Disclaimer: I did not purchase this book, I was sent a review copy.
This is a very thorough book, touching on almost every concept I can think of within beading. However, as with anything thorough, that means each topic has less individual coverage than a specialized book. That's great if you are looking for a beginner's book to beading with a cheery tone mixed well with an encyclopedic style. That's not as good if you're looking for in-depth how-tos for a specific project.
Thus, I'd recommend this book as a beginner's first book. It'd make a great gift if you're trying to get someone new into beading, because it is comprehensive and definitely gets inspirational juices flowing by laying out the vast number of things one can do with beads. But if you're a very experienced beader across various beading methodologies, the best you'll get out of this book are fun facts and historical tidbits with perhaps the occasional tip you hadn't considered before.
The how-to diagrams are fairly thorough, but also standard one-piece, flat, follow-the-path models that can be confusing to real newbies. Based on the weekly email I get regarding the free step-by-step tutorials on my website, I'd wager that if you're confused by solitary diagrams in other books, this book won't help beyond that. However, if you are able to easily follow the thread/wire in such diagrams, this book does offer many of them for various stitches and techniques.
The photos tend to be small and none of them are in colour (except a few-page middle insert with some mediocre-quality colour photos of projects and eye candy). They are adequate enough for some instructions and there are a few good macro-sized shots in the technique instructions that illustrate things up close, but in terms of the projects they really only give an idea of the overall shape of a piece. They are completely useless from the point of view of trouble-shooting where you've gone wrong in a piece. You must be able to follow text instructions to do any of the few listed projects, so if you have trouble following bead counts, the projects could be frustrating.
Buy this book as a thorough reference to all things bead-related, but not as a pattern/project book.
Techniques/topics covered include: bead basics and history, making your own beads, tools and other items needed for beading, design tips, thread/string types, crimping/clasps/jump rings, peyote stitch, netting, right-angle weave, square stitch, brick stitch, looming, wire types and tools, beaded flowers, beading on fabric, backstitch, stem stitch, chain stitch, buttonhole stitch, blanket stitch, feather stitch, couching, lazy stitch, scatter stitch, cabochons, edging, fringes, knotting, bead organization, preserving beaded items, decorating with beads, four stringing projects, three weaving projects, four wirework projects, three fibre/fabric projects, plus a glossary.
