Craft Book Review: Origami Jewelry by Mayumi Jezewski

Genre: Craft/Jewelry
Translator: Marina Orry
64 p.
Published: 6/20/16
Publisher: Dover Books
Source: NetGalley and publisher for review

You can design your own jewelry with the help of this easy-to-follow guide. More than 35 lovely accessories include a bracelet of hearts, spring flower earrings, hairpins with butterfly ornaments, and other whimsical, wearable origami. 

Each of the models features clear, step-by-step instructions with full-color illustrations for folding the dainty charms. The directions also show how to embellish the jewelry with beads and other ornaments, and how to attach the items to chains and clips. The necessary materials are inexpensive and readily available at craft shops. Origami jewelry is as much fun to make as it is to wear, and you'll love creating handcrafted treasures that you can keep or share with your friends.

My thoughts:

I've seen origami paper jewelry on Etsy and I've wanted to try this for a long time. I saw this book and I thought that now might be the time to try it. It gave some good hints and tricks for making the jewelry (like where to pierce the paper and what to use). I did have some problems with the diagrams in making the origami.

I had yet to try to make a butterfly. I loved the earrings they made with the paper. I didn't have origami paper on hand so I knew there would be a difference with the outcome. Papers have weave and texture and that is why you should make things in the materials they suggest, but I decided to be a rebel (plus I didn't want to spend money on learning it... yea, I'm cheap) so I knew it wouldn't look exactly as shown. I did have some problems when it came to one step and I just couldn't see it with the simplistic diagrams they had. If you are a visual learner you might have problems here as well. Even though the diagrams are visual, they are flat and hard to understand what they meant by "pinch here". It just wasn't clear to my foggy brain. YouTube to the rescue! :)

I used this vid to "get it". This is the same butterfly as shown in the book. Only difference is that I can "get it" much better.

This is my result:

The first try is a bit backwards and looks like a funny looking man. That was me first trying to go from where I stopped in the book and began again with the video. I think I turned something around. The second try was successful! Yea, try the vid if you want to try to make one yourself. 

I give this book 3 stars. While it has valuable information on how to make the jewelry, it was hard for me to totally get each step. Not everyone will have that problem and I guess it is just how you visualize things. YouTube is handy to get you out of those problems and there is a ton of origami vids out there. I also know that on Etsy some of the jewelry like this has a protective coating on it. You are not shown that technique here so be aware that the paper jewelry you make won't be long lasting.