Customer Reviews

Beading with Herringbone Stitch (Beadwork How-To)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Vicki Star is a pro at writing "how-to" books--the books are clear, easy to understand, and filled with the joy of beading. The first six were self-published (and co-authored with Jeanette Cook, her partner in "Beady Eyed Women") and contained excellent information, but once Star teamed up with Interweave Press, the books became the benchmark for visual information display.
"Beading With Herringbone Stitch" is excllent in its description of instructions and techniques. Star does something that other authors would do well to follow--she explains the "why" of her instructions. It helps adult learners (or slow learners, and I'm one of them) come to an understanding of technique much faster. Star is also honest. When you are supposed to wind up with "a twisty string of Vs" she says just that. What a relief!
There are two different starts and descriptions for flat, round, and tubular. You'll learn how to increase and decrease, both in the middle and at the edge. And you'll learn the difference results of each.
Illustrations are big and easy to understand. Added beads are shown in a totally different color than beads in place (this was a problem in the peyote book).
"Beading With Herringbone Stitch" follows the format of "Beading With Peyote Stitch" in organization. A Table of Contents and Index helps readers find what they need. There is a 26-page, full color Gallery, a section of five Projects, both easy and challenging, and lots of color photos.
The book starts with a history of the stitch, a vital and often ignored book section that helps the reader understand the cultural links to the stitch.
The Supplies section is carefully presented. The stitch is shown worked up with the same color beads in different sizes and shapes, to lend understanding to bead selection.
No book has enough room to put all the text on the same page with each illustration, but this one makes an effort. Flipping back does happen, but not often enough to be distracting.
If you are interested in Herringbone Stitch, are having difficulty with it, or want a reason to learn it, buy the book. It's a must-have for your beading library.

This is typical "white middle class woman" beading!
The history and research is glossed over with a few pages and a map. Shame on the folks at Beadwork for putting their name on this book! Ndebele, not the anglicized "herringbone" stitch!
The how too drawings are not clear. Take a page out of Carol Wilcox Wells, madam! If you are going to do instructional work, be clear to the audience. The sketches are decent, but you can not be sure where the thread goes when you start doing more advanced work in ndebele.
The most disappointing aspect of this book?
The projects are horrible and the gallery is full of lovely examples that would be much better practice and more rewarding!
The gallery is too large and segmented. Why not, again, take a page out of Carol Wilcox Wells' book and pepper gallery with projects, projects that are desirable!
The ndebele "kalaidascope" is merely a tube, and the "vessels" are just tulip shaped vases.
I would save your money on this one, find a nice example of of "how to" in Virginia Blakelock's "Those Bad Bad Beads" then pick up a copy of Jean Morris and Eleanor Preston-Whyte's "Speaking with Beads: Zulu Arts from Southern Africa."
The stitch itself is not complex at all, but this book makes tinkerbell items that are rather ugly by comparison to the potential that is there.
I was soundly disappointed when I got this book. I think Beadwork/Taunten press rushes to print these books because they have an instant market, but this book founders badly on the shores of craft book.
Buy the two books mentioned above, you will be much better served!

I like this book a lot and refer to it often; for the first time I was able with its instruction to achieve the 3-row start. However some of the illustrations didn't match the instructions and the more complex drawings took some concentrated study to figure out. I've been off-loom weaving for a couple of years now using different methods, and would hate to be a beginner trying to use this book. The projects are pretty limited too, so a lot of your own creativity is required to apply the method to your own projects. Still, it's the most information I've ever seen on this stitch, which is quickly becoming my favorite.

Although I found the instructions OK, I have never seen a book with such ugly projects, especially when there are some very nice pictures in the gallery that do not look too difficult. Every since the Carol Wilcox Wells books have come out, the bar has risen. Authors be aware!

I can't believe this book got published, let alone that someone gave it 5 stars. One problem with reviews is that they are often written by friends of the author. I don't know the author and have no grudge but I do want my money's worth. The author's projects are very unsophisticated, both in design but more in their choice of color. The book is very expensive for the number of projects, and doesn't add much in background history. I would definitely say - Don't buy this book!!

A must have book. Clear and great pictures on "how to." Lots of inspiration. Well worth the price.

this book is not worth purchasing for more than $2. The projects are boring and the gallery is small. I would also have liked to see some of the gallery pieces matched with a technique in a project.

Vicki and her friend Stephney Hornblow visited and beaded with Ndebele masters. Another friend, Evelyn Cohen, shared her photographs for the book, making the first chapter a blast of color and design. Now inspired, you learn about supplies and herringbone techniques. These are followed by fairly complex, but well-explained, projects. The gallery at the book's end consists of 22 pages of projects made by obviously very advanced bead artists -- WOW! -- fodder for your bead brain to ponder.