Saturday, January 23, 2010

Wire Wrapping Books

I love craft books of any kind and will often look at one even if I don't actually do the craft just to see how they present a craft. I believe that if you are not a knitter (for instance) that if you want to buy a book and teach yourself how to that the book should include plenty of photos with the step. Maybe that is because I'm a visual learner. So, with that I would like to tell you about a couple of wire wrapping books that I think are well worth the price. The first one Jewelry Studio: Wire Wrapping which I have. I really love this book and had looked inside it several times at bead shops before I finally purchased it. The authors have included loads of step by step photos (YAY!) and very good written instructions alongside. They cover plenty of different design ideas from beginner to advanced.



The second book I highly recommend is one on my wish list and I will definitely be buying this one as soon as I can afford it. It is Wirework: An Illustrated Guide to the Art of Wirewrapping by Dale "Cougar" Armstrong. If you are not familiar with Dale's work then you don't know what you are missing. I would LOVE to take one of her classes. I've thumbed through this book and as with the other she has plenty of projects from beginner to advanced and is thorough in her instructions and plenty of photos of all the steps. One of the other things I love about this book is that she includes photos of some of the finished projects by her students, their interpretation of her design. How cool is that?



Both books include all of the usual first chapter about all the tools and explanations of all of them and what you really need and what is helpful to have. I find this information useful when you compare what different wire workers use and prefer as far as tools. While mostly they use the same things and suggest the same tools for you to use there are always variations which I find very useful.

I've found that the one problem I have when doing any wire-wrapping project is how much wire to use. Both of these books help you to figure this out so you can work on projects and hopefully get the amount right. So if you are interested in wire wrapping check out both of these books.

Also, apologies for not posting in a while. Hope everyone is having a great 2010 so far.

6 comments:

  1. Do you ever visit wire-sculpture.com? Dale teaches a lot of classes there. I got an email from them the other day - it was about her upcoming workshops, webinars, and her willingness to critique up to 5 pieces you've made. She seems really great - if you haven't checked out their site, you may want to. It's got loads of information. xx

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  2. I'd like to learn wire wrapping so I'll keep these books in mind. Thanks for the info!

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  3. Those books do look really good! thanks for pointing them out--oh my, I see you got the same plug from "Eric" on your blog as I did. Sigh...

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  4. I would love to experiment with wire wrapping, too. I bookmarked the Amazon pages for both books. Thanks!

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  5. These sound really good. I'll have to keep them in mind or even better, write them down! I'm always looking for good craft books. I too am a visual learner. See, we share more than a name!

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  6. Thanks for the info on these books. I don't have these ones, and it is always nice to have the opinion of another jewelry designer before purchasing a book. I too like lots of pictures!

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