Customer Reviews

The Best Little Beading Book: Techniques and More: A Practical Guide for Beadlovers (Beadwork Books)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Come to this book the way you would a dictionary and you'll be pleased; expect a text on how to bead and you won't like it. This book is great for finding information, quick help, and looking up something you aren't sure about. Despite the color cover, the rest of the book is in black and white, and there is no stunning gallery to inspire you. In fact, there are no photographs (except for the cover).

The simple line drawings are meant to keep things clear and help the text, not be the only source of information. You'll find diagrams of how to knot, how to start a bend to make a wire loop, how to connect beading to earwires--all things that could never be done easily using only words.

The format is meant to cover as much beading ground as possible, with just enough help to get the reader started. It is not a step-by-step project book.

The beginning beader will reach for this book often; the intermediate beader will use the book for backup; and the advanced beader will be glad she bought it when she was a beginning beader.

The book contains projects with full instructions and illustrations, plentiful notes on basic and advanced techniques from simple head-pin earrings to strand-knotting to peyote stitch, and a generous selection of color photos. (Best of all, it's spiral-bound so it lies flat!) The author takes care to point out how basic techniques can be combined and varied once mastered; this book has something to teach both beginner and skilled craftsperson. Anyone who does beadwork, stringing, or beadweaving should have this book nearby. I pick it up more often than all my other beadwork books put together

I think the thing that amazes me the most about this book is how poorly designed and organized it is given the cost of the book. The illustrations look like they were scribbled on scraps of paper, the black and white photographs are dark and murky and the whole thing is laid out with only minimal organization which is really a shame because there is a great deal of very useful and comprehensive information here providing you can actually find what you are looking for -- the Table of Contents is at the ->back<- of the book under the heading "Index;" there is, needles to say, no index per se. Ms Conner should seriously consider either finding another publisher for her book or persuading her current publisher to hire both a graphic artist and an editor with experience in creating crafts books in the event that she writes a revised edition.

I am amazed that such great text came with such awful illustrations that I can only describe as scribblings. Some being so bad that they made me mad trying to comprehend their directions especially in the seed bead category.

I am a novice at jewelry making and found this book to have everything I need to know. It is exact with diagrams for assistance, where needed. My only problem was that I couldn't always find things from the index in the back, otherwise, WOW!

I have used this book to teach myself how to bead! Excellent for someone interested in learning how to bead without taking tons of classes.

I personaly love this book. The illistrations are hand drawn so they are not perfect but they still provided me with a clear picture. The projects in the book are great. It is sprial bound so it lays flat while you are doing a project out of it. The author has a great sence of humor and makes reading the book fun but it still has lots of information. Overall I find nothing wrong with this book and I totally recomend it.

I always recommend this book to people who are starting out into beading. One of my first beading books ever and still one of my favorites. It has a great scope and I found it to be inspiring and educational.

I bought this book when I wanted to find an all inclusive bead book. I found that it was good for the definitions and quick sketches. It includes step by step instructions for BASIC techniques like stringing beads on a wire or using cones (not really rocket science). But the pictures are loosely drawn in black and white, so its hard to follow. Even the photos were blurry and black and white, which made it really hard to figure out what the end product would look like. Personally, I would have rather had bold bright pictures of the semi-precious stones to ACCOMPANY the definitions (whats the point, of identifying names of stones without the pictures of them for us to see?), and more inspirational photos of projects.

Not really the best.

I found myself learning on my own.

I bought this book for my 17 year-old niece for her birthday (she has recently become interested in making bead earrings) but after it arrived and I looked through it with my sister-in-law, I decided to send it back and get something else. The worst thing, I guess, are the illustrations. The color photos are fine but the black & white ones are too dark and the drawings that come with the instructions look like they were made by small children. It's also hard to figure out where things are -- we were trying to find earring projects we thought Lillian would be interested in making but there's no index so you have to page through the entire book to find anything.