The Complete Jewelry Making Course - by Jinks McGrath (Paperback)

About the Book

(back cover)
This is a complete course in designing and making jewelry. Carefully structured tutorials guide you through every stage of the process, revealing how to translate inspired ideas into workable, wearable designs. You'll also find professional advice on presenting and selling your work.

Learn about tools, equipment, and safe working practices; build an inspiration file; understand how to select suitable materials and transfer your designs; find out how to work with precious and semi-precious stones, metals, glass, plastic, resin, and wood.

Clear, step-by-step photographs demonstrate all the techniques you'll need, from manipulating materials by heating, hammering, and casting to methods of soldering, riveting, polishing, finishing, and adding surface decoration.

At-a-glance panels explain the effect that different techniques have on a variety of metals, and practical exercises provide guidance in tricky skills--with ideas for tryping them out on inexpensive substitutes before using your chosen materials.

Jinks McGrath is a jeweler and teacher whose designs have been exhibited and collected for many years. She is the author of several previously published books on jewelry making. She lives and works in East Sussex, England.

Book Synopsis

The comprehensive guide to the craft of jewelry making!

Craft your path to becoming a jewelry artisan with The Complete Jewelry Making Course: Principles, Practice and Techniques: A Beginner's Course for Aspiring Jewelry Makers. This must-have art book covers every step of the jewelry making process, from creating original design concepts to making professionally finished pieces of jewelry. Author Jinks McGrath lists all required tools and equipment, explains their uses, advises on safe working practices, and then guides her readers through every stage of the jewelry making process in a series of carefully structured tutorials. Beginners and enthusiasts will learn--

• How to turn an original idea into a workable design and, ultimately, a beautiful piece of jewelry
• How to work with precious and semiprecious stones, metals, glass, plastic, resin, and wood
• How to present and sell jewelry to dealers and wholesalers

Clear, full-color, step-by-step photos demonstrate the methods of fashioning metals by heating, hammering, casting, soldering, riveting, polishing, finishing, and adding surface decoration. At-a-glance panels explain how to apply the techniques and choose the correct materials, from crystals to sterling silver. While this thorough, easy-to-understand jewelry guide is a perfect gift for adults who love crafts, it's also the perfect how-to-guide for transforming hobbyists into true professionals. This complete guide is also ideal for fashion and jewelry courses.

Learn the art of jewelry making with just one, must-have book!

Review Quotes

"This is exactly the kind of book I've come to expect from Jinks McGrath: a thorough, creative, useful, easy-to-navigate, and beautiful text."

--Addie Kidd, Art Jewelry Magazine, March 2009