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Metal Clay 101 for Beaders: Create Custom Findings, Beads, Embellishments and Charms by Kristal Wick is published by Lark Crafts with a copyright date of October 2013. This book retails for $24.95 in the United States and $26.95 in Canada. It is a soft back book, 128 pages long, and it includes lots of full color photographs, a few drawn illustrations, and step by step instructions for a total of 23 projects.


You may know the author from another book she wrote called Foxy Epoxy: 44 Great Epoxy Clay Projects with Serious Bling. Kristal Wick is a well-known face and jewelry designer in the world of beading and other forms of jewelry making. Along with writing and designing, she also teaches jewelry making and is the star of a video podcast called Artbeads Cafe.

The Basics Section

The first 28 pages of the book, after the two page introduction, discuss tools, supplies, equipment, and techniques, including beading techniques, metal clay techniques, and wire techniques. There is a lot going on in this section of the book, and while I think it is covered well, I cannot help but wonder if it might be overwhelming for a beginner, as in someone who has no experience with metal clay, beads, or wire at all.

From the introduction and press release, it seems like the idea for this book, or the main focus, came about with the idea that beaders (both bead stringers and bead weavers) may want to make components and findings to mix in with their bead creations, which I think is a very fresh idea.

However, with this in mind as I looked through metal clay methods discussed, I felt like maybe there should be more of this and less of the other techniques. Plus a few more "how to" basic photographs would be nice to have. For example, conditioning and rolling is discussed, but there are no photographs.

As far as the beading information goes, there is a nice section explaining how to properly bead using beading wire and crimp beads, and then this is followed by some bead weaving information. Ladder, tubular Herringbone, and odd count peyote stitches are explained and include a few drawn color illustrations.

For wire work, techniques include opening and closing jump rings, wrapped and unwrapped loops, and crimping. Again, this section has step by step instructions plus drawn illustrations. One odd item I noticed is that the techniques was the only section with numbers next to the step out instructions. The project text is broken up by paragraphs, but there are no numbered steps.

The Projects Section

Though maybe the techniques section could be a little more robust for beginners, you will find that the projects include a lot of helpful details as well as a number of full color photographs specifically showing steps to each of the 23 project in the book. I really like that. Often a jewelry book will not have many photographs for the projects section because the idea is that the reader of the book can just refer back to the techniques, so I really like it when there is more than just a photograph of the finished piece of jewelry.

While metal clay can be great to use just by itself when it comes to jewelry designing, I have to agree with the author that the addition of beads and sparkle make a difference for me as far as enjoying the designs and making pieces I would actually wear. In addition to adding lots of color and sparkle with beads, she also uses a variety of colored metals including silver, copper, and bronze. Plus she explains a number of patina options. One, in particular, that I found interesting is the use of metal patina paint. For example in her Butterfly Earrings project, she used metal patina paints in pink and orange over copper metal clay after it was fired, and then she sealed it with glaze. You can still see some of the copper peaking through the pain because she first textured the clay before she fired it. It looks amazing!

I found a number of other favorite projects among the 23 in the book. The "Triple Strand Bracelet with Copper Triangle Beads" stood out to me because of the mix of color but also because it mixes metal clay beads that you make with crystals, seed beads, and fabric beads. The "Pet Tags" project is super cute, and it is a great idea because you can actually use this as an ornament on your pet's collar. Then there is the "Dream Necklace" where she includes the use of a word stamp to place a section on a pendant that says "dream" on it.

Tips and Idea Book

Throughout the pages of Metal Clay 101 for Beaders are tip boxes and helpful notes. Each is related to project or technique that is being discussed, and I found these help.

At the end of the book is an "Idea Book," sort of a mini book within the book, that shows some other design ideas. Like the book's projects, the designs here show how you can mix metal clay, beads, and wire. While a few are created by Kristal Wick, there are also pieces designed by guest artists including Janet Alexander, Jackie Truty, and Lorena Angulo.

My Final Thoughts on the Book

As someone who has worked with metal clay, bead stringing, bead weaving, and wire work, the premise of this book really resonates with me, and I think it will with a majority of jewelry makers since many of us cross lines when it comes to jewelry making techniques. Not that some jewelry folks do stick to one and only one type of jewelry making, but that is usually rare or at least for a temporary period because once you get the jewelry making bug you usually want to try lots of different methods. So it makes sense that the next step is to combine some of them, which is what is going on in Metal Clay 101 for Beaders: Create Custom Findings, Beads, Embellishments and Charms by Kristal Wick.

Another point to this book that I think jewelry designers who have at least some experience (I will say maybe not necessary super advanced but more around the just becoming intermediate level) is the fact that these projects are, for a better term, "meaty." They are not necessarily overly difficult or involved (like an intricate bead weaving necklace might be), but they are not immediate gratification level at all. To go along with the fairly lengthy process, then, of making the projects in this book are some fairly long and detailed instructions. Some project instructions, including the photos, are just two or three pages long. However, others like the "Dream Necklace" are six pages long. In fact, just the list of beads and the pattern to string them in is two pages long. But, hey, that is a gorgeous necklace, so like many of the jewelry pieces in this book, it is worth the time.

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Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.