What is on your (jewellery) bookshelf?

[ps_bond]

Right... Finally snapped the bookshelf with most of my jewellery books on it. The flash has washed out some of the spines and the verticals converge - but you can't really expect *too* much of a camera phone.

There's a few stragglers elsewhere.



R to L, and in no particular order:

The Art of Jewelry Making; Revere
Jewellery, Fundamentals of Metalsmithing; McCreight
Scroll Ornaments of the Early Victorian Period; Dover
Old Norse Designs; Dover
The Art of Blacksmithing; Bealer
Hot and Cold Connections; McCreight
??? Can't make it out at all!
Numismatic Forgery; Larson
Jewellery Manufacture and Repair; Jarvis
Japanese Patinas; Eitoku
Japanese Crafts, Materials and Their Applications; Hickman
500 Brooches; Lark
1000 Rings; Lark
500 Bracelets; Lark
Jewelry Making and Design; Rose
The Jewelry Repair Manual; Hardy
Designing and Making Jewellery; Macrae
The Art of Engraving; Meek
Gianfranco Pedersoli - Master Engraver;
Modelling in Wax for Jewellery and Sculpture; Kallenberg
Jewellery Making Techniques; Olver
Handbook of Jewellery Techniques; Codina
Goldsmithing & Silver Work: Jewellery, Vessels & Ornaments; Codina
Checkering and Carving of Gunstocks
The Jeweller's Directory of Decorative Finishes; McGrath
The Jeweller's Directory of Shape and Form; Olver
Tips & Shortcuts for Jewellry Making; O'Keefe
The Art of Jewellery Design; Olver
???
Metalwork and Enamelling; Maryon
The Jewelry Engravers Manual; Hardy
Jewelry Concepts and Technology; Untracht
Complete Metalsmith; McCreight
Form Emphasis for Metalsmiths; Seppa
Gun Engraving; Austyn
Mokume Gane; Midgett
Handbook of Ornament; Meyer
First Steps in Enamelling; McGrath
The Earrings Book
Mokume Gane; Ferguson
The Rings Book; McGrath
Electroforming; Curtis
Necklaces and Pendants; Boothroyd
Silversmithing Manual; Cuzner
Silversmithing; Finegold
The Craft of Silversmithing; Austin
Practical Goldsmith 4: Mounting
Celtic Design and Knotwork; Meehan
Metals Technic; McCreight
Boxes & Lockets; McCreight
The Theory & Practice of Goldsmithing; Brepohl

Hmm, there's at least a dozen missing from that list...

[MuranoSilver]

Sorry, have been away.
Nic & Barbara - the Wrap, Stitch, Fold, Rivet book is one of my 'just OKAY' books. It is not my favourite book to refer to, but there are some good ideas in it. The finished items are a little too 'rough and ready' for me; I want to get hold of some of the items and smooth the corners out or polish out the scratches. The gallery pics are good though.

Thanks for the feedback - I bought it off amazon after being inspired by this blog.
She and other artists have taken projects from the book and given them their own slant....fabulous!
After a brief scan through, I've put it aside until I've finished some current projects.
(I must admit, if I hadn't found the blog it would be in my Just OK pile too!)

Nic x

[MuranoSilver]

R to L, and in no particular order:
Jewellery Manufacture and Repair; Jarvis
500 Brooches; Lark
500 Bracelets; Lark
The Jewelry Repair Manual; Hardy
Designing and Making Jewellery; Macrae
Goldsmithing & Silver Work: Jewellery, Vessels & Ornaments; Codina
Tips & Shortcuts for Jewellry Making; O'Keefe
Metalwork and Enamelling; Maryon
The Jewelry Engravers Manual; Hardy
The Earrings Book
Necklaces and Pendants; Boothroyd
...

Whoop!! Another brain to pick
The books above caught my eye - some because of the title and some because I've been thinking of getting them....
I have no repair bench reference so would appreciate your input there
Plus I'm interested if any of the others are (in your opinion) 5 star publications.

Nic xx

[ps_bond]

Whoop!! Another brain to pick

I wouldn't be so sure on that one...!

The books above caught my eye - some because of the title and some because I've been thinking of getting them....
I have no repair bench reference so would appreciate your input there
Plus I'm interested if any of the others are (in your opinion) 5 star publications.

On the repair side, both of those two are a bit dated in some areas; Hardy is best on setting technique, while IIRC Jarvis has more on making mounts. If I really, really had to get rid of one I'd probably keep Hardy, but it's touch & go.

The Lark books are all pretty much the same - not in a bad way, but if you've read one you know what to expect. As I've said before, not everything in them is to my taste, but it's still interesting to see what people are doing.

Codina is fun to read; he has some techniques that I haven't seen used much in the UK, but occasionally he throws in tools that I just can't seem to source - a manual wax lathe, for example. Suppose I ought to make one once I get my Myford set up again.

The Jewelry Engraver's manual is mostly devoted to hand-cutting lettering; there's a lot on prepping & maintaining gravers - but equally, Cogswell covers that pretty well. It's aimed at a jobbing engraver more than anything, IMO. Still working on my script lettering!

O'Keefe & Macrae are aimed more at the beginner side of things (sorry Sarah!); both have some interesting ideas and some fairly easy projects that give some really nice results (and some lovely eye-candy, of course).

Necklaces and Pendants isn't too bad; it's nowhere near as good as The Rings Book, unfortunately; there's a couple of project pieces in there which are interesting - working with urushiol, for example.

Metalwork and Enamelling clearly hasn't made much of an impression on me - I can't remember a thing about it!

The Earrings book... Hmm. Perhaps best to read my review of it on Amazon, and see the counterpoint. Suffice to say it is a very unusual book - in that I wish I hadn't bought it. Still, it's on the shelf - if only to serve as a warning!

Others there that I'd rate as my top ones are probably...
Meeks for engraving.
Both the mokume books (if you can get hold of Midgett still)
Cogswell on stonesetting.
Brepohl!!!
Finegold for silversmithing (with Heiki Seppa for the finer points)
McGrath on Rings.
McCreight - both Metals Technic and Complete Metalsmith.
...and Untracht, of course.

(list subject to change, naturally)

[julie]

Mr postie has just delivered my creative stone setting book i ordered from amazon have to agree even tho i have only skimmed it, it does look very detailed peter i notice you have The Rings Book could you tell me is that book worth getting now i have the gogswell book ??? ty

maybe a book review on the forum would be a good idea ???

[ps_bond]

Strangely, I'd rather not do detailed reviews of *all* of those!

The answer is "it depends...". I would regard them as complementary. The Rings book is more focussed on building the ring than setting stones and has some slightly different ways of doing things.

[julie]

no peter sorry i meant in general people giving a book review, maybe they have bought a good book lately which is good enough to share a review with others ...

[Ominicci]

Nic - Re Wrap Stitch etc thanks for your link to the blog - not sure it would change my mind though. I still want to 'polish them all up a bit' must just be me....just saw a thread on Perfectionism...better have a look at that

[bustagasket]

I have just been making a list from this thread in my trusty note book, and actually if people were willing to do reviews, not on all the books they own, but perhaps on their favourite one it would be really usely for those of us who, like me, dont as yet have a clue on whats good and whats not.

So i would be REALLY grateful to anyone who contributed to something like that. I have already taken in all the comments so far and have a wish list of 7 books so far

[Julie Moss]

Best technical reference book we have on the shelf here at YSOJ is Oppi Untracht's Jewellery Concepts and Techniques - but it's not a bedtime read and not one to be read from cover to cover. More of a dip in when you need to know something.