Kalmbach has done it again, along with Kaska Firor. They sent me Weaving Freeform Wire Jewelry by Kaska Firor to review and it's a fabulous book. I love working with wire, and this book has my mind spinning with all the wonderful designs in it. There's 20 beautiful step-by-step projects in this book. It covers 5 different wire weaves, the Over-over, over-under, coiling, circular and looping. I'm thinking I don't really know anything about wire now. LOL Kaska was initially studying interior design in college, but took her first class in wire jewelry in 2000 and that was all she wrote, you might say. You can feel her enthusiasm and passion for freeform wire weaving in this book, and she has done a great job of passing that on to the reader.
She starts off with the basics about wire, frame and weaving wires, selecting your wire, wire shapes, wire hardness, wire size or gauge and metals and colors. She also cover other materials you may want to incorporate into your weaving such as beads and stones, embellishments and findings. There is also a section on Tools and Supplies as well as Wire Techniques. Her pictures are very well done and easy to see/understand. She also tells you how to fix a mistake (which I'm sure I'm going to need a lot-at least at first). Then she gets into the Weaves. And after each weave, she has a project for you to try once you've practiced the weave. I have seen so many wonderful pieces done with wire weaving and always wondered HOW they did that. Well now I'll be able to weave myself. After the chapter on all the weaves along with projects to make from those weaves, she added Chapter 2 which take you to the next level and shows you how the weaves and techniques you learned in the previous chapter can be used to create more advanced, multi-level designs. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to go that far with my wire work, but it doesn't hurt to dream. Kaska teaches classes at her studio in Cincinnati, Ohio and displays and sells her jewelry at art shows in the Midwest. She has won numerous awards and her woven bracelet design was featured on the cover of March 2012 Art Jewelry magazine. So if you're ever in the Cincinnati area, look her up and take a class. It looks like from the book, you'll love it.
There are so many great designs in the book, but so far my favorite is the Gnarly Bangle on page 59 which incorporates the circular weave and the cylindrical weave. Just be prepared to use a LOT of wire. LOL Here it is:
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