One of R&T’s blog partners, Lisa Crone (of A Bead A Day), has a new book out. “A Bead in Time” was just published by North Light Books.
Lisa’s subtitle is “35 jewelry projects inspired by slices of life.” She shows you an impressionistic approach that could be really productive for making personal or commissioned pieces of jewelry. The essential idea is to start from a subject that’s meaningful to you — or to your customer! — and:
“Create your subject literally, by making an obvious replication of it, or in the abstract, by using colors, fibers or other materials that remind you of the item.”
If you’ve read Lisa’s blog, you’ve experienced her unique idea of focusing on the beauty of each individual bead. Her interpretations in this book riff on the truly strong points of a given bead to paint a picture in jewelry form. Some examples that I think are particularly effective here are
- Using hematite and pewter cubes to evoke a favorite skyscraper
- Putting glazed rectangular ceramic tube beads into a Frank Lloyd Wright formation
- Cultivating a bright dandelion theme with green memory-wire tubing and yellow seed beads on a brooch form
These and many more fun ideas are presented in a really approachable, understandable way in Lisa’s book. Reading this volume, I’m left with a good feeling that “what you see is what you get:” From the thoughtful materials, tools and techniques tips at the beginning, through to the very last project idea, I felt I was getting patient, useful guidance in making craft jewelry.
I’d recommend “A Bead in Time” both for your own use, and for introducing new jewelry crafters to truly useful techniques in action!
Plus there’s a “gnome jewelry” project that would make Russ Troll Bead proud 🙂
Have you read Lisa’s book yet? You can share your comments below…