Jewelry Making Books I Love: Great for the Beginning Wire Worker

I have a number of jewelry making books I have bought through the years.  Unfortunately, some have excellent pictures and very poor instructions.  Now that I have been making jewelry for a few years I can guess at what they mean, but in the beginning they were impossible.

Having taught school for 30 years, I understand the importance of being very specific.  Now, instead of running out and buying a book, I check them out of the public library to see if it something I really want to buy.  If you don't have a great library and need to purchase books sight unseen here are a few of my favorite beginner books.

Mainly a beader but you want to start wireworking,  All Wired Up by Mark Lareau is a great book.  The directions for each project are step by step with illustrations so there is no guess work.  He even tells you where your fingers should be on the wire and he is funny.  This book has everything for the beginning wire worker. The section on making your own findings will save you lots of money.   I have dog earred many pages.

Bead on a Wire: Making Handcrafted Wire and Beaded Jewelry by Sharilyn Miller is also a goody.  This one has beautiful photos of each step in the process and some really great designs.  Again, this is a perfect beginner book with step by step instructions.  What I like is the combining of beads with the wire working. Her designs are great and  the brooches are especially nice.

If you are wanting to learn to make jewelry just from wire , then Making Wire Jewelry by Helen Clegg and Mary Larom might be your book. The instructions are very detailed with illustrations and templates you can lay your wire component on to make sure you are doing it correctly.  The book has 60 different projects using wire and a number of them look very Egyptian.  

All Wired Up will show you how to do a basic cabochon wrap.  However, you might find you want to make more then just wire wrap pendants.  Wire Wrapping: The Basics and Beyond by Jim McIntosh will show you how to make bracelets and rings out of wire wrapped cabochons.  The last section of the book is on design and encourages you to make  wire wrapping  designs of  your own.   Jim really wants you to think outside the box when it comes to wire wrapping.   He explains his process and how sometimes the pieces he really thinks "Yuck" someone else dearly loves.  Great black and white photos and wonderful advice.

Speaking of advice, here is my mine.  Practice with copper wire before moving on to sterling or goldfill.  Copper wire is very forgiving and when learning a new design even if you are experienced, you will make some mistakes.  With the current prices of sterling and goldfill, it will be a costly mistake.  I was stubborn and learned this the hard way.  Well that just about wraps it up.