Hi guys it's Cindy Lietz, your Polymer Clay
Tutor and today's PCT Show and Tell. I'm going
to be reviewing the book The Complete Guide
to Making Wire Jewelry by Wing Mun Devenney.
Now I just I had a stack of craft book sent
to me by the publisher Barron's and I've done
a couple of book reviews in the past so here
is another one. Now wire working is a wonderful
skill to add to your polymer clay skill set.
Several years ago I started making polymer
clay jewelry and I noticed that when I upped
my wire working skills the rest of my work
looked better and I recently done a video
on--called a Million and One Polymer Clay
Necklaces and here's a couple of examples
from there and then I also did another one
called A Million and One Polymer Clay Earrings
and here's some examples from there. And in
all of my work you'll see lots and lots of
wire work in there and so I had to learn how
to do it mostly on my own, a little bit of
research on lots and lots of practice. So
when this book landed on my desk I was very
curious to see if it was going to be a good
one to recommend to you guys. So I will just
go through this book and show you what it's
all about and what my views are on it. OK,
so first of all it is a nice book it feels
good it's a nice size and fairly thick, it's
got lots of information in it and the photography
is really beautiful that is one of the really
great things about this book is that, the
pictures are really nice and clear and you
can really see the different steps on it.
There's the regular kind of information, you
know the intro, and that kind of thing about
design and inspiration. She's got a shot of
her studio which is I particularly love because
it looks a lot like my studio. But hers is
more focused strictly on jewelry making and
storage so she's got lots of need ideas in
here. Then she talks about a wire-- which
this whole book is about and the different
types of wire and the different gauges and
all that kind of stuff, the different hardnesses
of wire all of this information that's in
here is really good information. I was often--
they kind of go to surface-y with information
like this and you're not getting much meat,
but this one actually has really good information
that would have been really nice to know at
the beginning of my wire working journey.
She talks about different findings that you'll
use, the different tools and it's all good
information. All stuff that anyone starting
out with like and actually even an intermediate
would enjoy this book as well. Then the next
section it goes into techniques so there's
quite a bit of information in this area she
talked about where our work hardening wire
which is really important to understand, the
hardness and how to make your wire harder
and what to avoid, you know , if you-- you
can break wire if you make it too hard. There's
lots of different things about cutting wire,
the types of tools you're going to need how
to use your pliers and you can see that the
photographs are nice and clear. And I didn't
see any holes in the information. That's a
very common thing that happens is there's
big holes in information and I did not see
that anywhere in this book. Now I've done
lots of wire work so most of the stuff was
stuff that I had seen before, there was a
head pin here called the Knotted Head--Knotted
End Headpin so it's got a little knot on the
end event and so I thought well I might as
well try that haven't tried it before and
I tried it following the instructions and
here's my little one that i made. It's really
easy and it was clear-- the information was
clear enough that I could make it exactly
how she made it sot that was good. Then there
was another little thing in here I had made
before. I done lots-- oh there's lots of hooks
and clasps you'll-- in my necklace tutorial
or not tutorial the video that has the million
necklaces in it, I show a lot of clasps and
things and these are shown how to make them
in here some of them anyways. They also show
how to do earring hooks or ear wires, we often
call them. The nice thing I read in here,
one of the things I always look for when somebody
teaches you how to make ear wires is whether
or not they tell you to use a cup burr and
round off the the very end that goes into
your ear and she does she mentions that so
that means that this is a person that knows
what they're talking about. And the reason
for that is that you can-- if you just cut
off the end of the ear wire, and you don't
file it or round it off really nicely, it
can end up scratching and cutting your ear
hole in your ear so-- and a lot of people
don't mention that. So seeing that means that
she takes care to the instructions. Also there's
several different ear wire designs us the
ear studs really neat stuff in here. Oh here's
the one that I was saying that I had not tried
before I've made lots of cord ends I've done
some tutorials on that actually, but I hadn't
made one like this one here that's just a
closed-off end that you would make for like
a bolo tie or something like that and so I
just followed the instructions and made a
couple of little cord ends for this wire here.
I didn't glue them on cause I'm not going
to keep them on here I'm gonna use this leather
cord for something else but it works really
well. The design-- the information is is good
so there's a whole section lots of information
there and use. It's nice and thick there's
lots of. Its a good encyclopedia then they
go into using a wire jig, maybe there's a
better picture here that will be where you
use the pegs in the pegboard and then you
bend your wire around the jig. There's lots
of neat things that you can do with that.
