Stamped Metal Jewelry: Creative Techniques and Designs for Making Custom Jewelry

Stamped Metal Jewelry: Creative Techniques and Designs for Making Custom Jewelry ($24.95 US Interweave Press) by Lisa Niven Kelly includes a 30 minute DVD, which offers a bonus project, and nineteen projects focusing on using metal stamps to decorate fabricated metal jewelry. The text and accompanying DVD demonstrate how to make charms, wire wrapped jewelry, rivets as well as discusses techniques such as creating texture and oxidizing metal.

After the introduction, a section on tools and supplies discusses what you need to complete the projects in the book. These are also discussed in the DVD. Not surprisingly, there are a fair number of tools required. Along with basic metal fabrication tools like files and a saw, you'll need some quality stamps (a point the author makes in the DVD as well), hammers, bench block, and various other hand tools.

In the materials area, she discusses types of metal sheet that can be used, from silver to gold filled; however, I was surprised brass was not mentioned.

The basic techniques section covers hammering, texturing, cutting and sawing metal sheet, drilling and punching holes, dapping, riveting, oxidizing and polishing, and annealing. The stamping techniques are covered in a separate section. The book does a good job of explaining this process as well as tips to help, but it really was extra helpful to watch the author go through all of this on the DVD.

On the DVD, Lisa includes a bonus pendant project, and in the book, there are 19 projects, 8 of which were designed by guest artists, many of whom you will probably recognize. Each project includes color step-by-step photographs along with the textual descriptions and suggestions for personalizing the piece made. A list of techniques used is provided at the beginning of each project so you can see what you will required to do for each one.

One big plus is that Lisa created some projects where prefabricated components could be used instead of making them yourself. This way, those who may not have strong metal-working skills can still make many of the jewelry pieces. For example, the "Linked-Shapes Bracelet" project combines silver planks in various shapes (a flower, heart, circle, etc.). These are readily available from many metal supply vendors, so this less work, and you'll have a finished product to wear a lot sooner.

I have to say I am totally won over by this book and DVD combination. Lisa did an outstanding job with this. The techniques come off as accessible, given lots of practice of course, and the finished jewelry pieces are attractive and (for the most part) very wearable. I especially like the fact that a world of metal work is opened up for those who may not be interested in soldering. She demonstrates how the combination of fabrication methods along with metal stamping are all you need to create some amazing jewelry.

I only have two warnings: First, Lisa is very skilled, but she obviously has been doing this for awhile (6 years in fact). Like just about any type of jewelry making, expect to put in the time necessary to practice and build your skill-level. I only say this due to my own experience stamping. That said, Lisa offers some excellent tips that I had never heard of before, so I'm ready to try it again. This leads to my section warning: If you buy this book, you should be prepared because you will want to start stamping right away.