Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Leather Jewelry

Leather Jewelry: 30 Contemporary Projects by Nathalie Mornu

This book has been in my collection for a couple of years now. It's one of my favorites in my jewelry-making library and it deserves a little review love here on the blog. With the recent popularity of leather in jewelry, this book hits the mark for creating stylish accessories that are oh-so relevant with what is happening right now in the jewelry and fashion industries. Leather jewelry is hot, hot, hot and still on the rise with no signs of stopping anytime soon!

If you want to add leather to your jewelry and you're looking for inspiring ideas on how to do it, this book is for you. I really didn't know much about leather before grabbing a copy of this book. Now, I feel informed and confident I could handle any leather jewelry project I set my sights on with this book by my side. Author Nathalie Mornu presents a great introduction to the medium. Her book is loaded with useful information I have found enlightening on the subject. You'll learn all about the different types of leather, which ones work well for the kind of jewelry you want to make and tips on where to track down leather scraps for jewelry-making. The book also contains detailed sections on all the right leather-working tools to use and techniques that you can start applying to your creations immediately. 

The jewelry projects in the book are chic and sophisticated, stylish and fashion-forward. Some of my favorite designs are also the simplest ones. For me, jewelry that is on-trend and easy to execute are top priorities. You can even start adding leather to your pieces right away with the jewelry-making skills you already have and a little inspiration from this book.

Take a look at a few of the projects inside Leather Jewelry:

"Gossip" by Nathalie Mornu 

Photo courtesy of Lark Books

"Regina" by Nathalie Mornu

Photo courtesy of Lark Books  

"Knots" by Nathalie Mornu

Photo courtesy of Lark Books 

See what I mean? How cute is this jewelry? And so easy to make. Couldn't you see changing up these projects just a little and adding in some art beads??? I certainly could. Leather is a great material to pair with your favorite art beads to add texture and interest to your jewelry designs. In fact, I did just that recently with my own version of Nathalie's "Knots" earrings pictured above. 

Here are my earrings inspired by Nathalie's:

Blue Titanium earrings by Erin Siegel

 Suede knot earrings inspired by "Knots" in Leather Jewelry by Nathalie Mornu.

Featuring handmade blue ceramic beads by Lisa Boucher.

If you want to learn how to add leather to your jewelry designs, grab a copy of this book. I highly recommend it! Buy it online at Barns & Noble (on sale now) or Amazon.

Okay, it's giveaway time.  

In the spirit of the season and the Thanksgiving holiday, I have an author SIGNED copy of Leather Jewelry to giveaway. While I was at Bead Fest this year, I had the pleasure of meeting author Nathalie Mornu. It is pretty exciting and an honor to meet someone who's work you admire. I loved meeting her. She's a pretty awesome person and she was awesome enough to personally send me a signed copy of her book to help me say "thank you" to you. Nathalie, I love your book and I know our ABS readers will, too.  Let's show my friend Nathalie some love for her generosity and leave a comment on this post. Leave your comment by Friday, November 23rd 2012 to be entered to win the signed copy of Leather Jewelry. Please leave me a way to contact you in case you are the lucky recipient.

Good luck and

Happy Thanksgiving! 

I hope your holiday is filled with reading, beading and all things you are thankful for.

Erin Siegel is a jewelry designer, beading instructor and co-author of the jewelry book, Bohemian-Inspired Jewelry: 50 Designs Using Leather, Ribbon and Cords. To find out more, visit her blog: Erin Siegel Jewelry.

Studio Saturday: Book Review - "The Art of Resin Clay" by Sherri Haab

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.

Congrats to Alice who is the winner of two Earthenwood pendants. Please email Melanie with your mailing address so she can send your new pendants out to you!


This week we have guest blogger Lori Anderson bringing us a fun book review.

I was thrilled when Potter Craft sent me a copy of Sherri Haab's latest book, "The Art of Resin Clay".  I'd never heard of these techniques before and was immediately intrigued.

This 144 page book contains five chapters:

* Resin Clay Essentials 

* Imitative Techniques, which covers faux scrimshaw, raku, coral, and metallic effects.

* Creating Bezels for rings and pendants

* Mixing Resin Clay with Other Mediums, such as embedding beads, using colored pencils, etc.

*Molding and Sculpting Techinques, such as repairing and redesigning vintage jewelry and creating beads over cores.

All of Sherri's books are eye candy.  If you never make a single project, you'll still get inspired just by flipping through the book.  But you'll want to try these projects out, because she breaks things down in such a way that ANYONE can do it.

Sherri thoroughly covers the basics, so when you start the projects, you'll feel comfortable.  There are tons of step-by-step photos to lead you along, and the contributor gallery shots are amazing, showing you just how far you can take this new medium

And now, I'm giving it to one of you!

