• About
  • Press
  • Advertise

Craft Test Dummies

The Crafting Blog for Crafters, By Crafters

  • Craft News
    • CHA Coverage
    • Crafting for a Cause
    • Giveaways
    • CTD on TV
    • Quilt Market
  • Craft Product Reviews
    • Apps & Sites
    • Art Supplies/Mixed Media
    • Beads/Jewelry Products
    • Books, Magazines, Events
    • Comparisons
    • Crafty Tools
    • Fabric, Needle, & Quilting Arts
    • Food Crafts
    • Paints, Inks & Dyes
    • Paper Crafts
    • Polymer Clay & Tools
  • Craft Storage and Tips
  • Crafty People & Places
    • Crafty Field Trips
  • Kids Stuff
    • Hands On Crafts For Kids-TV show
  • Winter/Christmas
  • Home Decor
  • Food Crafting/ Party Crafts
  • Valentine’s /Sweetest Day
  • Spring/Easter
  • Wedding & Shower Crafts
  • Father’s Day Crafts
  • Baby & Shower Crafts
  • Mother’s Day Crafts
  • Patriotic crafts
  • Summer Crafts
  • Fall Crafts
    • Halloween Crafts
  • Jenny Sez
    • Sponsored Posts
  • Periscope Superfans Page
Home / Craft Projects / Beads/Jewelry Projects / BOOK REVIEW: Foxy Epoxy by Kristal Wick

BOOK REVIEW: Foxy Epoxy by Kristal Wick

July 18, 2014

I was send a copy of “Foxy Epoxy: 44 Great Epoxy Clay Projects with Serious Bling” by Kristal Wick, to review. To properly review the book, I was sent some Swarovski Ceralun Epoxy Clay too. You can see the review for the clay, here. This is an advanced jewelry making book, focusing on the use of epoxy clay for various designs. Many of the jewelry making techniques are not basic, requiring existing jewelry making skills. The book is publish by Lark Books. While the author and main contributor is Kristal Wick, there are twelve additional project contributors.

FOXY EPOXY BOOK cover

Description taken from the back of the book:

“Whether your style is boho vintage or divalicious blingista, you’ll love making gorgeous fashion jewelry and accessories with self-hardening epoxy clay. Beaders adore the unlimited potential of this fun material that’s super simple to enhance, be it smushing on a splash of crystals, mixing custom colors in minutes, casting beautiful cabochons, or applying other stunning embellishments. Epoxy clay is so easy to work with: just mix, apply, embellish, and flaunt in 24 hours — there’s no need to bake or fire.

Award-winning designer and popular blogger Kristal Wick covers all the basics and techniques needed. Then get started on the 44 foxy epoxy projects like a Cameo Necklace, Charmalicious Bracelet/Necklace, In the Round Earrings, and Compact Mirror by Kristal and some of her fave designers, including Kate Hacker, Jean Campbell, Candie Cooper, Margot Potter, Andrew Thornton, Debbi Simon, June Beach, Brenda Schweder, Stephanie Dixon, Katerina Ilieva, Christina Orlikowski, and Debra Saucier!”

Book Overview:

  • 136 pages of thick glossy paper
  • soft cover with a multiple signatures and a glued binding
  • high quality colored photographs with some pattern drawings
  • The book starts with a contents listing including project thumbnail photos, project titles with coordinating page numbers, and listings of end of book content. Next is a brief explanation of the book. Afterwards, it goes in depth about basics…epoxy clay, jewelry techniques, various additional materials including paint, adhesives, beads, sparkle, stringing materials, bezels/blanks and findings, various tools and equipment. There is a section introducing the additional 12 project contributors. Following that are the 44 different projects. They aren’t sorted in any noticeable way. At the end are a few more design ideas, “About the Author”, acknowledgments (a listing of companies used in the book), credits, and an index.
  • The book retails for $24.95 US.

This page shows 42 of the projects included in the book. The accompanying page has the other 2 projects, the project titles and coordinating page numbers. There is a nice range of jewelry types, design styles and needed skills.

FOXY EPOXY BOOK - content photo page

Here are 4 of my favorite projects. The Doodle Pendant uses a watercolor image as the focal point. The pendant bezel is framed with epoxy clay and micro-beads. If I had a silicone mat, I would have tried this project. The Embedded Crystals Pendant has teardrop beads jutting from a bezel filled with epoxy clay. There are chatons embedded in between the beads. The necklace inspired the ring I made below. The Crystal Cave Ring uses epoxy clay to create its shape, embed crystals and chatons. This inspired the earrings that I made below. My favorite project was the Madonna Necklace. It uses white epoxy clay to transfer two old images. I attempted that pendant using my own printed photos.

FOXY EPOXY BOOK jewelry Collage

This is my ring inspired by the Embedded Crystals Pendant. I followed the basic instructions, but altered them to accommodate the ring bezel. I inserted the teardrop beads into the epoxy clay, and surrounded it with Swarovski chatons. The epoxy clay is a great medium to achieve sturdy dimensional jewelry.

CERALUN EPOXY CLAY - ring Collage

Using the Crystal Cave ring as inspiration, I used black chip glass beads, black epoxy and earring bezels to create dimensional earrings. If I get a silicone mat, I’ll try creating jewelry without the aid of bezels. You can see my tutorial for these earrings on my blog, Crafty Lady Abby.

