Beading with Right Angle Weave (Beadwork How-To) [Paperback]

Christine Prussing (Author)

Book Description

Series: Beadwork How-To | Publication Date: October 1, 2004

The right angle weave stitch is demystified in this beading handbook. After mastering the basics, crafters can create their own beautiful jewelry with 30 projects that include a trendsetting garnet and carnelian necklace, a bead lace jabot, and a sapphire crystal bracelet. All projects include easy-to-follow instructions and illustrations for both single- and two-needle techniques. Simple pieces for children or beginning beaders are followed by more complex projects that will challenge advanced beaders with three-dimensional explorations of cubes, frames, tablets, and boxes. Each of the projects can be modified and personalized in dozens of ways, allowing beaders to design their own inspiring creations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Full of innovative ways to use this versatile stitch."  —Step by Step Beads magazine

About the Author

Christine Prussing is a beadwork designer, a regular contributor to Beadwork, and the owner of The Bead Gallery. She lives in Juneau, Alaska.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Interweave Press (October 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931499500
• ISBN-13: 978-1931499507
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,882 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Way Different, April 10, 2006

By 

B. Muse "Bemused" (Caldwell, ID) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beading with Right Angle Weave (Beadwork How-To) (Paperback)

This author does more with the right angle weave stitch than what you usually see in bead magazines or older crafts booklets. The photo showing some of the multiple-bead ladder variations on this stitch was a nice surprise, plus the beautiful "jabot" patterns that use some of these stitches. The chapters on cubes, tablets, and frames are unlike anything I've seen anywhere else. There are a lot of ideas here for further exploration. And it is the only book that actually tells you how to use two needles to do this stitch.

But, as another reviewer has pointed out, there are some artwork and editing issues. Sometimes cryptic instructions, illustrations out of sync with the text... And the artwork is certainly less helpful than it could be. I've gotten other patterns from this author off the Internet, so I happen to know that she uses PowerPoint for her diagrams. But apparently the publisher decided these were too techy-looking, and had an artist re-do them as hand-drawn sketches. But in screaming yellow and magenta? What's up with that? The section that another reviewer pointed out is a prime example of this collision of haphazard editing and an artist who evidently didn't bother to read the text she was illustrating. Yikes! However, seeing as how I could recognize these mistakes when I tripped over them, obviously the sketchy editing and artwork - while annoying - didn't prevent me from figuring out what was supposed to be going on.

I have to give the author credit for a clever solution to the problem of writing patterns for right angle weave, a stitch that can be done by two completely different methods. Rather than do duplicate instructions for every project - one with a single needle thread path, and another with two-needle paths - she labels the positions of the beads in each stitch instead: North, South, East, and West. So it doesn't matter whether you work a pattern using one needle or two, you just have to note what position the beads in each stitch lie in instead of following a thread path. The section titled "Read This First" describes this method of reading a pattern. However, it's so different from what you usually see in bead magazines that I can see how readers who skipped this section and went right into the projects might have run into trouble. It does take some thought and getting used to. I had to draw myself a little cross-shape with the arms labeled "East=Right" and "West=Left." But now that I get it, I find it a really helpful way of looking at other right angle weave patterns.

So I give this author high marks for innovative thinking and fun designs and techniques (love the layered frames and sugar cubes!), but knock off a point for the mangled editing and artwork that make getting through the instructions harder than it should be. If you're a beader looking for a challenge or something different, you'll like this book.

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, March 11, 2005

By 

S. Rinaldi (Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beading with Right Angle Weave (Beadwork How-To) (Paperback)

This book looked promising when I picked it up, but after struggling through the instructions I now regret buying it. I bought the book to learn right angle weave...but ended up looking up a free tutorial online instead because I could not figure out Christine Prussings instructions and examples. The right angle weave stitch itself is actually not that complicated...but Christine makes it seem extremely complicated. Unless you are really good with a compass I do not recommend this book. I started a beautiful project that she had on the front cover, but once you get done with the base of the piece...her instructions become unclear and confusing. Now, I have a beautiful unfinished necklace.

27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor instructions, November 25, 2004

By 

M. Weston (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beading with Right Angle Weave (Beadwork How-To) (Paperback)

The instructions in this book are not clear, the pictures hard to understand, the final project looks good if somebody can do it. Very disappointed.