This book has been a long time in the making. It started as a simple idea to compile differ-ent lectures into book form, complete it with images and to publish it. However while starting to rewrite these lectures, new ones emerged, and inevitably the urge came to write about other aspects ofjewellery that I hadn't lectured on before. My aim was not to write an academic book on jewellery, but rather a readable one that reflects on current tenden-cies within contemporary jewellery.