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Making Mixed Media Art Charms and Jewelry

Description

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-14
Summary: "A detailed, practical, easy-to-use guide perfect for the creative and enthusiastic craftmaker"

Illustrated with crystal clear, full-color photography throughout, Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry is a guide to turning ordinary trinkets and small, commonplace items into one-of-a-kind keepsakes or jewelry perfect for display or gift-giving. The "mixed media" composing such creations can be wood, metal, glass, paper, stones, beads, found objects, recycled things, vintage treasures, game pieces, bottle caps, coins, almost anything imaginable. After a brief primer on how to use basic tools to assemble creations, Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry offers specific suggestions for creating everything from shrink plastic art charms to resin treasures to metal jewelry, wonderfully eclectic charm bracelets and much more. A detailed, practical, easy-to-use guide perfect for the creative and enthusiastic craftmaker, Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry is highly recommended.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-09
Summary: "Make your own memories fun and fresh with this wonderful Art Charm book!"

Making Mixed-Media
Art Charms and Jewelry

keepsakes, swappables, trinkets

by Peggy Krzyzewski & Christine Hansen

We all have our own personal reasons why charms appeal to us, but there is no question that for most of us they hold a very special place in our hearts. I myself have even shared a book on the history of charm bracelets with my sister; we each own a copy of it. Our family charm bracelets are irreplaceable to us because they speak of the legacy we carry on from our grandmothers, our mother, and our own selves.

Now here comes a new book with a very fun and artistic way of looking at charms and charm bracelets! As the authors say at the beginning, "Welcome to Charm School!"

I embraced their wonderful attitude toward charm making wholeheartedly. These are not classic gold or silver charms which you would find available pre-made at stores. These are fresh, fanciful, colorful charms made of all sorts of materials. As one of the authors, Chris, says at the end of the book, she loves Faberge' because "he treated each material as precious, even if it was something as mundane as wood." Couple that with a statement from her partner author, Peggy, who says, "a big part of my self-expression has to do with fun", and you have a recipe for a great book filled with fascinating new ways of seeing the classic beloved charm.

These charms are cool and new "art charms"! Make your own memories, starting now. Make them fresh and new, and make them super special by trying projects from this fantastic book!

The materials, what you will need in your tool kit, and the techniques required are all at the beginning in the first chapter, "Charm School".

Following that are nine chapters packed full of different media: a basic project begins each chapter, and then there are three variations! The initial project chapter, after the Charm School introductory chapter I just mentioned, concerns paper art charms and the many things the reader can do to embellish them. The authors' energy level is downright kinetic as they urge you to "Seal it, Stick it, Shape it, and Style it"! They suggest you look at your crumpled old maps (I have one of those!!!) in a new way, try using vintage sheet music: anything which catches your eye. You have to honor copyright laws, but we all do know about that. It is a good reminder, however.

Then, in the Paper chapter, the authors teach the reader how to make Mixed-Media Paper, Collage Charms(using the Mixed-Media Paper in a fabulous way!), a Mini Lotus Book project, which is enchanting, and the final project for the paper chapter, My Lucky Shooting Stars. As they say about the stars, "These charms are so fun and easy to make, you'll find it hard to stop! Use washi paper, scrapbook paper, or wrapping paper, or decorate copy paper with rubber stamps, calligraphy, or doodles. You'll be amazed at how many charms you can get from one piece of paper!" As you can see, it is easy to be caught up in their enthusiasm and they are both excellent teachers. Each chapter has a wealth of ideas and tips.

The next chapters include projects (and variations) of found objects, polymer clay, plastic, wood, fiber, resin, metal, and glass. They are fantastic, wonderful to see, and very inventive.For example, I loved the stark black and white Op-Art Bicones of polymer clay and the cool Totally Tubular charms (clear plastic tubing containing tiny treasures).

I also fell for the Resin Art charms. This chapter really is a boon to people who have never tried resin. It gives you a crash course on using resin right in the middle of all of the rest of the fun.

When you get to glass, try the Meet Me in Paris charm. It is a total winner and very clever! I appreciated the authors' ideas in the chapter toward the end, "Putting It All Together". In this one,they even suggest a chatelaine ( keys and jewelry once worn as a belt in medieval times by fine ladies ) as a way of displaying your charms! Yes, you can be your very own "mistress of the castle" as you hang your charms on your wall for everyone to admire!

Then they further expand upon ways of wearing charms and displaying them so that the charms are visually appealing, comfortable to wear, and appropriate to the design and the space.This is very very helpful to new designers.They show some of their charm bracelets assembled, some art charm earrings, and a fabulous Princess Necklace which will knock your socks off. There are even more suggestions and then ideas on how to start a charm swap. Concerning the charm swap, the authors have a conversation with the "Queen Diva" of Art Charm swaps, Amber Dawn Goldish, and the reader's interest is kindled further by this creative, playful, wonderful area of jewelry making, sharing your art.

