totally different metal like silver. A book like this one, Contemporary Copper Jewelry by Sharilyn Miller, may either give me some hints, inspire me, or hopefully both.

Hot Connections Jewelry: The Complete Sourcebook of Soldering Techniques by Jennifer Chin, would sit very nicely with both the book above on soldering, and a book I already own on cold connections...

The breadth of this book, Silversmithing for Jewelry Makers by Elizabeth Bone holds a great deal of promise. It looks like it may well cover everything, a review of old skills and an insight into new ones, and that kind of book is pretty wonderful to discover...







Do let me know what's on your book Christmas list, and if you have any of the ones listed here. I'd love to learn more about them.

PS. This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. This means that if you click through to the book in question on one of those links, and then buy it, Amazon will credit me a small amount of money, from their profits! that I will then spend on buying silver wire. It won't cost you anything. I signed up to their affiliate program a while ago but the last time I used any of their links on this blog was around this time last year when I did my last Christmas book list...I suspect I'm not going to make my fortune this way...