Creative Paper Jewelry
By Dafna Yarom
Sixth and Spring Books, 2010

Creative Paper Jewelry: Earrings, Pendants, Beads and Pins by Dafna Yarom shows you how to turn paper in its various incarnations such as tissue paper pulp, Japanese washi, batik paper, decorative paper napkins, corrugated cardboard, and Bristol board into contemporary, one-of-a-kind jewelry. Dafna’s designs in this book are for large, chunky pieces – perhaps to best show off the paper’s print and texture – and are combined with traditional jewelry making supplies like non-paper beads, metal jewelry findings, wire, chains, and ribbon. The results are mostly bold and elegant, but a few pieces may be a bit over-the-top for those with more conservative tastes.

Nevertheless, the techniques the author shares can be applied to make smaller pendants and beads. She shows how to make tissue paper pulp that can be sculpted into beads, how to make pendant bases from corrugated cardboard and Bristol board, and how to cover beads and cardboard bases with various kinds of paper. She also shows how to paint the paper beads with metallic and acrylic paints to add more color to your projects.

There are 20 projects in all – 10 necklaces, five pairs of earrings, and five brooches. Worthy of note are the concave paper shell pendant made from tissue paper pulp and glass beads, and the origami paper chime brooch, made from corrugated cardboard and wooden dowels wrapped in origami paper.
Each project comes with clear, step-by-step instructions and color photos presented in an uncluttered layout. But unlike other jewelry books, this one comes with a very sparse section on basic jewelry making techniques. Although it discusses how to form loops on eye and head pins, open and close jump rings, and flatten crimp beads, these procedures are not illustrated. Absolute beginners will just have to wing it themselves, or look elsewhere for more comprehensive tutorials. Those who already have experience in jewelry making should have no problem, though.

To sum up, if you love wearing big, bold jewelry without worrying about their excessive weight, or if you’re excited to learn new jewelry making techniques with paper, then there should be enough projects in this book to keep you happy. Do check it out.

Note: This book was purchased with my own funds and is part of my personal library. I was not compensated for this review in any way.

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