Book Review: Making Metal Beads
March 19, 2008 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Book & Magazine Reviews, Metal Fabrication, Wearable Art
Making Metal Beads
by Pauline Warg
This is an astounding book! Like all Lark Publications, it is filled with beautiful photographs, in this case close-ups of lovely fabricated metal beads and the steps to create them.
Warning: this is not a book on metal clay. Pauline’s book covers traditional metalsmithing techniques, so it’s not for everyone. But if you’ve ever thought that you’d like to try your hand at making metal beads from scratch (or in this case, from sheet metal!), this is the book for you. She has a brief section on doctoring up premade metal beads, giving them texture and more personality, but most of the book covers creating from the raw materials.
After covering the basics of sawing, filing, drilling, soldering, forming, and more, Pauline puts all these skills together to show you step by step how to make 40 different gorgeous beads. Some beads start with tubing, some with sheet metal, and some with wire mesh. All are stunning!
Thanks for doing a write up on this book, Cyndi. Of all the beginning to intermediate level project books on metal fabrication that I own, this one is a real favorite of mine. I love to use thai silver beads in my work, but this book is allowing me to start making unique metal beads of my own to use in my work.
I think it is a book that should be on every metalsmith student’s bookshelf.