Steel Wire Jewelry

Collects 35 cutting-edge projects for fashioning steel wire into earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings, in a full-color book that outlines techniques for creating chains, ribbons, clasps and closures. Original.

Covering the basics of wire knitting, this manual presents a range of 30 innovative and beautiful projects, from simple to more complex, with clear directions and illustrations. Appealing to knitters, beadworkers, wireworkers, and jewelry makers, the guide offers a complete description of tools and techniques, embellishing with beads, and making finishes for the project. A history of this unusual technique is also explored, along with tips for independent projects.

Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders features projects that combine wireworking skills with beaded jewelry design. The book is technique-driven, with chapters on wire fundamentals, terminology, materials, and basic wireworking techniques, and projects that develop the reader’s skills. The projects incorporate gemstones, crystal, glass, and pearls and are designed for both beaders and wireworkers of all skill levels. Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders includes appealing designs — all tested — for necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, pins, and jewelry components.

Featuring original ideas from top jewelry designers, this collection covers a range of contemporary and stylish projects, such as bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and pendants. Beginning with a primer on basic tools and techniques and covering fundamental wire-working skills in detail, including wire-wrapping, weaving, coiling, chain-making, hammering, texturing, and oxidizing, this guide helps jewelry makers of all skills levels develop a range of talents. Each project includes a comprehensive materials list and step-by-step instructions that guide crafters through a variety of projects, including wrapping found objects with wire, making chain mail, creating spirals, straightening wire, making jump rings and ear wires, and creating clasps. Constructed with many different materials--from precious metals to plated and colored wire--these striking creations are a mix of funky and fabulous wire designs combined with stones, beads, and cords to create an interesting and eclectic jewelry collection.

In ancient Japan, beautiful yet functional cords made with the traditional braiding art of kumihimo adorned everything from kimonos to samurai armor to prayer scrolls. In Kumihimo Wire Jewelry, innovative jewelry artist Giovanna Imperia offers a fresh twist on this time-honored technique, adapting it to create stunning wire jewelry. In addition to a concise history of kumihimo and an overview of its essential materials, tools, and techniques, readers will learn the basics of this braiding method, plus how to create 20 striking projects--stylish bracelets, rings, earrings, and necklaces--all supported with detailed, step-by-step instructions and illustrations. This comprehensive book, which also includes pieces by prominent kumihimo jewelry artists from around the world, will inspire jewelry makers, beaders, and wireworkers at all skill levels to take their craft in a vibrant new direction.

A new wire weaving technique that varies the number of wires and their thickness to create stunningly beautiful bracelets, necklaces, and pendants is introduced in this guide. Project instructions go well beyond simple line drawings to show the assembly process of each piece in a series of step-by-step photographs. The nine projects begin with an elegantly simple woven bracelet and move on to more dramatic projects that include a domed cuff bracelet with soldered bead ends, a free-form bracelet, a woven neck piece, and a pendant with a woven frame. Projects range in difficulty from easy to advanced, and many can be completed without soldering.

Explore a rustic approach to making beautiful jewelry with exciting surface effects. Rustic Wrappings is packed with over 24 wire and art bead jewelry projects and reveals the surprisingly artistic effects of applying items such as salt, vinegar, bleach, sawdust, potato chips, or baking soda to your copper, silver, brass and steel wire projects--high-end effects with low-tech techniques. Achieving these innovative effects using household products will not only inspire jewelry makers but mixed-media artists as well. Advance your technique skills when you learn how to use patinas to add rustic, weathered effects, create unique and natural-looking color combinations, and use metal wire to embroider designs on metal jewelry pieces. Beginners will benefit from detailed technique instruction, while skilled designers will enjoy the introduction to more advanced techniques. With tons of information on customizing effects for unique metal finishes, Rustic Wrappings will teach you to re-imagine your wirework jewelry projects and create fresh designs that showcase your new skill sets.