Customer Reviews

Bead And Wire Jewelry Exposed: 50 Designer Projects Featuring Beadalon And Swarovski

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"Get ready to embark on an exciting adventure through the world of jewelry design" is the appropriate first line of Bead &Wire Jewelry Exposed by Margot Potter, Fernando daSilva and Katie Hacker.

Exciting because the designs expertly detail the techniques for using stringing materials that serve as the backbone of many designs, i.e., beading wire, craft wire, etc.

Exciting because if you love Swarovski crystals, there are plenty of projects to create. If you're a fellow magpie, drawn to the sparkly, the whole book will make your eyes roll back into your head.

More than that, it's a book about the exciting ways to use easily obtainable beading materials to create lovely and alluring pieces of jewelry that look high end.

Now that's exciting!

One of the gems of this book is the exhaustive descriptions and explanation of use in the materials and tools sections. If you're a beginner, this book is all you'll need to understand how to work with beading wire. Even if you're experienced there's always something in a book as comprehensive as this one. I learned about the Beadalon "Scrimp" - it's a re-usable crimp - cool!

Exposed is long on projects, 124 pages to be exact. Clear written directions and photographs guide the reader through each gorgeous project.

Speaking of projects, here are a few of my favorites from the book:

Fireworks by Fernando DaSilva (p. 23) uses brown velour tubing which is a stringing material I haven't used before. I love how Fernando has used it in his design. The long strands of suspended multi-colored crystals is mesmerizing!

Concentricity by Margot Potter (p. 38. Can you fall in love with a piece of jewelry? I don't know exactly what it is about this design but it's best described as alluring. The rhythm created by the repeated circles with just a sprinkle of beads. I can see it as a necklace and the perfect finishing touch for a little black dress. Margot's personality and sense of fun comes through in Concentricity and in the description she's written about the piece.

Night Sky and Night Sky Earrings by Katie Hacker (p. 27). What Katie Hacker does for earrings is magic. I don't think Katie makes a pair of earrings I don't instantly want. Some people have a knack for gardening, so that person is said to have a green thumb. Katie Hacker has a knack for earrings, should I say she has a "crystal thumb?"

Oh and by the way, that lovely piece on the cover is entitled Myth and Legend and is designed by the crystal thumbed Katie Hacker.

Exposed is for jewelry designers, crafters and hobbyists. Full of inspiration and information it's worth having in your own personal library. Inspiration and information exposed, now that's exciting!

Kudos to Katie, Fernando & Margot for a great book! 50 projects ranging from earrings to tiaras and all the jewelry in between. If bling is your thing, you'll love this book! I myself am a huge fan of the sparkly stuff so I thoroughly enjoyed the projects in this book.

The step outs and pictures are very clear and easy to follow. The projects use some interesting materials and components such as tubing, wire, and chain and introduce you to some new tools.

Some of my favs are Katie's Architectura with the clean structured lines, Fernando's Golden Glow; such a fun way to use Bead Bumpers and Margot's Interlude with cool fabric chain.

Enjoy!

Another great book for an advanced jewelry maker's library. Many 'thinking outside of the box' styles, that are actually appealing.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fact that 3 designers got together and created this truly inspirational book. Many different ideas kept popping into my head after my first scan through. This book has taken up residence on my nightstand as my 'drift off to sleep...dreaming' book.

This book is very helpful. It has detailed explanations with beautiful pictures. I haven't had it long but I've enjoyed it so far.

I enjoyed looking in detail at the pieces. It is great for ideas for creating your own pieces.

I purchased this book from Internationalbooks through Amazon.com. I was pleasantly surprised in that it arrived in only a few days vs. weeks, and was in excellent condition. I would definitely order books from them again.

I seldom leave review or rate products I bought online but this time..I have to...coz I love this book so much. It has lots of pictures that show details of the projects, the authors used a lot of vibrant and very nice colors for the projects. Not to mention the step by step instruction with picture on each step. The designs are great. The only minor thing I wish the authors could add in the book is that the length of each finish product. Other than that, I would recommend this book to anyone no matter what level you are in the beading world. Can't wait to start the new projects :)

I am very happy with this purchase. Each project was well defined, easy to follow and came out looking like the picture in the book! I am a beader and wire worker and this was a different venue for me but I had such fun making this jewelry I would recommend this book for everyone!

One of the most up to date and creative books I've gotten in a long time. Only problem is finding some of the beadalon items in shops. Service was great with delivery.

I found this an excellent resource for beading and wire jewellry and commend the three authors on their inspiring designs.