So the question this week - what has been your favorite bead book of 2011?  Leave a comment and be sure there's a way to contact you.  

Then visit my blog, Pretty Things, and learn about the upcoming Bead Soup Blog Party!  It's one of the largest bead swap blog hops you'll come across, and wouldn't it be cool to use your new resin clay techniques for the Party?

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Fit To Print Review -- Chain and Bead Jewelry Soldering Connections by Scott David Plumlee

Well, David Plumlee has done it again!  Another of his beautiful books landed on my doorstep but this time there's a twist -- he teaches us to solder!

The book covers twenty simple projects using sterling silver, bronze, copper, and gold jump rings.  I love that he shows how to solder rings, many using a butane torch, such as this Blazer torch:

The beginning of the book covers the basics, which includes a handy and complete demonstration on making ear wires, a magnetic clasp, and a hammered S-clasp.  He also covers the finishing process, which I found very informative, particularly when he talked about a second pickling process.  I've run into the same technical issues he discussed, and when I tried his solution, it cleared my problem right up.  

The projects are fantastic, and many of them don't require you to solder.  Earrings can be solder-free, due to their nature, and some of the bracelets are able to be made without firing up a torch.  However, David's explanations and diagrams are so easy to follow, you'll be able to whip out that torch and become an expert in no time.

The designs are fresh and creative.  The Beaded Triad earrings above prepare you for the Beaded Triad bracelet and the Beaded Star key fob and earrings.  He also shows you how to make a stunning mobius pair of earrings (shown below) and a bracelet.

One of the things I love about Scott David Plumlee's book is it's not all chain maille -- it goes into forging as well.  The other beauty is the projects are accessible and doable for all skill levels.  It's a terrific book with a lot of places for you to jump off and run with your own creative variations.

Highly recommended!!!!

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site lorianderson.net.  She writes the blog Pretty Things.  She lives in Maryland.

Fit to Print Book Review: Wire Art Jewelry Workshop

Wire Art Jewelry Workshop by Sharilyn Miller is one of those books jammed packed with tips and tricks that you'll be turning to again and again if you love working with wire already or if you'd like to learn how to tame wire in your jewelry-making designs.

The book is broken down into simple directions to create the basic building blocks of working with wire.  Once you have mastered the techniques Sharilyn walks you through several projects that mix the techniques in complex jewelry creations.  Even if you have been working with wire for a while, you'll learn rock solid techniques to improve your designs. 

I love that the many of the projects are shown in copper as well as silver and some are mixed metal. If you aren't ready to invest in silver while you are learning, you can see how wonderfully earthy the copper designs look.

An instructional DVD is included in the book and shows how to create several techniques.  While the book is very well photographed with great step-by-step directions, it's helpful to see how the author actually creates the pieces, holds the wire and offers some insider tips as she goes along.

 

Fit to Print -- Chain and Bead Jewelry Geometric Connections: A New Angle on Creating Dimensional Earrings, Bracelets, and Necklaces

In my hot little hands I have an advance copy of "Chain and Bead Jewelry -- Geometric Connections" by the incredibly talented Scott David Plumlee.

David's third book, published by Watson-Guptill Publications

I first discovered David Plumlee when I started making jewelry six years ago.  Chain maille is one of the jewelry styles I admire, so I fell in love with David's work.  He takes chain maille and adds his own special touch to it, adding beads, mixing metals, and creating his own unique designs.


In this book, David adapts and builds upon the Byzantine weave, a common and (to most) easily learned weave.  I've made several of his projects in his other books, and this book continues the tradition of plentiful and wonderfully photographed instructions.  (I'm partial to photographs rather than drawings of chain maille instructions -- to me, they're easier to follow.)

Quatrafoil Earrings from www.davidchain.com

The projects are gorgeous and rich.  This is NOT your basic chain maille book!  My favorite section is Plumlee's "Organic Formations" chapter.  Here, he teaches you how to make a Beaded Fish formation (which translates into a set of jewelry), Beaded Byzantine Cross earrings, Beaded Snowflake variations, and a Beaded Butterfly formation (also for a jewelry set).

Triangle Keyfob, from www.davidchain.com

My recommendations:

If you are a chain maille enthusiast -- buy this book.  It's a must-have.  It will excite your imagination and give you options like you won't believe.

If you've never tried chain maille -- buy it, make the byzantine bracelet in the first project a few times, then dive in.  Once you master some of the easier pieces, try out the rest of the projects.  Some are definitely easier than others, and you can usually tell by looking at them which are the toughies.  But once you get a few under your belt, you'll be fine.  And you'll WANT to try these projects once you see them!

The book comes out November 16th.

Enjoy!

Legalese:  These opinions are my own, and I was not paid to make them.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and writes the blog Pretty Things and An Artist's Year Off.  She lives in Maryland.