The Complete Jewelry Making Course

(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.