More and more I think of jewelry making as a form of mixed-media art because there are so many materials you can use to create beautiful jewelry. This book underlines this fact. While the title suggests that rubber stamps are used for the projects in this book, the actual techniques encompass much more than just stamping paper. Stamps are also used to embellish polymer clay, shrink plastic, copper, foam, and glass.
This can be both a good and bad thing depending on how you look at it. The good is, of course, that you get a lot of punch for the price of one book (retail 22.99 US; 34.99 CAN; 14.99 UK). If you are looking for something really diverse, something to challenge you to learn and do something totally different than the same old beading, wire work, or metalsmithing, then you will find this not just inspirational but full of hands-on instructions. However, if you are looking for a book that you can sit down and use to make some immediate gratification type jewelry, then be warned. The 20 talented artisans, hand-selected by the author, who also happens to be the editor of Somerset Studio, Belle Armoire, and Art Doll Quarterly (three wonderful magazines by the way if you’ve never browsed through any of their beautiful pages), did not zip up these projects over night, and you probably won’t either unless you already have some previous experience with the methods they use. Even then, it’s obvious that these creative techniques were tested and perfected over time, and the results are amazing.
One other note concerning jewelry makers and this book is that the techniques section also includes some jewelry techniques as well as stamping techniques. If you are at all familiar with any of my past articles or forum posts, then you know that I believe there is never one way to do anything, and I have to admit that the author shows some interesting deviations from what I’m used to as far as wire work. However, I do puzzle over the explanation of how to make jump rings since she uses a pair of round-nosed pliers (which has a tapered nose) versus a round dowel of some kind (which is uniform in diameter). Other than that, though, I have to admit to finding her “S” clasp description interesting and something I’m going to have to try out for myself.
There you go: the good and the bad, but honestly, I can’t really think that’s it’s a bad thing to be inspired and challenged.
