Reviews: Jewelry-making books

The bookstore is pushing us to turn in our textbook requests for spring semester by month's end, which means i'm already slogging through candidates for required and recommended books on the topics covered in my spring seminar (of which there are many).

One of the aformentioned topics is jewelry, which in theatre can run the gamut in terms of crafts artisan responsibilities. You might find yourself restringing purchased necklaces to make them more durable, replacing traditional clasps with magnetic ones so a pendant can be jerked off of someone's neck angrily every night, replicating a huge brooch from a painting of Queen Elizabeth, aging brand-new metal to look old and tarnished, or sculpting and casting a giant medallion for a nobleman's chain of office (there'll be one of these in a forthcoming post--i'm doing this exact thing for our next show on the mainstage). Really, anything goes.

So, my students will be doing a unit on jewelry, and i want them to have a reference text for it. This has proved particularly difficult, since most books i'm finding out there are either on the "Joolree 4 Dummeez" level (think, bead-stringing projects for pre-teens) or are mostly project-based books--how to make specific projects outlined in a step-by-step fashion, rather than addressing basic skills and techniques.

On the intermediate/experienced end of things, there are three books i considered as possible texts for class:

Jewelry: Fundamentals of Metalsmithing by Tim McCreight

The Encyclopedia of Jewelry-Making Techniques by Jinks McGrath

The Complete Book of Jewelry-Making by Carles Codina

These three books are all, essentially, full of the same information. They're all good overviews of high-end jewelry-making techniques--think soldering, sawing metal with jewelry files, annealing, that sort of thing, rather than say, bead-stringing. You don't do a lot of this sort of thing as a craftsperson--specific jewelry designs often either get jobbed out or you "fudge" them for stage with materials like polymer clay, cast plastic and gold leaf, or precious-metal clay--but every so often something comes down the pike and you want a reference text.

Of these three, i'm going with the Tim McCreight one as the one that I'd recommend. Like i said, they all contain the same basic information, and it's really down to personal preference on layout, presentation, etc. McCreight's book is arranged in what feels to me like the most logical order, and has a good balance of visual and textual information. Most importantly for a theatre crafts artisan, he has good, concise, well-laid-out sections on soldering, jewelry adhesives, and patina recipes.

If you prefer lots of larger color photographs interspersed with small chunks of text, go for the Codina book. It's easy to digest, very visually laid out, and the book itself is fairly large-format. All this results in a book that makes jewelry-scale metalworking seem like something that's not very intimidating, which may be just right for someone seeking a good introductory text.

The Jinks McGrath book differs little from the McCreight book in images/info, but it's laid out in alphabetical order by process name regardless of difficulty (so you start out with annealing and end up with wirework). I know it bills itself as an "encyclopedia" but let's face it: there just aren't enough different topics under the "jewelry-making" umbrella for this book to even crack 200 pages, much less require the somewhat pedantic structure of an alphabetized "encyclopedia." The result is that the book seems far more dense and impenetrable than the information contained within really warrants. It's almost like the book is designed to make the stuff it covers seem more intimidating than it is. Counterproductive, i think, since i bet the average person on the street finds the idea of cutting metal with a hand-saw or etching it with acid to be already fairly intimidating. If you've taken several classes in jewelry-making and you already know what the tools and processes are, maybe you want this in your shop as a reference manual. I'm not knocking it; it's a good book. It's not right for my purposes though.



Creating Your Own Antique Jewelry by cRis Dupouy, rereleased in 2004 as Creating Your Own Jewelry: Taking Inspiration from Museum Masterpieces

This book isn't one i'm going to use for my class, but i think it's worth mentioning as something to check out. It's divided up by eras of time (antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Rennaissance, etc.), and is essentially a series of projects on how to make various pieces of jewelry depicted in actual historical resource images (oil paintings mostly), using Dupouy's particular style of working with polymer clay and glass stones.

From a theatrical perspective, it's not terribly useful as a reference text since once you get the basic techniques (and you get it as soon as you read through one project worth) you can then adapt the principles to whatever jewelry design your costume designer has rendered or provided research for. It's also probably not something of interest for historical reproduction folks either, since the pieces wind up being sometimes rather free interpretations of the jewelry depicted in the primary research rather than accurate replications. From a home enthusiast's perspective however, it seems like it could be a really fun text for someone with an interest in antique and vintage jewelry, who's seeking a step-by-step how-to book full of specific projects, and it's definitely a good inspiration text for a costume designer who has to do her/his own craftwork.



