Making Fork Jewelry: How To Make Amazingly Unique Fork Bracelets and Necklaces by art jeweler Maryanne Cherubino is one of those rare pieces of jewelry instruction that offers something truly unique and inspiring to jewelry making enthusiasts.
Unlike many video instructions available today, Making Fork Jewelry shows you something that you can absolutely get up and do as soon as you finish the video…regardless of whether you’ve made jewelry before or not. It’s just that simple, fast and well, doable.
This quick jewelry making instructional DVD takes roughly an hour to watch and that’s probably why you could make fork jewelry right after watching it. It’s that thorough and full proof.
The video of Making Fork Jewelry starts up with a run through of the simple tools you’ll need to complete a piece of fork jewelry. Ms. Cherubino also provides information on where to get those necessary tools and chats casually about how to use these tools along with some added commentary about why you use which tools for what and why. Nice touches throughout the video and helpful as well.
Ms. Cherubino deftly walks you through the entire process of making two fork bracelets and a neckpiece so if you miss anything early on in the process, she catches you up again. It’s easy to see that she cares that you learn all the details about making fork jewelry well and thoroughly.
As a metalsmith, I’d assumed that you’d need to anneal (heat) the forks which would soften the metal. So I was surprised to see that heating isn’t necessary. Maryann shows you exactly how she bends the forks with ease without the need for any heating in the process.
So what will you get with this DVD? You’ll start out getting the tools explanation I mentioned above. Next, you’ll see Maryanne make a complete fork bracelet from start to finish: hammering the fork, polishing it, bending the tines of the fork. Then she’s grinding off sharp edges, shaping the fork into a bracelet and adding the stone or piece of glass as your centerpiece. Then she’ll do it all over again making another bracelet. Then she’ll change the process a bit and show you how to make a necklace instead of a bracelet.
Another advantage to watching this video is that if you’re considering expanding your jewelry making skills into metalsmithing (fabricating your own jewelry from scratch) you’ll get a jump start here. You’ll learn some of the essentials of working with metal for jewelry making like grinding down sharp edges and polishing your pieces.
All of that’s to say that what you get with the DVD, Making Fork Jewelry: How To Make Amazingly Unique Fork Bracelets and Necklaces is a thorough and complete education on how to make fork jewelry (without annealing) and how to do it well. While there are other jewelry types like rings that can also be made from forks or spoons, it’s fairly easy to extrapolate making those as well from this video.