Bead on a Wire Book Review

Bead on a Wire: Making Handcrafted Wire and Beaded Jewelry is a great wire jewelry book. The photos are excellent and the instructions are clear, thorough and easy to understand. If making wire wrapped jewelry is brand new to you, or you want to learn techniques beyond creating simple wrapped loops, you will be able to follow the instructions in Bead on a Wire and create your own unique wire jewelry pieces.

Don't be intimidated by the long list of tools listed in the Jewelry Toolkit section of the book. One of the beauties of making wire wrapped jewelry is that you can get started with just a few simple tools. All of the extras listed in the book are nice to have but not immediately necessary. You can add to your toolkit as you develop your skills and determine the wire wrap jewelry styles and techniques you prefer.

The projects are modern and completely wearable. I've made several projects from this book, but the rectangle earrings are my favorite. Also, the techniques shown here for making wire wrapped jewelry lend themselves to interpretation, so you won't be limited to copying the projects. You can use the techniques in Bead on a Wire as a starting point to create your own unique jewelry.

Wire jewelry supply sources are fairly easy to come by. When I started making wire wrapped jewelry, I practiced new techniques on craft wire because it's very inexpensive (copper wire is also quite inexpensive), so I didn't worry about making mistakes. It responds a little bit differently than sterling silver wire, but if you're a complete novice to wire wrapping, it's worth picking up some craft wire to practice on before you start using other materials.

Once you've practiced some of the techniques in the book, you can use sterling silver or gold filled wire to make beautiful jewelry. If you have wholesale accounts with any of the major jewelry suppliers, you'll find wire there. I've also bought sterling silver wire on eBay. There are sellers there who offer prices that are very competitive with the major jewelry wholesalers, and on eBay you don't have to deal with minimum purchase requirements and expensive shipping fees that wholesalers typically require.

You can also find some pretty unique and competitively priced beads for your wire wrapped jewelry on eBay. You'll find tips to find great beads for jewelry making here, and information on buying cheap beading supplies here.

Learning wire jewelry techniques can add a new dimension to your work. I personally love the way wrapped loops between a chain of beads make the whole piece "breathe" a little bit more than it might if the beads were simply strung on beading wire. Bead on a Wire is a great wire jewelry book and will be a welcome addition to your library.