Kim St. Jean's Metal Magic-Book Review

Kalmbach books recently sent me Kim St. Jean's new book Metal Magic.  I love Kim's books and online classes from Beaducation. She is a wonderful teacher.  She explains everything very thoroughly, which is sometimes hard to do in a book or online class.  I already had her book, Mixed Metal Mania and was anxious for this new book to come out and read it.  She starts out with a Base Tools section that tells you the base tools you'll most likely need for every project in the book.  She then moves on to Sawing and Piercing Basics, showing the tools you need for these projects. She also explains how to use these tools and offers a practice project and a challenge project.  Next comes the Etching Basics. Here she outlines the tools you'll need, plus basic etching instructions, alternative resists and lots of tips. If you've ever wanted to know about etching, it's covered here.  After that comes Enameling basics. Besides the enameling tools you'll need, she covers setting up your enameling area, safety measures, different metals for enameling, how to enamel, a practice project and a troubleshooting box. She also covers settings, cold connections, texture and finishing and findings. In each section, she has a box with the tools you'll need for each of those techniques. What I really love about that, is she shows a little toolbox that's color coded with the tools for the technique/section and then in the projects, she has toolboxes listed that you need, so that if you keep your tools organized according to the way she has them outlined in each section, you'll know at a glance what tools you need for that project.  There's also a Studio Checklists with the 'Need' to have, 'Nice' to have and a few more tools, plus the Unconventional Tools, Tips and Tricks section.  She talks about inspiration and then moves right into the projects. These are all great and progress through simple projects that may only use one of your 'toolboxes' to more complicated projects where you may need 3, 4 or more of your 'toolboxes'. Two of my favorites are the 'Look Deep Into My Heart' pendant which uses Etching, Sawing and Piercing and Cold Connections. I just have to get over my fear of trying a saw. And the other one is 'Bless Her Little Steampunk Heart'  I've become enamored with Steampunk and this just looks like some fun earrings to make, using Sawing and Piercing , Enameling and Cold Connections.  So if you're looking for a fun new book that will take your Jewelry Design/Making to a new level, this is the book for you.  It's available at Kalmbach books.