CERALUN EPOXY CLAY - chip glass earring Collage

I wanted to try the image transfer tutorial for the Madonna Necklace. This was the toughest for me. I’m not very familiar with clay or image transfers. I found it difficult to figure out at what point I should stop removing the moistened paper after the image was transferred. Every time I though I’d removed all the paper, it would dry and a papery haze would appear. I tried sealing the image with Mod Podge to lessen the paper haze, but that didn’t help much. This was out of my comfort zone, but I’m glad I tried it. I’ll try to clean up the back of the pendant with paint. I might try this again in the future.

CERALUN EPOXY CLAY - image transfer pendant Collage

PROS:

  • Great resource for advanced jewelry crafters
  • Detailed instructions for each projects
  • 44 projects using a wide range of jewelry techniques
  • Epoxy clay is used creatively through out the book
  • In depth coverage of jewelry basics, tools, and materials
  • Nice weight to pages
  • Great quality photographs
  • Patterns provided when needed
  • Is a great resource for inspiration

CONS:

  • Not for beginner jewelry makers, but some projects are easier than other
  • The projects seem to have no organization. I would have preferred them being broken down to bracelets, necklaces, rings, earrings…etc.
  • No index to separate the projects by designer. This might not have been possible due to space or that some designers contributed more than others
  • No listing of where to purchase exact items used in projects. Many projects use special design elements with the epoxy clay. There is a listing of companies that contributed to the creation of the book, but no buying guide

The book retails for $24.95 US. I was produced in June 2013, so there are discounted copies available. For me, I don’t buy a lot of jewelry making books unless they are advanced like this one is. I’ve been making jewelry for about 8+ years. I liked seeing how I can build on my existing jewelry skills by adding epoxy clay. Honestly, I’m terrible at clay unless it’s air dry. I’ve burned my share of polymer clay, so anytime I come across a great self curing or drying clay, I’m excited to try it. The book gives me a lot of inspiration for future jewelry projects.

DISCLOSURE: I received this book to review for Craft Test Dummies. All opinions, photos, and projects are my own. I used an affiliate link for the book title. If you purchase the book through that link, I will get a small amount of compensation.

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Guest Star

  • Pat Catan’s Craft Stores Acquired by Michael’s - February 2, 2016
  • Vicki’s CHA Trend Sightings - January 20, 2016
  • Vicki’s Favorite Picks from the CHA Top 20 Products - January 10, 2016
  • CHA Show 2015: Behind the Scenes with Vicki - January 30, 2015
  • CHA 2015 Day 2 - January 20, 2015
  • CHA Show 2015 – New Jewelry Products to Watch For - January 19, 2015
  • CHA Show 2015: Yarnia - January 15, 2015
  • CHA 2015: Day 1 - January 11, 2015
  • Craft Product Review: Mod Podge Furniture in 3 Finishes - January 5, 2015
  • Trend Report for 2014-2015 – Home Decor - November 26, 2014

Posted in Beads/Jewelry Projects, Books, Magazines, Events, Craft Product Reviews, Craft Projects |

ctd-headshot-round

Hi! I’m Jenny, the co-host of Hands On Crafts for Kids on PBS and the Head Dummy behind CraftTestDummies.com where you’ll find craft product reviews, tutorials, and craft industry news.

ctd-fb ctd-pin ctd-twitter cts-insta ctd-youtube ctd-g ctd-email

Search

ctd-subscribe
Want weekly craft projects delivered straight to your inbox?

YouTube

Disclosure

CraftTestDummies is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

jenny-headshot-square

Jenny Barnett Rohrs is Head Dummy and Pied Piper behind CTD, which focuses on reviews, tutorials, and craft industry news. Jenny has appeared on HSN, Scrapbook Soup PBS series, and is currently the co-host of Hands On Crafts for Kids on PBS.

ctd-fb-30  ctd-pin-30  ctd-twitter-30  cts-insta-30  ctd-youtube-30  ctd-g-30  ctd-email-30  ctd-rss-30

Copyrighted Content Permission All images and tutorials on this blog are copyrighted material. Please contact me if you would like to borrow any media (photos, video or audio files), tutorials, or ideas from this blog. 99% of the time I would be happy to allow you to use one photo with appropriate credit and link back to CraftTestDummies.com (preferably to the same post it was borrowed from.)
clever-network  linqia  viglink

All content copyright © 2015 Craft Test Dummies | Privacy Policy | Disclosures | Site design by XO Sarah

MENU
  • Craft News
    • CHA Coverage
    • Crafting for a Cause
    • Giveaways
    • CTD on TV
    • Quilt Market
  • Craft Product Reviews
    • Apps & Sites
    • Art Supplies/Mixed Media
    • Beads/Jewelry Products
    • Books, Magazines, Events
    • Comparisons
    • Crafty Tools
    • Fabric, Needle, & Quilting Arts
    • Food Crafts
    • Paints, Inks & Dyes
    • Paper Crafts
    • Polymer Clay & Tools
  • Craft Storage and Tips
  • Crafty People & Places
    • Crafty Field Trips
  • Kids Stuff
    • Hands On Crafts For Kids-TV show
  • Winter/Christmas
  • Home Decor
  • Food Crafting/ Party Crafts
  • Valentine’s /Sweetest Day
  • Spring/Easter
  • Wedding & Shower Crafts
  • Father’s Day Crafts
  • Baby & Shower Crafts
  • Mother’s Day Crafts
  • Patriotic crafts
  • Summer Crafts
  • Fall Crafts
    • Halloween Crafts
  • Jenny Sez
    • Sponsored Posts
  • Periscope Superfans Page