Book Review - Custom Cool Jewelry by Melinda Barta

Custom Cool Jewelry – create 200+ personalized pendants, charms and clasps by Melinda Barta has a lot to interest the creative stamper who is looking to try new things! Rubber stamps and other materials that will be familiar to stampers are used throughout the book. In addition to using rubber stamps to impress clay, for instance, shrink plastic and rub-on transfers are used to create interesting items of jewelry.

The projects in Custom Cool Jewelry are simple to undertake at home with little in the way of specialist equipment or supplies. Many of the projects utilize found, vintage or antique items as well as general crafting scraps such as odds and ends of paper or fabrics.

Rubber stamps are used in Custom Cool Jewelry to add both surface texture and design to projects. This includes adding texture to the surface of polymer clay and stamping onto fabric. Many of the other projects in the book would adapt really well to rubber stamping techniques. The projects using shrink plastic, for instance, would be ideal for rubber stamping.

In Custom Cool Jewelry, Melinda Barta explains the different techniques and procedures used to create many different items of jewelry. This means that the projects are easily accessible. Even a stamper without any prior knowledge of jewelry making techniques will be able to make and create lovely unique items of jewelry using their stamps. One of the exciting features of Custom Cool Jewelry is that it allows people without any specialist knowledge or experience to create items of jewelry such as clasps, pendants and charms.

Some of the techniques and projects will be familiar to mixed media artists and people interested in altered art. The pendants made out of embossed vintage playing cards, for instance, could open up all sorts of possibilities for someone looking to create unique one of a kind items of jewelry.

The book is richly illustrated throughout with clear step by step instructions and illustrations where required. The resources section at the back of the book explain in detail the different supplies and equipment used in each of the projects. This is a useful reference point for someone new to jewelry making.

Custom Cool Jewelry is a fun and interesting book and ideal for the rubber stamper who is looking to use their stamps in different ways. While not all of the projects use rubber stamps or stamping techniques and this is not a dedicated stamping book, there are plenty of ideas to keep a stamper busy.

There are many projects that can be undertaken with the minimum of additional materials.

With a cover price of $22.95, this is not a cheap book (although many book stores offer large discounts). The overall quality, and the introduction that it gives to using rubber stamps within jewelry making will make it a good investment.