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Beaded Jewelry The Complete Guide
Your One-Stop Source for Beading Know-How Jewelry and beading expert Susan Ray , along with dozens of expert jewelry artists, bring you this complete tutorial for making your own jewelry to fit your personal style. Whether you prefer professional and polished, classic and elegant, or casual and comfortable, you will find the designs and information needed to complete your jewelry pieces using this book. You will also benefit from valuable lessons
256 pages, Spiral-bound
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 4, 2010
Normally, I don't actually read my jewelry books; I just flip through for the designs I like best. But this one is short and it has non-pattern stuff, and stuff about the beading "community" and what-not, so I thought I'd give it a read-through. It was actually a rather decent book at first, but then I got to the patterns, and I was pretty disappointed.
The instructions for the patterns were confusing, imprecise, and almost felt like they were missing steps. The materials needed weren't always specific enough: "Swarovski 6mm crystal beads (as desired)" pg. 196. What does that mean? More importantly, I felt that the instructional photographs were less than helpful. I was given the beginning photo, like, "string four beads," and the end photo, "Now you should have six rows of two beads," but I get lost in the middle where they tell you to go through two beads, and then the next to beads and then two more. Not helpful. This was especially problematic in the Stitching chapter, since I've never done bead stitchery, whereas I found I could fill in the gaps on the regular Stringing section, having largely taught myself basic stringing.
The last chapter was about the beading community, but it addressed how to sell your jewelry more than anything else. While I'm aware that most people aim for sales, I am a hobbyist and I don't have the time to make jewelry to sell on the scale Ray was talking about. Thus, I found the whole chapter annoying. Further, a lot of the discussion about specific beads assumed that I would be going out and hunting down $20 one-of-a-kind wearable-art-type beads. Not only am I cheap and lazy, but I thing a lot of the wearable-art-type beads that are currently popular are ugly as sin. Why would I be hunting them down?
Overall, this book seemed like a good idea when I checked it out from the library, but now it seems... unnecessary. I don't want to say it was a waste of my time, but if all of the patterns had been as confusing as the stitched patterns, I think I would have to say it. Luckily for the author, not only were the stringing instructions more understandable, but one of them even gave me a plan for a pendant I haven't been able to place. So, thank you for that Susan Ray. For the rest of it, well, better luck next time.
The instructions for the patterns were confusing, imprecise, and almost felt like they were missing steps. The materials needed weren't always specific enough: "Swarovski 6mm crystal beads (as desired)" pg. 196. What does that mean? More importantly, I felt that the instructional photographs were less than helpful. I was given the beginning photo, like, "string four beads," and the end photo, "Now you should have six rows of two beads," but I get lost in the middle where they tell you to go through two beads, and then the next to beads and then two more. Not helpful. This was especially problematic in the Stitching chapter, since I've never done bead stitchery, whereas I found I could fill in the gaps on the regular Stringing section, having largely taught myself basic stringing.
The last chapter was about the beading community, but it addressed how to sell your jewelry more than anything else. While I'm aware that most people aim for sales, I am a hobbyist and I don't have the time to make jewelry to sell on the scale Ray was talking about. Thus, I found the whole chapter annoying. Further, a lot of the discussion about specific beads assumed that I would be going out and hunting down $20 one-of-a-kind wearable-art-type beads. Not only am I cheap and lazy, but I thing a lot of the wearable-art-type beads that are currently popular are ugly as sin. Why would I be hunting them down?
Overall, this book seemed like a good idea when I checked it out from the library, but now it seems... unnecessary. I don't want to say it was a waste of my time, but if all of the patterns had been as confusing as the stitched patterns, I think I would have to say it. Luckily for the author, not only were the stringing instructions more understandable, but one of them even gave me a plan for a pendant I haven't been able to place. So, thank you for that Susan Ray. For the rest of it, well, better luck next time.
November 17, 2016
I didn't care for the projects they had in the book, but I appreciated the information on beads, how to make your own beads, the stringing basics, and how to make different kinds of necklaces. It's a good beginner book but I won't be keeping this book on my bookshelf. I will scan/print out some of the pages in the book to use later on if I need it, but I'll be giving this book away to someone who really wants it.
March 29, 2009
Beaded Jewelry is a very good resource for the beginning beader. The steps for beading are clear and easy to follow. Also, there is a list of all the tools needed to get started. This was definitely helpful to me. Also the book lies flat so you can follow along while you bead without having to resort to paperweights to hold down pages.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews