Broken China Jewelry Book - Boho Chic Jewelry

Broken China Jewelry Book

I first found Laura Beth Love online and started following her on Facebook.  She is the author of the new outstanding book, Boho Chic Jewelry, 25 Timeless Designs that is now on sale through Amazon.  I have always had an interest in broken china jewelry so I was very excited to pre-order her book which just came out on March 14.

When I received my copy, I poured over all the pages to understand better how broken china jewelry is made.  I found the instructions here to be very thorough.

What is broken china jewelry?

Broken china jewelry is made from small to medium pieces of china broken from a dinner plate, saucer, teacup or other piece of china.  The jewelry can be made from a piece of china that is already broken, or you may select an area on a plate or other china piece to feature the design you want in your jewelry, cut that out with a glass saw, and grind it with a glass grinder.  The piece is then smooth and ready to transform into a piece of jewelry.  After that you apply foil tape to the edges of the piece, burnish it and then apply solder.  As you can see, it is a multistage process to create a broken china jewelry pendant, but it is so worth the time to do it.   The finished product is so unique, and it may contain wonderful memories if you use some china that you remember from grandmother's Thanksgiving dinners or some other special events.

 Layout of the Boho Chic Jewelry book

This book is a wonderful read about broken china jewelry, and it also addresses how to make jewelry from flat wear.  Each page of instruction is very clear, takes you step by step through the process, and provides excellent photos to help guide you along.  A full  list of supplies needed is presented at the outset.

The following instructions are provided in the first section of the book.  This is not an all inclusive list, but is a list of things you won't normally find in a book on beaded jewelry.

• How to choose and apply copper foil tape
• All about soldering - equipment, supplies and how to do it
• How to do decorative soldering
• How to apply patina
• How to cut glass manually or with a ring saw
• How to use a glass grinder and a jeweler's hand saw

After this general instruction section the projects begin.  There are 25 projects in this book, and they are incredibly beautiful.  Again detailed instructions are given for each project.

Photos of Laura Beth Love's work from her shop

This first photo is a necklace made from a piece of china cut from the rim of the plate.  It is then soldered with a decorative soldering technique.  You will learn to make this type of piece in the book, Boho Chic Jewelry.

Brown Toile English transferware necklace

The piece in the photo below has an entirely different feel from the one in the last photo.  Here the design came from the all over pattern of the plate.  You also learn from the book how to make a piece into a nice oval shape using a template, a glass saw and a glass grinder.  More decorative soldering completes the design.

I am so partial to this one in the photo below because I own a set of this china that has been in the family for 50+ years, and I really like hearts.  There are no instructions for hearts in the book, but once you learn to make a template, cut the china and grind the edges, I think you could tackle this.

If all of this sounds like a lot more involved than you want to be then please visit Laura's shop, Dishfunctional Designs Broken China Jewelry and purchase one of her beautiful pieces.  Laura's work has been featured in Country Living and other places.  Read more about her here.

You may also find Laura on Facebook and at her blog .