Product Description

Gold and silver wire skillfully woven into gentle yet substantial forms adds dimension and refinement to your handcrafted jewelry. Designer Linda Chandler, along with one of her best students, Christine Ritchey, introduce a new wire weaving technique that varies the number of wires and their thickness to create stunningly beautiful bracelets, neckpieces, and pendants. Project instructions go well beyond simple line drawings to show the assembly process of each piece in a series of step-by-step photographs. The five projects begin with an elegantly simple woven bracelet, and move on to more dramatic projects that include a domed cuff bracelet with soldered bead ends, a free-form bracelet, a woven neckpiece, and a pendant with a woven frame. Projects range in difficulty from easy to advanced, and many projects can be completed without soldering (though knowledge of soldering is a plus). The more experienced craftsperson will savor the way Precious Metal Clay adds striking embellishments to four of the projects. And to help you develop your own designs, there's a full-color gallery of finished work to inspire and bend your imagination.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71081 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

Review
This book starts with an inspirational introduction - it encourages the reader to 'play' and be creative. One point must be made regarding this book, before starting get yourself familiar with soldering. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't purchase this wonderful book, but that a bit of groundwork should be done whilst being inspired by the work pictured within its pages. There is good information regarding tools and safety at first before starting on the techniques section. The designers (Linda Chandler and her best student, Christine Ritchey) show how to weave wire using wires of varying thickness to create wonderful pieces of jewellery (including fine silver wire). One downside if you're curious about using PMC or Precious Metal Clay is that you would either need to purchase a small kiln or have access to one, but this shouldn't dissuade you as you can certainly concentrate on the wire weaving section of this book until you choose to embark upon embellishing work with PMC, which certainly is a fascinating product. The five projects are nicely laid out ranging from easy to advanced, with clear photographs and make elegant pieces which start with a simple woven bracelet and concludes with a pendant with a woven frame. The book includes a good resource list and has a gallery which should inspire those wishing to take this craft further. One thing to take into account is that you will have to practice to be able to calculate the amount of wire needed, but if you read through the book thoroughly before starting on the projects you will b able to do this once you know the wire lengths and cuts. All in all a really inspiring book for those who wish to create beautiful, fine jewellery and I can certainly see some using PMC to add symbolic stones or craft spiritual items. --Pentacle, Summer 08

About the Author
Linda L. Chandler is a jewelry designer and teacher with more than twenty years experience. She is a Precious Metal Clay TM certified teacher who conducts workshops around the country in a variety of jewelry skills including wire wrapping, metalsmithing, and glass fusing. Linda and her husband live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Christine R. Ritchey has been an independent writer/editor for ten years, as well as a potter and jewelry maker. She has worked for D magazine and the local PBS station in Dallas. Christine and her husband live in North Texas with several border collies and a parrot named Gracie.

Customer Reviews

Nice addition to a jewellery library
I was pleased with this book when it arrived. It gives a comprehensive tutorial on weaving with fine silver wire in all sorts of ways. Certain things that when I saw I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it myself!! But I hadn't, so this book gave me lots of new ideas. Also of interest was the end of the book where it has a few chapters devoted to metal clay. It shows how to finish off your woven wire with PMC end caps and such. The piece on the front of the book shows a woven wire neckpiece with a PMC flower attached to the front.
I liked that this book was easy to understand, simple and combined wire and PMC - which work well together. A lot of the wire designs/ideas in this book seem obvious but were things I hadn't thought of - so it was good to be "broadened"....
I would reccomend this book to anyone who likes working with wire and to people who like PMC and anyone interested in packing new skills under thier belts.

Beautifully photographed & highly inspirational
Firstly this book a is a visual delight, with lots of great full color images of some stunning hand made pieces. All the projects are relatively simple, the greatest skill being patience. I note that many of these designs can be created without the need for soldering. The book also covers the use of precious metal clay (PMC) and gives some great ideas on incorporating it into the woven pieces. If you are into Celtic jewelery (as I am) then this book will definitely give you some inspiration as well as few new ways of working. Well worth the money for any jewelery maker. You'll enjoy it.

A must-buy book for any wireworker
This is a lovely book, and makes a great job of teaching you how to do basic weaves to great and stunning effects in jewellery. It is let down by the lack of variety of weaves and the fact that the 'gallery' section (which I assume is for inspiration purposes) shows a couple of beautiful weaves that the book does not teach you. That little disappointment aside this is still a favourite book of mine. Once you have learnt the basic technique the weaves are quite easy but look incredible. If you are interested in any form of wirewrapping jewellery then I would recommend this book.