“Jewelry Concepts and Technology” by Oppi Untracht,
published by Robert Hale Ltd.
(Get it cheaper on Amazon though.)
The bible for jewelers, as most say. This book is very valuable if you’re a professional, or a serious student.
This is not something for those who are simply curious about the subject.
Also, this book is written in a very simple english, easy to follow for those whom english is not their native language.
With 840 pages, this is not a book to read start to finish. This is a great source for reference, with plenty illustrations to guide you. It lists every tool and technique from the more basic to the more elaborate. And everything is explained in great detail through out the book, what it is, what it does and how it’s done.
It’s nice to have this book around in the work place.
{ tables }
I must say I find the tables a bit confusing at times. The book tries to be as universal as possible, using ounces, grams, inches, millimeters, Celsius, Fahrenheit and conversion tables. But many things are in inches only, for example, lacking their equivalent.
At first glance, I don’t even understand why there must be a table for, let say, “Sterling Silver Sheet (weight in ounces per square foot; various widths, B & S gauge)“. Maybe I’m missing something, or maybe I just don’t like to look at tables with a whole bunch of numbers in it.
{ consultation }
It becomes very handy when you need to remind yourself of a technique you haven’t used in quite a while. Imagine time as passed and you haven’t really applied something your learned to your works. Until one day, you think of a design, or a design is presented to you, and now it is just what you to do. Your brain is probably a bit rusty, so you look it up on the book.
Or you can just learn something new. You might need to learn about a technique to apply on a piece, but taking a workshop or short course might be unnecessary. Be it because you just need the basics, or maybe you don’t really want to use it, you just really need it to this one piece. And as long as you have a comfortable level of experience, you’ll be able to nail it. Of course, some might be harder than others.
I think there’ll always be occasions when we’ll have to resort to less familiar techniques to us (maybe except some rare cases). And that makes this book indispensable.
{ the end }
So I’ll finish with the titles of the 19 sections. Each section is further divided into a few more titles. But the major titles are already a very nice indicator of what to expect of content.
The Message of Jewelry: Why we wear ornaments
The Means to Creation: Working environment, facilities and implements
Metal, The Jewel’s Raw Material: It’s origin, quality, control and Variety
Basic Techniques: Processing sheet metal without deformation
Sheet Metal: Forming by deformation techniques
Wire: The uses of drawn or extruded flexible filaments
Tubing: The uses of fistular forms
Surface Ornament Without Heat: Metal removal techniques
Surface Ornament With Heat: Metal fusion Techniques
Fabrication: Building fragments into units
Casting: Methods of giving form to molten metal
Natural Materials in Jewelry: Using nature’s valued nonmetals
Stones and their Setting: Inorganic minerals employed in jewelry
Metal Finishing: Archiving desired surface appearance
Metallic Coating Techniques: Changing the base metal’s surface appearance
Metallic Buildup: Electronic molecular creation of surface and form
Coloring Metals: Achieving patinas through heat, chemicals and electrolysis
Standard Weights, Measures and Tables
19 Glossaries; Bibliographies; Sources of Tools, Supplies and Services (for the USA and the UK.)
View book details on Amazon: UK or US.
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