Origami Jewelry

by Ayako Brodek

Origami Jewelry by Ayako Brodek provides excellent instructions on how to create durable and wearable origami jewelry. This books is great if you are an origami enthusiasts but have little experience with jewelry making. It is also great if you are familiar with jewelry making but have little knowledge of origami. Brodek bridges the divide so that almost anyone can create beautiful and enduring origami jewelry.

The book is 128 pages: the first 25 pages are devoted to tools and techniques. This includes information on:

• the pros and cons of different kinds of origami paper,
• equipment specific to folding origami such as bone folders & paper cutters;
• equipment specific to jewelry making such as pliers & findings;
• techniques & terminology specific to paper folding such as origami symbols & bases;
• techniques specific to jewelry making such as open & close jump rings, attaching clasps, forming eye loops; and
• special touches to make your jewelry dangle, shimmer, and shine!

As the title suggests, there are over 40 projects which come in pairs or triplets: a necklace with matching earrings and bracelet; or a hair clip with its companion brooch. The projects are divided into 5 categories as shown:

Origami	Earring	Brooch	Necklace	Bracelet
Spring
Rose	+	+
Butterfly	+	+		+
Flower
Rabbit		+
Chicken in Egg		+
Flower	+		+
Flower/Butterfly			+
Summer
Fish	+	+
Sunburst	+	+
Candy Colors	+		+	+
Crab	+	+
Seashell	+	+	+
Fall
Leaf	+	+
Chunky Bead	+		+
Shades of Fall	+		+
Pumpkin		+
Pinecone	+		+
Winter
Tree	+	+
Star	+	+
Festive Foil	+		+
Wreath		+
Angel	+	+
Heart	+
Japanese
Crane	+	+
Kinomo	+	+
Paper Fan	+	+
Samurai Helmet	+	+
Frog	+	+

The books is visually stimulating and very colorful. Origami instructions are in the form of line drawings with the traditional dot-dot-dot lines to indicate where to fold. Jewelry assembly instructions are in the form of hand drawn images. All finished projects are shown in color photos.

All in all, this books is very well done: clear & complete instructions to make beautiful projects. There is enough information about jewelry making and about origami to make it possible to create origami jewelry.

Warning:
For those who do not know how to make origami, be prepared to practice folding origami before making jewelry out of them. It is best to practice folding with larger paper and then proceed to smaller paper as you become more familiar.

For those who have never made jewelry before, be prepared to invest money in buy the supplies needed. Needle nose pliers and such tools are a must have and can cost $10 to $30. The price of fish hook earring, pins, beads and other findings will add up quickly if you have nothing to begin with. Admittedly, once you have bought the supplies, there will be enough of them for you to make many projects.

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