Making Mixed-Media Art Charms & Jewelry, by Peggy Krzyzewski & Christine Hansen, is a pure delight from start to finish. Why shouldn't we have tons of fun while we create lovely, innovative art charms? I can't think of a single reason. With the help of this fabulously complete, delightful book, the reader can dive in and will instantly see that the water is FINE!

I love this book! Great for mothers and daughters, sisters to use together, wonderful for friends to try out and learn new techniques from.

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-09
Summary: "great idea book"

This is a good book, especially for beginners and for new and fun ideas. Kids like the "funky" ideas and cute fun stuff.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-29
Summary: "Art Charms ROCK"

Favorite quote from the book (on creating a "Bead Soup"): "Mixing up beads on purpose can feel unnatural, like breaking an entire box of brand new crayons."

Why did I start my review with a quote? To give you an idea of the writing style of these two creative women. The book is just plain fun to read. There were several spots I found myself chuckling or laughing. However, I'm sure you would like more detail than it's fun to read, so here's the nitty gritty...

The authors Peggy Krzyzewski and Christine Hansen met through an art charm swap group, instantly connected, and ultimately collaborated to write this book about creating art charms.

The book is divided up into 12 sections. The first section is Charm School (I love the name! It's so much more fun than "tools and techniques" or something similar). The next 9 sections are centered on the particular material you are using to create a charm: Paper, Found Objects, Polymer Clay, Plastic, Wood, Fiber, Resin, Metal, and Glass. Each of these sections contains three projects with step by step instructions and photos.

The 11th section is called Putting it All Together, which explains various ways to use your art charms in jewelry and home decor. The last section is Swaps and More, in which the authors interview the "queen" of charm swaps Amber Dawn Goldish and give guidelines for hosting your own art charm swap.

One of the things the authors do that I really like is to NAME some of the products (like the sealants they prefer to use) instead of leaving us to figure it out by trial and error.

One of the things I am surprised by is how much information and technique driven stuff was included in a relatively small amount of space. Some things (like resin or soldering) could have used more detail to be complete. However, the bare bones stuff was covered and you can find more detail than you could ever possibly use by searching YouTube or Google.

As a former stained glass person, I would have liked them to stress using lead free solder a bit more (and where to get it) than just listing it in the materials box. Also, I think it's important to note that if you don't allow the areas you are soldering to cool the glass will crack. They do tell you to solder a few charms at a time to allow pieces to cool in between, but not WHY.

Overall, the authors do an excellent job stressing safety and using what you have and not trying to reproduce their results exactly (especially when it comes to found objects). I love that they teach you how to create your own mixed media collage to cut up for a few of the projects. My favorite project is probably the Pressed Penny Souvenir charm because it's one of those things I could never think outside the box. WHY would you want to spend 51 cents on a destroyed penny? Now I know. And what a cool inexpensive way to create a charm bracelet of your vacations.

This is an excellent book for all ages. If you are old enough to craft, there is something in here for you. Even a toddler could create the mixed media collage for you to cut up so your charms have that much more meaning. I can see a new line of mother's jewelry developing that looks nothing like what every other mother is wearing... My 9 year old daughter loves this book and I had to wait for her to go to camp so I could have a turn with it.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-07-17
Summary: "Truly Inspiring and Achievable"

The book is beautiful and well organized. I am a book junkie and have been doing some form of artcraft or craftart for many years. I live where there aren't many bookstores that carry extensive craft books so you'll find this review written for those who would really like to evaluate the book. I have no connection to the authors or the publishing company.

Overall Impression: The materials in the projects are available and the pictures are detailed and great. The projects will appeal to those with many different styles except those who are into strictly primitive or folk art. The techniques and projects could be adapted but those who like primitive and folk art won't find much eye candy.

Best Feature: One of the best features is that they actually list or recommend brands they use. I completely understand why some books list things like "white glue" or "clear sealer" or cylinder beads, but I really would like to know a brand name or two so I know what I am looking for. These authors list both the generic "sealer" but then actually tell the reader what brands they prefer and sometimes why they prefer them. The two authors frequently use different products. I feel like if I am going to buy a book to learn to make something, then please don't make me go through trial and error just trying to find the right glue or sealer, just tell me one or two to try first. I'll move onto trial and error if they don't work.

The book is organized by chapter with each chapter introducing a material and then 3 projects using that material. The chapters (along with the introductions, materials, and comprehensive projects )are:
Paper
Found Objects
Polymer Clay
Plastic
Wood
Fiber
Resin
Metal
Glass

One thing to note: the book is physically short. It's 95 pages long but the dimensions are roughly 9 inches tall by 8.5 inches wide. It is not the dimension of a traditional book that is the size of notebook paper (11 X 8.5 inches).

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone. The beginner and advanced alike will find something inspiring.