Hi guys! This is Cindy Lietz, your Polymer
Clay Tutor in today's Studio Tip, I'm going
to review the book Micro Macrame: 25 Super
Fine Jewelry Projects by the author Jenny
Townley. Now, I'm-- I wasn't going to do a
book-- another book review because I just
did one last week but I ended up making a
project from this book that I want to give
to my mom for mother's day and the timing
just works out that way if I want to show
you this project. So the book that I did last
week was called Bead it, Iron it, Love it
and I did a polymer clay cane from it and
I just wanted to quickly mention, there were
a few people that had-- now the cane ended
up to be about this big around. Some people
were worried about it not reducing very well
and I just wanted to show you that I did reduce
it and it reduces right down to a super tiny
size and it still looks super cute. So I just
want to mention that to you. Now if you haven't
seen that video go check it out it's-- it's
a cute one. Alright so this book is also from
the same publisher, Barrons Publishing, they
sent me a few books to review and I thought
the best way to review a book was to do something
in the book, do one of the projects, and so
I did that. And I ended up making this bracelet
which I'll talk about in a second but I'm
now I'll just show you-- flip through the
book a little bit so you get an idea of what
it's like. It's the-- it's nicely made, the
photography is really beautiful in it and
it's pretty it's set up pretty much like a
typical craft book where you've got the table
of contents in the beginning here they've
got about the book-- the author, about the
book, a little bit of information. And then
the first section is about the knots the tools
and the techniques. Now, this book, I forgot
to mention, it says every technique explained
for beginners and up and so they've got some
beginner or they've got all these different
things in here so this is the knot directory,
it's got your basic knots which is really
handy to have on hand because sometimes you
don't remember the name of the knots or exactly
how the knots work but they've got the basic
knots like Larks Head Knot, Overhand Knot,
Square Knot, Spiral Knot and the pictures
are good you can't you can see how it's done
they've got a Full Loop Knot, I haven't done
that one before, Double Half Hitch Knot, the
one I ended up using for this bracelet, left
and right, you do it differently for each
and then that's about it for the knots and
then they go into the basic tools. One of
the tools that they suggest is using one of
these macrame boards, I actually happen to
have one, I'll show you what it looks like.
I actually picked mine up on a while ago when
I was at Shipwreck Beads. We did a video on
Shipwreck Beads a while to go and that's where
I got this Macrame Board you can do you don't
have to have a board like this to do it you
can just do it on a clipboard but the nice
thing about these boards, first of all, they're
not that expensive and they are a foam that
you can-- it has these little slots and things
in it and your cords kind of go-- I'll just
quickly show you at the top, you can pull
the cord into the top here and then you can
knot away and then you can use a pin to pin
your design and that kind of thing. It's really
nice, I've Macrame'd by tying on to a doorknob
before and this is really nice it's easy to
work with. So that's they mentioned that in
the book. And then it goes into like choosing
chords buying beads you know the typical stuff
you'd find in a craft book. They have a few
pictures of different things then they go
into the projects. Now this book has it set
up where they have beginner projects are all
in one section and they're here, like that,
you can see a pretty simple designs. It's
basic stuff, I do like the designs that they
have, they're really modern and and nice-looking
projects. And then they have an intermediate
section I would consider myself an intermediate
in the micro macrame level. I've done a fair
amount of just sort of knotting as a kid and
then a little bit as an adult but not too
much so I'm-- I would be an intermediate level
so here are the intermediate level projects
in here and there there nicely laid out. This
is the one I actually ended up doing which
we'll talk about again in one second. So then
we go through there's lots of earrings necklaces
that kind of thing then they go into more
advanced projects further in. Are we there
yet? Yeah we are, so lots of knots with beads
and you know different patterns and things
like that so it's fairly nicely laid out and
there's some good pictures in it. Now when
I went to go do the project, this is the one
that I chose I ended up having to change the
design a bit partly because of the focal bead
that I chose. But as I started getting into
this project I realized that there was a little
bit of missing information and this is a real
typical thing that you're going to find in
almost all craft books these days is that
when you actually go to do the project, they
can't show you enough photographs and so they
just leave some stuff out and-- and it it
makes it hard. Now for me, being intermediate
I can and also having a fair amount of jewelry
skills I could read between the lines and
I could just figure it out so worked out to
be a-- a good book for me but I don't think,
because for-- its really that suited for a
total beginner just because of a couple of
things. For example, this whole bracelet here,
they they don't actually show you how this
focal bead is attached. In the instructions
they show you the beginning part of the pattern
and then they say to go to three and a half
inches and then add your focal and then continue
pattern for three and a half more inches but
the problem is a couple of things: first of
all, this focal bead which you you learn if
you read well enough is actually a button
and it has a shank on the back and the eight
cords end up having to go through the shank
through the back. Now, I can picture that
because I've done a lot of this kind of thing
but a beginner may not have any idea what
they're talking about so showing the back
of that button would have been really nice
to see. Also to trying to get those knots
up in the next section, would have been kind
of tricky you would have to keep pulling the
the focal out of the way to try to get those
knots in nicely at the back. Also, they don't
tell you how to finish it. There-- they just
well they tell you but they don't show you.
