Creating Your Own Jewelry : Taking Inspiration from Museum Masterpieces - 35 Surprisingly Simple Projects

Stewart, Tabori & Chang is proud to reissue the popular Abrams title Creating Your Own Antique Jewelry. A dream come true for crafters, Creating Your Own Jewelry combines the hobby of jewelry-making with the history of art by showing readers how to use polymer clay to replicate jewels featured in museum masterpieces. Drawing inspiration from antiquities that date as far back as the seventh century b.c., the thirty-five projects include a brooch based on the one worn by Isabella Brandt in Peter Paul Rubens's famous portrait of her, a bracelet depicted in Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's painting of Madame Moitessier, and a ninth-century talisman buried with the body of the emperor Charlemagne. Necklaces, earrings, pendants-the priceless originals may be far out of reach, but with a few supplies and a free afternoon anyone can fashion their very own copies.

Each project features a color photo of the polymer version alongside the artwork that inspired it. Step-by-step illustrated instructions explain how to make the piece in just a few hours using common household tools like tweezers and widely available craft materials like semiprecious stones. Part museum tour, part how-to manual, each project in the book begins with a brief overview of the artwork-so that later, when someone asks about an intriguing pin, the crafter can be ready with a fascinating answer.

cRIS DUPOUY is a professional jewelry designer whose work has been commissioned by such notable patrons as the Musée de l'Opéra and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. She is the author of Second-Hand Style (Abrams).