31 Jewelry Designs inspired by the Art Nouveau period – printed one side of the page

Creative Haven Art Nouveau Jewelry Designs Coloring Book

By: Carol Schmidt

Rating: 5 of 5

This is a coloring book of 31 designs of Jewelry which was inspired by the jewelry of the Art Nouveau period. While every once in a while a lovely Art Nouveau lady peeks out of the pages, it is definitely a coloring book of jewelry and other bits and bobs that a lady who lived in the period would have worn or wished to have on her vanity.

There are necklaces, earrings, rings, purses, shoes, brooches, combs, bracelets and more. I love this period of art, both for the posters that are well known, as well as for the craftsmanship of the jewelry and other ladies attire (such as those shown in the coloring book.) I have a couple of reproduction pieces but would love someday to own an actual piece made during the Art Nouveau period.

The designs are detailed and should be fun to finish with lots of colors – both those appropriate to the period and then also the ones that are from my imagination. There are some designs which have intricate and small areas to color but I don’t consider the book to be a difficult one for coloring or one which needs special pens/pencils in order to color in the small areas.

I’ve noticed that the paper quality over the last few months seems to change quite frequently on the Creative Haven line. Because of that, if you buy one of these books, it may be slightly smooth or slightly rough depending on when and where it was printed. I’ve found that coloring medium, including pencils, work similarly with both slightly rough and slightly smooth paper from Creative Haven. In this case, my coloring book pages are slightly smooth.

This is what I found in this coloring book and how my coloring medium works with Creative Haven books.

31 Jewelry Designs inspired by the Art Nouveau are included in the book

The designs are printed on one side of the page

Paper is the usual Creative Haven quality: white, medium weight, slightly smooth and has perforated pages

Glue Binding but with perforated pages so removing a page is fairly simple

The designs do not cross over the perforations and the designs have a framing line at their outer edges.

Alcohol-based markers bleed through the page

Water-based markers bleed through in spots and show colorful shadows on the back of the page

Gel pens and India ink pens leave shadows of color on the back of the page. India ink pens can bleed through when I apply more than one layer of ink.

Coloring pencils work well with Creative Haven paper. I am able to get good pigment (color) lay down, layer the same color and multiple colors and to blend easily using a pencil style blender. IBoth oil and wax-based pencils have similar results. Hard lead pencils, like Verithins, leave dents on the back of the page.

I suggest either removing pages from the book to color or using a blotter page under your working page. I like card stock as it keeps ink from seeping through and damaging the pages below.

Here are some sample designs from the book: