I enjoyed the fresh approach of this book, and the jewelry is inspirational and amazing thanks to the authors as well as 35 contributing artists. Along with a mixture of materials, you'll find a mixture of techniques such as wire work, metal fabrication, polymer clay, and resin (just to name a few of the 55 techniques used in the book).
Included with the 25 projects, you'll find information on methods for collaborating such as round robins and swaps. They even give you some solid tips for conducting a swap if you'd like to try one yourself as well as locating on-line groups to join.
I thoroughly enjoyed the projects, techniques, and creativity shown in this text, and for anyone who enjoys unique mixed-media jewelry and has some jewelry making experience, I don't think there would be any problem following the directions. For someone who may not have any experience, this book may be more inspiration than how-to because of the lack of details and broken-down instructions. For example, in one project they show how to connect buttons using jump rings, which is very clever; however, there is no information about the size of the jump rings. So, for beginners who often feel they must follow directions "to the letter," that may be problematic.
That said, though, I don't get the feeling that this is a book for the beginner jewelry maker, and it doesn't claim to be. More so, I felt this was designed for those with jewelry making experience who want to expand their techniques and become more involved in the art jewelry community.
