Jewelry Lab

Book excerpt: Jewelry Lab uses brevity to ignite a passion for working the metals processes and learning about all the ways metal can be used. It provides aspiring metalsmiths and jewelry makers a way to learn fundamental techniques that is quick and fun. In addition to the basic skills such as sawing, drilling, soldering, and finishing, the book covers texturing, etching, rolling, coloring, patinas, forming, connections, findings, solders, bezels, rivets, and other experimental techniques. This is not a project book; rather, it is an approachable, unintimidating workbook that breaks metals processes down into very specific experiments, such as texturing or plastic deformation of metal, with no goal in mind other than to experience how metal moves. Readers learn to understand more about metal, how to master it, and gain a deep, thoughtful underlying appreciation for process and method, becoming entranced with finely crafting objects with great care.