Beading with Cabochons: Simple Techniques for Beautiful Jewelry (Lark Jewelry Books) [Hardcover]

Jamie Cloud Eakin (Author)

Book Description

Series: Lark Jewelry Books | Publication Date: November 1, 2005

With this gloriously photographed and illustrated manual at hand, beaders can create awe-inspiring jewelry. It's the only current, comprehensive guide to working with cabochons--a flat piece of rock or mineral--and it covers all the basics, along with a range of new creative techniques and hot trends. Find out which tools and materials to use, which beads work best, and how to wrap them round the stones. Craft turned, pointed, twisted, brick stitch, ruffled, or scalloped edges, or add decorative fringe. For something dramatic, combine more than one cabochon in a single piece. Or, instead of natural stone, use dichroic glass or other found objects. Make a glittering brooch, funky bracelets, a wearable art necklace, and other showstoppers.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

With the joy of beading spreading, it's odd that no one artist has chosen to focus on a singular type of beading technique. Now, California artist Eakin takes the cabochon--a jewel or bead with a flat back and smooth dome surface--as her sole subject. In fact, it yields much more robust content that one might think at first. Tools and materials, as expected, resemble generic beading equipment, but the techniques differ in process and complexity. Framing the bead alone requires mastery of six steps; then edging can assume a variety of styles, from plane-raw to scalloped. Eakin uses a host of sidebars to encourage experimentation and includes 11 well--photographed projects with good instructions (an oval solitaire rhodonite bracelet, for one, with others featuring semiprecious gems such as jasper, onyx, agate, Malaysian jade, and tigereye). Barbara Jacobs
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

Praise for Jamie Cloud Eakin's Beading with Cabochons:

 

"The designs are all beautiful and have a dramatic neo-Victorian look. Highly recommended." - Library Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lark Crafts (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579907180
• ISBN-13: 978-1579907181
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jamie Cloud Eakin was born in Illinois and now resides in California. Her love of beads was born in Illinois and now resides around the world in her books and her beaded creations sold in fine galleries. Her books, Beading with Cabochons and Bugle Bead Bonanza show her range from the complicated and exquisite to the simply fun and beautiful. The recently released Dimensional Bead Embroidery takes off and expands the topics in Beading with Cabochons. All of the books are full of beautiful photographs and clear, concise illustrations and instructions. Other books which feature some of her designs include Bedazzled (P Diamonti), Beading with World Beads (R. Hemachandra)and The Beaders Color Palette by Margie Deeb.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great beading book, March 17, 2006

By 

K. R. Khaladkar (Orland Park, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beading with Cabochons: Simple Techniques for Beautiful Jewelry (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

I first came aware of this book at our beading group and immediatley ordered it. She gives you so many options of doing simple to very decorative cabachon work. Her instructions are simple, easily understandable & uses great example pictures. In other books you maylook at a picture and wonder what technique was used. In this book, right under the picture she tells how she tells you what technique to use. You don't have to go hunting in the book looking for these techniques; they are organized in chapters. You start out very basic and they she build up from there. I have several books on cabachon beading and this is by far the best one I own and the one that I refer to all the time.

70 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars utterly brilliant, August 8, 2006

By 

E Rice (western ny state) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beading with Cabochons: Simple Techniques for Beautiful Jewelry (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

this is a fabulous book.

the instructions, from beginning and ending threads to embellishing the basic beaded bezel to incorporating it into jewelry--and everything in-between--are well-written, clear and thorough--nothing is overlooked (well, she doesn't illustrate how to thread a needle, as one of my other craft books does, but that's hardly a fault!). the instructions are accompanied by excellent photos and line drawings. i usually have a hard time learning from print rather than demonstration, but this book makes learning incredibly easy.

the designs are wonderful and the variety is amazing. i have subscribed to major beading magazines for years and have not seen anything like many of eakin's designs. they are all beautiful, many are elegant. the methods for attaching the finished cabochons to necklaces or into bracelets are creative, simple and beautiful. the color combinations are fantastic.

this is one of the finest craft books i have seen in decades of doing a large number of techniques. a beginner could produce a wonderful first project and an experienced beader will be inspired.

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE best cabochon-beading book available to date., May 6, 2007

By 

Suzanne "suzannemi" (Michigan's Upper Peninsula) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beading with Cabochons: Simple Techniques for Beautiful Jewelry (Lark Jewelry Books) (Hardcover)

I have waited years for a book on beading with cabochons. Leave it to Lark books to provide the beautiful color pictures and quality paper book that we prefer. Lark always seems to have better-than-average technique-type books, and this one is no exception. The pictures are plentiful, clear and Jamie Cloud Eakin's work is inspiring and impressive. Just the kind of pictures I like to see when looking for examples of technique. Lovely, lovely, lovely!

I am another "Woman of 100 Hobbies" and have an extensive library of books, including beading. What does this book provide that others do not? The only other book I own that provides much in the way of step-by-step directions for working with cabs is Sadie Starr's 1993 publication _Beading with Seed Beads, Gem Stones and Cabochons_. While Ms. Starr's book provided us with her basic cabochon technique (amongst her other seed-bead and gemstone experience), it was in black and white with color plate pages elsewhere, depicted mostly southwest style, and really just whetted your appetite and curiosity for working with cabs. Beading with Cabochons reaches beyond the basics and offers such attractive variations! I love Eakin's style and find myself "champing at the bit" to try my own variations, and isn't that what a good book should do?

While we go from basic to more advanced styles, these are not your average-looking cab projects. I think they have more class/chic/dash than the traditional southwest style I am accustomed to seeing so often. (No disparagement or offense meant to the southwest/Native American style, of course; each has its place! It is simply not MY style most of the time. Know what I mean?)

Table of Contents includes: 1) Materials and Tools, 2) Basic Cabochon Beading, 3) Edge Stitches [Raw edge, Turned-bead edge, Lifted turned-bead edge, Pointed edge, Twisted edge, Star edge (using brick stitch), Ruffled edge (using brick stitch), Scalloped edge, and Fringes], 4) Attachment Methods (and variations thereof) [Direct, Turn-bead method, Backside bead method, Top-bail ladder stitch method, and Top loop method], 5) Other Bezel Stitches [Bead-raised bezel, Window bezel, Picot bezel, and variations], 6) The Projects, and 7) Creating Your Own Designs [color considerations, design steps (from concept to completion), jewelry-specific tips, other design considerations, using multiple cabs/ other objects]; a Gallery of cabochon jewelry by other artists; an Appendix on attaching findings; an Index to stitches; and supplier notes.

The 11 projects include: Fringed Dichroic Glass Necklace, Oval Solitaire Rhodonite Bracelet, Noondrite Jasper Necklace, Sea Moss Ladder Bracelet, Double Cabochon Dangle Earrings, Leopardskin Jasper Necklace, Black Onyx Pin, Victorian Triple Cabochon Bracelet, Southwest Spirit Necklace, Fringed Tiger-Eye Cabochon Earrings and Crazy Lace Agate Pin.

I came away feeling that Eakin knew what she was talking about, even providing us with helpful information about minutiae such as Glue: If/when using glue, instead of just selecting a glue suitable for glass, stones or fabric, "The key to selecting one glue brand over another is knowing what the glue's texture will be after it dries."; Scissors: Good, sharp blades are obvious, but curved manicure scissors are especially good for trimming and (surprise) curves; and Knots: Did you know there's a secure, one-thread knot when you cannot tie a square knot?

My only "complaint": The very fine-line ellipse thingy used on the title of each beginning chapter page. I have 2 dogs and 2 cats and I keep thinking that it's a hair! Ha!