Book Review Friday - Steel Wire Jewelry by Brenda Schweder

What a week this has been!!  It started with an ice storm on Monday and ended with a blizzard on Friday.  I decided to take today off for a little peace and quiet.  Lou hopped a plane to Florida to golf with the guys today…hence the peace and quiet for me.  And of course we get a huge snow storm that dumps over a foot of snow when he’s gone and of course we still don’t have the snow blower fixed.  But our neighbor was an angel today.  He cleaned the driveway for me with his snow blower.  So I made some jambalaya and barricaded myself in for the weekend.

I get a number of books to review and I don’t have time to do them all.  I do the ones I really like and the ones where I have some experience to give an opinion.  Steel Wire Jewelry: Stylish Designs * Simple Techniques * Artful Inspiration by Brenda Schweder is a book that I really like.

It’s no surprise....I like wire work, I like alternative metals, and with the price of gold and silver these days who doesn't need another option of materials to work with.  This book is fun and inspirational (like the title says).  The 35 projects range from whimsical to sophisticated and include directions for basic jewelry pieces…necklaces, bracelets, rings and earrings but also ways to capture focal pieces that can be incorporated into these pieces. Looking through the projects I started thinking about the numerous focal pieces I have sitting in my studio and realized I now have a way to display them that doesn’t involve having to solder a bezel setting or trying to capture them in metal clay.

Below is a necklace from the book.  It shows how a really unique found object focal piece can be captured by steel wire to embellish a spiral steel wire necklace.  I like how Brenda uses spirals in the necklace echo the spiral on the tip of the found object.

I love bracelets, I love this bracelet, and bracelets aren't something I have managed to incorporate into my work with bronze clay yet.  But I can see making bracelets with wire like this and using a variety of items as the focal piece.  I have a number of lampwork beads that would look fantastic and I can start using up my huge stash of beads.  I also like the width of this bracelet.  I usually wear multiple bracelets or something with width. 

Now that I have you salivating for the book....I have a treat.  I have an extra book that I will give away.  Just leave a comment on this blog by next Friday (March 4th) and your name will go into a drawing for the Brenda's book.
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