Let's face it! In this day and age, we don't have a penny to spare. When this simple fact is combined with our newfound interest in repurposing jewelry "finds" from earlier times, such as the era of the nineteen fifties for example, you come up with a winner of a book: Vintage Redux by Brenda Schweder. Brenda Schweder is a writer and designer who often appears in BeadStyle Magazine, Bead and Button, Art Jewelry, and other Kalmbach publications. That is nothing to sniff at, as those are some of the greats in the industry! There a reason she has such appeal: her approach to making jewelry, and in this particular book, "remaking" jewelry by using pieces which have lived earlier lives in different forms, is clever and never forced or facile. She is able to take a piece of jewelry which is almost impossible to imagine as anything but what it started out to be, for example a high school class ring, and make it into a clasp for a glamorous bracelet ("Classy Ring"), with an appropropriate toggle bar which suits the nature of the design to perfection. I found some of her pieces used color in a way which I never personally choose...and yet I respected every piece which she created in the book. Why would this be? Because she makes sense with each item she redesigns. So what if I am not a brown girl, or a deep red girl, or a coral girl? I was able to LEARN something from each project! Additionally, there was plenty I certainly did like and even love! Items I was attracted to in particular were, for example, "With a Click of Her Heels" a fantastic, "luxe" cuff bracelet which the designer made from a rhinestone shoe buckle. With its background of wide black velvet ribbon, I coveted this sparkling bauble! As a jump ring maniac, I also admired the "Newfangled Old Bangles"! These are a set of five 1950's silver bangles from Mexico, each one different, which get the jump ring and charm treatment by Brenda. What an instant update! Really easy and really great! The author knows her vintage, too. Just take a quick look at the interview she conducts with her pal Merilyn Lauria, who sells costume and vintage jewelry. I have never been so enlightened by two people discussing vintage costume jewelry in my life. Absolutely fascinating stuff, even if you think you know a bit about the greats in the costume jewelry industy! Learn, learn, learn from this book! I had a ball studying the incredibly clever manner in which she used buckles, chandelier parts, a resin filled pocket watch and a bell pull (this was a project she did with a friend and called "Monk's Timespiece"--really nice), berry clusters which came from a millinery store circa 1910, which she remade into the focus of a pretty choker, a thimble which became the pendant in a project called "A Change Will Do It Good", and many others, all fun to see, study, and to examine. This is a fascinating and unique book. If you have a hip jewelry designer in the family, or you want to BE a hip jewelry designer, check this book out! I would say that the push toward unique inspiration alone which you will get from this book, Vintage Redux, by this highly intelligent and charming designer, Brenda Scheweder, makes it worth purchasing, learning from, and enjoying!