I actually don't have one of those yet, I
have lots of things but I don't have that
yet so it's something that I haven't done
much of, obviously, if you don't have the
tool and but they've got lots of neat little
ideas in here some patterns. And in fact in
the back they have some patterns that you
can copy. I'll talk about those in a second
here she talks about wire coiling which is
a nice technique to add done some of that
and all this information is good in here.
some crinkley tools for putting little kinks
and wire-making spirals that kind of thing
I'm how to use jewelry mandrels this section,
oh it's not here yet. I'll come up to it,
there is some neat designs in it that I'll
show you a sec okay she also talks about doing
French knitting which is kind of-- we used
to do something similar to that with just
some yarn when I was a little girl and now
they've got this little tool for doing that
with wire. She even does the Macrame with
a wire, wire twisting, handmade chain, she's
got the same pattern here for making the Byzantine
chain though I don't believe she called the
Byzantine she just doesn't call it any particular
chainmaille. That is the same chain mail that
I have made for this polymer clay necklace
here, I mean this is quite a few years ago
with different instructions and it is a neat
technique to be able to do, you take a little
jump rings and you are attached them into
a nice chain, lots of other chain kind of
things in here so there is-- like I said some--
oh here's some really good information that
was missing from the book that I previously
reviewed. They show you actually how to use
the ribbon cord ends and the tube caps, closed-ended
cabs, how to add the cord and they've got
some neat little tips and here using tape
and then glue and cutting it and trimming
it. So this is really well thought out, it's
got the information that you need to do a
good job. Then there's a section on the projects,
if I have any-- if I if there's anything that
i didn't really like about this book, it's
this little section on the projects, I'm not
super crazy about the project designs these
ones are okay but there's a couple in here
that's just really not my style. So I probably
won't make these projects anytime soon. This
one I kind of like it's simple in and pretty,
this twisted bangle, but some of the other
ones are kind of I didn't like but that's
mostly taste, I think. And then there was
another thing-- where is it-- a little bit
further in, they have some of the show you
how to make a brooch of another project then
where is it-- OK there's a section of the
back here called a pattern directory and they've
got-- where all these different patterns that
you can follow along at to make these different
wire patterned things on a jig. I think that's
really quite clever though a couple of the
designs-- a lot of them are really neat but
a couple of the designs i just can't see working
in a very functional manner. Most of these
are fine but there was a couple in here--
let me just show you example. For example,
this martini glass, here's the pattern here,
looks neat, flat maybe it would work on a
card but in jewelry it's not going to work
very well. First of all, how is that that
stick going to stay there? It's just a separate
piece so it would just be somewhere on your
bracelet or something. I'm not sure how that
would work and then the bottom, this is where
the the wires cross at the bottom, they're
not attached to each other at all, they're
just kind of sitting on top of each other
and that's going to cause problems it's going
to snag on things you'd have to maybe put
a coil along the whole bottom or whatever.
And the same thing goes with this house design
there's some sort of just overlap parts but
these other ones like this heart where they
actually take the end and wrap it into an
end, that could work quite well and a lot
of the other ones are fine but some of these
ones where the wires just kind of sit across
from each other. That's not going to work
in jewelry very well, it'll work fine in a--
some other kind of crafting project but not
jewelry, in my opinion. But there's some neat
patterns in here lots of great stuff. Now
my opinion is, on this book, is that it is
a great book. I really liked it even is kind
of-- it sparked some neat ideas for me. I
think this is one of those books that is actually
worth the price out there. The price of this
one today's date, we're in like 2016 it says
on the back there about twenty three dollars
in the US and about $27.50 in Canada of course,
everything is more expensive in Canada. But
I think it's worth the price. I think you'll
go back to it, anyone who's never worked with
wire before, I think it's got-- there is no
it holes in the information that i could see
anyways and I think it would make a good book
for someone who wanted to add wire to their
jewelry making skills. And it really makes
a big difference to your just grabbing some
store-bought ear wires and hanging some beads
on it. That is not near as artistic as making
your own ear wires and then we'll make a big
difference if you're finishing work is nice
and the ends are nice and you've filed and
followed a lot of the instructions and done
some good wire working with your polymer clay
beads and stuff like that because it-- it
ups the value of your piece and it makes it
come across much more professional. Alright,
so I hope that was helpful for you if it was
do let us know if you liked this video and
if you've got a book you'd like me to review,
a product you'd like to learn more about,
a technique that you don't understand and
you don't see it in our great huge list of
videos that we've done already, then make
sure to leave those suggestions in the comments
section below. Alright, and so we'll see you
next time and bye for now.
