In no particular order, these are the books that I refer the most to my students - it is an ever growing list!
The New Encyclopedia of Jewellery Making Techniques - Jinks McGrath
An updated classic. A beautifully photographed book. Great information about tools and a great all round reference book.
Jewellery Making - A complete course for beginners - Jinks McGrath
A great book for everyone, not just beginners, as it covers so many topics. It has great 'lessons' teaching almost every technique you will need. The book ends with practice projects that test the skills you've learnt. Great photos, and I love the texture on the rings on the front cover!
The Jeweller's Directory of Shape and Form - Elizabeth Olver
Great for when you need a bit of inspiration!
The Jewellery Materials Sourcebook - Anastasia Young
The amount of detail in this book is amazing! It is full of the results of experiments exploring every jewellery making technique you can think of on a wide range of precious and non-precious materials. One of my favourites, and very useful for when I'm teaching classes.
The Art & Craft of Making Jewelry - Joanna Gollberg
A perfect book for beginners. The projects teach all the basic techniques that you need and the beautiful photos are great inspiration.
The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Jewellery Making Techniques - Vannetta Seecharran
A great resource. Covers all the basics of working with wire and metal - not in great detail but in enough so that you can get started and know what terms to look up for more information. However, I use this book the most for the other materials included - acrylic, fabric, fibres, wood, glass. Not materials I use much in my own work but a fantastic book for teaching my college classes.
Silversmithing for Jewellery Makers - Elizabeth Bone
Another fantastic resource. Beautifully presented and photographed. Has tutorials that include photos of beautiful pieces of jewellery from top designers rather than projects, but I think that you learn more this way.
The Workbench Guide to Jewelry Techniques - Anastasia Young
This is my favourite jewellery making book! The amount of detail is brilliant, and the book covers everything from basic soldering and sawing to complicated clasps and techniques such as etching, casting and also work with non precious metals. Fantastic step by step photos and photos of jewellery by leading designers. Anastasia has also included information on designing your own jewellery, photography, and in outsourcing your work for casting etc. I love this book!
Gemstone Settings - Anastasia Young
Another great book by Anastasia Young. Just a beautifully presented and easy to use. Great sections on tools and stones. All the traditional types of stone settings are covered with clear instructions and photos, but what I like most about this book is the contemporary twists on the traditional methods that she has included.
Creative Stonesetting - John Cogswell
This is the definitive book on stone setting! It covers everything that you will ever need to know, and includes so many tips to save you time and effort, and information on how to make your own tools too. The diagrams are beautiful, and although there is a lot of detail John's writing style is very easy to read. A fantastic investment.
