Bent, Bound & Stitched by Giuseppina “Josie” Cirincione is a book on making small mementoes (cards and punk jewelry) with wire, paper, and found objects.
2 out of 10 stars. I see this type of jewelry at the craft fairs but it’s uncomfortable to wear and the wire comes apart pretty easily. This book has two of these jewelry projects and the rest are all cards made from wire and paper. So basically you’re getting two projects and multiple variations of each.
Techniques
The author uses rubber stamps and ink on paper, wire on paper, and stitching with wire to create various cards, stands, and neck chains. I would never give any of these to someone, nor would I want them for myself.
Instructions
The instructions are okay. Not great, but not awful either. There are about four photos for each piece, telling how the author put it together. She gives great instructions on working with wire, but the end pieces were unattractive and clunky.
Projects
She has some unique rubber stamps she used on the paper which made most of the patterns and then she put wire objects in front of them and attached them to the paper. I thought the papers were prettier without the wire. This accounted for about 10 of the projects which basically look like stamped cards with wire attached. The last two projects were clunky necklaces with wire, buttons, and found objects. I love buttons, but these were ugly.
2 out of 10 stars. This book would have been better had there been more variety in instruction and in the projects. The first ten looked alike.
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