And, what i've still not found but would love to track down is a book that functions essentially as a reference for intermediate jewelry assemblage--one that addresses issues like how to properly secure crimp beads, pros and cons of different kinds of findings, overviews of bead types, stone cuts, cabochon uses, various hand tools, etc. Not "how to go from sheets of metal to art jewelry," which is what the three books i mentioned first really cover, but more of a text on assemblage with structural integrity, without a bunch of specific projects like "Make these six cute bracelets!"

Breaking News/Company Focus: The Lost Colony costume shop and collections destroyed by fire

Photo by John Buford
courtesy of Roanoke Island Historical Association 9/11/07

The nation's longest-running outdoor drama, The Lost Colony in Manteo, NC, suffered a disastrous fire last night which destroyed their costume collection and entire shop. A Nags Head resident from across the inlet spotted the flames shortly after midnight and called authorities, but by the time the fire department arrived on the scene, flames had engulfed the roof of the building.

The News & Observer has what appears to be an exclusive interview with designer William Ivey Long, who has had a lifelong affiliation with the Lost Colony, having grown up as the child of parents who worked for the production. The drama was in its 70th season this past summer.

Here is the press release from TLC media contact John Buford:

(Manteo, NC – September 11, 2007) On 11 September 2007 at 12:35 A.M., a resident of Villa Dunes spotted a fire across the sound on Roanoke Island, and called 911. Part of The Lost Colony’s Waterside Theatre was in flames. All fire departments north of Oregon Inlet responded.

Fire crews worked swiftly and efficiently to control the blaze, and take necessary precautions to save the nearby men’s dressing room structure. In spite of their efforts, the maintenance shed, which appears to have been at or near the source of the fire was completely destroyed. Charred pieces of framing in a flimsy skeleton, pointing irregularly toward the star-lighted sky, appear to be all that remains of what was the Irene Rains Costume Shop. All of the show costumes, all of the historic costumes, all of the fabrics, all of the shoes and hats are traditionally stored in the costume shop. All are lost—except the court costumes which fortunately are still at the dry cleaners, and a few that have already been delivered to the NC Museum of History for the Lost Colony exhibition scheduled to open in October.

All of the colonist costumes, and all of the Indian costumes were destroyed.

All of the vintage costumes are lost—all those built by Irene Rains in the 1940s and 1950s; and all of Fred Voelpel’s in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s.

No other structures appeared to have been damaged. The Nags Head resident who reported the fire saved the theatre.

Ironically, 60 years ago, on 24 June 1947, a late afternoon fire destroyed two-thirds of the Waterside Theatre and most of the sets and props. The costumes in the 1947 disaster escaped the flames, however, because of costumer Irene Rains’ quick action in removing them from the dressing rooms and casting the items on the shore. There was no possibility of saving anything from the current disaster. From the point of arrival of the firemen, it was impossible to enter the building. The flames were already topping the trees.

Once again, The Lost Colony and its supporters must suffer the loss of their history and re-build. Community support is critical and a fund will be established for the replacement of the costumes.

* * *

I'll post more as i hear it--i know they plan to set up a special fund for this, and presumably donations will be accepted. I also know that the drama operates on a shoestring and that they did not have insurance--what a huge, staggering loss. :(


ETA: There's another article at the Pilot Online, this one enumerates the loss in more concrete terms. Here's a quote:

The Roanoke Island Historical Association, producers of the play, estimate costume losses at $1 million to $2 million. About 75 percent of the production's costumes were lost.

But William Ivey Long, the show’s production designer and a five-time Tony Award-winning Broadway costume designer, said it is nearly impossible to put a value on a collection, which went back seven decades and included 700 costumes used in the show. That's all the colonists' clothes. All the Indian costumes. All the vintage costumes made by costumer Irene Rains in the 1940s and '50s and by Fred Voelpelin in the '60s, '70s and '80s. Not to mention the William Ivey Long collection.

Including those used for doubles and extras, Long said, there were more like 1,500 to 2,000 costumes lost.

The Pilot also has a photo gallery, with some images of the building, some damaged interior images including a burnt-up antique Singer that's heartbreaking, but a few lighthearted images of the firemen sporting armor they found and salvaged in the blaze.