So it says here at the end: To finish, place
the end of the cord in a ribbon clamp and
then attach a jump ring and a lobster clasp.
They show kind of-- in the book lots of places
where they use these ribbon clamps but they
don't show you anywhere in the book how to
actually use those or how to finish off the
cords so that was another issue but I will
just explain to you what I did and how I went
about it and and all that. So I changed the
design a little bit. On their pattern, they
had-- they had the design go like this here,
I'll unhook this. They started off with the
design they went for three and a half inches,
had their focal button there and then continued
on, then they added the ribbon clasp at the
end here and then had a like a hook-- with
the lobster hook that you would hook onto
this and here. Which is a decent design I
could do that but when I dug around looking
for a focal bead to use, I found this Cabochon
I had made quite a-- quite some time ago by
using the CaBezel Mold, I have a video on
that as well, if you want to check that out.
But it was the colors and the shape of it
that I thought suited the knotting I had done
so far so I got into the three and a half
inches and start digging around for a focal
bead. The color just seemed to me to be go
perfectly with for this bracelet so then I
had to try to figure out how in the heck I
was going to add it. Now, I was thinking I
might add a screw eye at the back and use
that kind of like a shank and then slide it
on but I kept looking at the design and I
felt like, if I could hide all the findings
behind the focal bead it would end up being
a nicer looking bracelet in the end. So then,
I had to try to figure out how I was going
to do all of that. What ended up--What I ended
up figuring out was I used a this is like
a hook and I clasp that you would use in sewing.
I just happen to have one in a bunch of old
sewing stuff and it had three holes in it
so I bent this one hole up just a little bit
away from the surface, added a loop and added
it to my ribbon clamp. I'll talk about how
I added ribbon clamp in a sec but then I had
to figure out how to attach this piece to
here and originally, I thought well maybe
some little tiny screws but all the screws
I found that were the right length were had
too big heads on them, and they were a problem
so I ended up going with some larger kind
of head finishing nails which I cut shorter
and then I use some hypo cement glue behind
this hook here, also drilled a couple of little
holes in those two holes here. So I used my
little hand drill, drilled some little pilot
holes then to the finishing nails put some
glue on them as well and nailed them in. So
it's very solid, it's been glued and nailed
to this piece and it is functioning really
well. I was quite pleased with--with how that
ended up working out. And it was just a matter
of fiddling around trying to figure that out
so that's what I ended up doing. Now, for
ribbon clamps, if you have no idea how to
do it add that to a piece like this. And if
you read the book you would have no idea this
is how-- what they are. OK so you get these
clamp closures or ribbon clamps I got a little
pack of several different sizes at Michael's.
Now these are the premium metal ones so they
have they use real brass so there are a little
higher quality and they're going to be stronger
but here's what they look like out of the
package and they kind of have like these little
tiny teeth on there I don't know if Doug is
gonna be able to pick up on that but those
clamp down on your work. So let's just push
this out of the way and pretend that that
hook isn't there you would take the little
threads that are on your end here and you
make sure the knots are all tied tight and
you trim them fairly short. Then you have
to melt them because this is the kind of cording
that melts if you use a lighter. So I melted
the ends down with the lighter and got them
all so that they wouldn't fray or come unraveled
or anything then I put my clamp over the pieces,
all the little ribbon ends, made sure they
were all tucked in, and then I used a pair
of flat nose or chain nose pliers to just
crush it down and pinch that whole piece of
all the cording inside that clamp then you
can just add a jump ring there and then you're
good to go. But some chords don't melt, you--
you have to kind of test that ahead of time
you may need to glue them or tape them or
do something like that to get them so that
they all sit in there nice and tight. And
you want to give it a good tug to make sure
that it's on there. Now, as far as the cording
that I used I also got that a Shipwreck Beads
because I was there and they have all that
kind of stuff, I used a Asian knotting cord
it comes in all kinds of different sizes and
this happens to be one millimeter in length
and this is done by a company called Dazzle
It, these are called Lovely Knots. It's beautiful
for that kind of thing. These, I followed
the instructions in the book and this is the
extra that I had leftover, it was a little
bit overkill in my opinion, but you're better
off having a little bit extra than coming
up too short when it comes with knotting.
So, overall, this is a good book if you are
an intermediate in my opinion but you have
to know a little bit so that you can fill
in those little blanks that are there and
that's partly why I love video tutorials so
much is that they-- they are able-- they don't
have those blanks in there as long as you're
not skipping over or doing you know voice
overs or something but if you do the technique
in every step, then you're not gonna miss
anything like what happens in a book but I
overall-- I think the designs are really great
it's a good reference book, I'll probably
do a few more projects from here and I did
very much enjoyed making this bracelet and
I hope my mom loves it for Mother's Day. So,
I hope that was helpful for you and 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 like me to test, a technique
you don't know anything about that you'd like
to learn more about, make sure to leave those
suggestions in the comments section below
and don't forget we have tons and tons of
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learn more about polymer clay from. Alright,
so we'll see you next time and bye for now!
