Making Bead & Wire Jewelry: Simple Techniques, Stunning Designs

by Dawn Cusick

Provides instructions for creating more than seventy jewelry pieces.

Genres: Crafts, Jewellery, Nonfiction, Jewellery Making, Reference, Art, How To

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Dawn Cusick is blessed with many talents. She combined her writing and artistic skills and spent nearly twenty years working an in-house author and editor for a craft book publisher, producing titles such as Tabletop Fountains, The Michaels' Book of Arts and Crafts, and multiple editions of Quilt National. Her fascination with science and nature has now led her to create children's science books.

In between books, Dawn teaches biology at a community college in western North Carolina, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and not nearly enough cats.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Do you like to cook? This book struck me as a catalog of "recipes" (2 to 3 pages each) explaining how to make specific jewelry pieces photographed and designed by the author. There are only 9 pages at the beginning dedicated to teaching you the basics about materials and techniques.

I think the most useful part of this book (for people looking to create their own original designs, rather than copy Cusick's) is the codex of jig patterns on pages 124-126. You can certainly use her designs as practice in constructing different types of designs, but reproducing them and trying to sell them on Etsy might result in copyright infringement.

[Klyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good ideas.

[Cindy C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful in making jewelry and learning new technics.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic designs and great instructions in this book.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really cool book with such gorgeous designs! You would never think of 'wire' as being something beautiful. The patterns in this book are very easy to follow and make some beautiful creations! No matter how hard you try to copy the picture of the piece of jewelry you are making, it is impossible. This IS a good thing! We all have different styles, techniques, and talents. This is when our style comes out in making these pieces. Styles come and go, but this book is full of projects that will be timeless.
The patterns are very easy to follow, thus resulting in a gorgeous final product, yes, made with wire! I have made several pieces from this book, and have received many compliments on my final product. It is a lot of fun working with wire, and easy, too! You would not think it is easy working with wire, but, following the suggestions for the types of wire to work with for the different types of jewelry you want to make is very helpful. The helpful hints from this book helps to make your projects come out grand. This is a book you will refer to time and time again, thus making this book a 'keeper' for your library. You will also use this book as a reference book as well. This is a book you can use along with other books and other types of jewelry you will want to make. You can refer to this book to find the type of wire that is best for any type of project you want to make.
For anyone who enjoys making jewelry, this book is a must-have!

[Wendi WDM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, not bad. I prefer another wire book on my list more. It has a ton of visual patterns and instructions. But this wasn't bad.

[Victoria]

Bit of wear to cover (minor), like new.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stunning designs? Yes, most of them were very beautiful! But Simple Techniques?!? I don't think so! I'm not a beginner, but I don't think I'm ready to give these projects a go!

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Good for us beginners!