I’ve often been attracted by hand-made jewelry, probably a result of my older brother having designed some rings back in the 1960’s/1970’s, and thought I might make a decent jewelry designer myself. When I saw this book, combining home-made jewelry with Steampunk stylings, I knew I had to check this out.
There are some very nice designs within and I do hope I can convince some of my jewelry-making-artisan friends to make some of this for me. I’m not much of a jewelry wearer any more, but some of these rings and brooches and stick-pins are so creative and unique, I can see myself wearing them on special occasions.
Aside from some really nice designs, I think that the best part of this book is the manual aspect, detailing the tools and materials needed and the “how to” work with the tools. Although I am simplifying this I felt that, I … someone with passable knowledge of working with hand tools … could actually make any of the pieces in this book if I was willing to try. This aspect…this ability to make the reader feel confident that this is all achievable is important in a book like this.
I can’t say that I’ve ever looked at a jewelry-making book before, and I see now that Marthe Le Van has written a number of jewelry-making books. This provides me with more confidence that if I follow her advice, I’ll come out with something that I could proudly wear.
My only ‘complaint’ would be that calling these designs “steampunk” was sometimes ‘iffy.’ There is definitely something steampunk-ish about many of the designs, but as interesting and nice as designs such as “Xylophone Pendant” or “Pillar Necklace & Earrings” are, they aren’t really ‘steampunk.’
Looking for a good book? Perhaps a small niche market, but Nuts & Bolts will appeal to anyone with an interest and rudimentary skills in jewelry making and steampunk designs.
I received an electronic copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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Nuts & Bolts: Industrial Jewelry in the Steampunk Style
author: Marthe Le Van
publisher: Dover Publications
ASIN: B00QUH4IIM
Kindle Edition, 128 pages
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