First Semester Small Metals Class in a Book!

Well almost!  I have a lot of jewelry books in my library.  Not only books on artists and styles I love like Ramona Solberg  and Art Nouveau,  but also many books on process like Tim McCreight's The Complete Metalsmith.

However, I just received and devoured a book that will allow me to throw away my college notes from my first semester Small Metals class!  That's saying a lot, because you know how difficult it can be to throw away class notes.  However, you also know how difficult they can be to go back to months or years from when you took the class.  I did get better at diagramming and reviewing my notes as an adult, but to have all the information I need indexed, beautifully photographed and explained clearly is a dream come true.  

This new book by Jennifer Chin, Hot Connections Jewelry, will sit on my work bench and become dog-eared and stained in the months to come.  Nothing beats taking a class and gaining the experience from mistakes and learning new ideas and techniques in person, but if you do pretty well learning from a book and don't have access to a small metals course, I highly recommend you read this book.

Other highlights for me were not only gallery photos of a variety of different goldsmiths' work, but a brief explanation of the techniques used in each piece.  That made the gallery photos more than just eye candy!