Calder Jewelry

What a wonderful and expansive volume on Calder's jewelry. Beautiful photos of work and images from his sketch book. I never realized the extent of his jewelry work. The pieces are at the same time simple and elegant. This book does justice to the work,I never tire of paging through.

This book is a must-have. Whether you are a Calder afficionado who has collected (or wanted to collect) his artwork since the 1950s or whether you are a beginning metalsmith who never even heard of Alexander Calder, you will absolutely drool over the photographs in this book. Printed on thick gorgeous paper, every photo is sharp and clear, as though you were holding the jewelry right in your hand. The book is apparently an exhaustive catalogue of all the jewelry that Calder created throughout his life (much of it for his wife), explaining when he made it and where/when it was sold, often including his handwritten notes and drawings. On the other hand, it is a book solely of inspiration--although he eventually got into cutting, soldering and riveting, many of his earlier pieces are just bent and hammered pieces of wire. But, oh, the shapes he was able to make from that wire! If you are any kind of an artist looking at this book, you will think (as I did), "Oh, I could make that!" which leads me to believe that Calder inspired the past 10 decades of the contemporary jewelry movement. You, too, will be inspired by this book!