It's He-ere! (June Blog Carnival Post)

What's here, you ask?

It's Charles Lewton-Brain's absolutely fabulous book, Foldforming, and I love, love, love it!

[By the way, the question for the Blog Carnival this month is: What's your favorite metal technique related book? I started this post before I remembered what the topic was, so I converted it into my Carnival contribution for the month.]

I have a pretty decent collection of books covering all aspects of jewelry. I have a stack just as big as the ones in the photo sitting at my bedside.

My answer to this question is a little bit of a cheat because I don't have just one favorite. I mean, my gawd that's like asking me to try to figure out what my favorite tool is! Are you kidding???

The difficulty of that having been established, my favorites consist of a trinity: Form Emphasis for Metalsmiths, by Heikki Seppa (I hate that I missed the last SNAG conference where they honored him and his achievements in metalwork); Theory and Practice of Goldsmithing, by Edward Brepohl; and now Foldforming, by Charles Lewton-Brain! The first two aren't tequnique-specific but instead cover a number of different "techniques." Foldforming is mos def technique specific.

Then I have some runners-up including Professional Goldsmithing by Alan Revere and Silversmithing by Rupert Finegold. But, the other three I must have in my presence at all times.

::Seriously, I carry them around.::

Kinda like Linus and his blanket.

These books are Tamra's blankie. Well, these and my Franklin Covey organizer that I just returned to using (I think I mentioned in previous posts that I have a love-hate relationship with FC as they've fed my tendency towards OCD over the years).

In any case, I absolutely LOVE Charles' foldforming book. I have all of his other publications on the subject, as well as many of his publications about other metalsmithing/jewelry-related issues. This book is filled with TONS of photographs, and it shows you how to make a number of basic folds.

What I love about it most though, is that he goes into great length to explain the extent to which  foldforming is all about understanding and working within the natural limitations and characteristics of the metal. I think that this book is essential in really understanding how the non-ferrous metals behave. This was what I was looking for when I signed up to take my first metals class a few years ago--I dropped out mid-way through the (friggin expensive) class (twice) because the focus was more on art, and on "being creative."

::Forget that.::

That is NOT what I wanted. I wanted to know how the heck metal behaved so that I could learn to create and "be creative" with this knowledge as my foundation. Everybody else was focused on making something "artsy" and on one-upping the person sitting next to them...

::Gaaah! No time for that.::

The book is a little overdue at this point, but oh well. I still love it, and I read it as if I had no idea how metal behaves, hoping I'll pick up something new every time.

To view the responses of other members of our Blog Carnival, check out their links below:

• Angela Crispin
• Lorrene Davis
• Tamra Gentry (that would be moi...)
• Lora Hart
• Elaine Luther

Other Quick Notes:

• Lora, I still haven't forgotten I've been tagged and will post soon. :-)
• On Monday, I will feature my friend and jewelry artist Carrie Nunes!