Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beading, Illustrated

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the frenzy to learn the beading craft continues to heat up, many beginning beaders seek answers to the many questions they have on the dizzying variety of beads, stitches, techniques, and beading components. What is Nymo? What is fireline? Flexible wire, what's that? And these "findings" -- how do you use them?

Many beading books offer help, but most are written to teach one stitch, offer inspiration with beautiful pictures of professional work, or to address color theory and design. Georgene Lockwood fills a gap for the beader who needs an overview to know where to begin. Although the book focuses in this area, the compilation of resources and reference material make this book a valuable one for the advanced beader as well.

Overall, the book is extremely well-written, and the "Put
on your beading cap" idea is sheer genius. I have seen only one other beading book that has learners create a project with their samples, but Georgene Lockwood's is the only one that ties that idea with a piece of clothing the beader can wear, as well as linking the same idea with sidebars throughout the book. This makes for an integrated concept I really appreciate. Any beginning beader who follows along with the project while reading Lockwood's book will not only learn many valuable techniques, but complete the book owning a valuable piece of wearable art.

This book is one I highly recommend to beginning beaders. I wish I had this book when I was starting out. As a bead designer using advanced techniques, I know the appendices are ones to which I will turn to many times in the future.

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.

If you are new to beading or even an old hand at it, this book has something for you! It's full of tips and techniques for all those things you wished you lnew how to do, but couldn't figure out on your own. Plus, it's inspirational!! It makes you want to get out the needle and thread and start beading. If you don't buy this book---you're a "complete idiot." It's absolutely the best!

While the title of this book is rather offensive, it must be admitted that the text inside provides a thorough introduction to all types of beadwork.
Chapters cover the history of beads, what beads are made of, making your own beads, and all about findings. Next we learn basic jewelry design, stringing and weaving, tools and materials, and knotting methods. Off-loom bead weaving is next, followed by right-angle weave, brick- and ladder-stitch, beading on a loom, a brief chapter on wirework, fabric beading, and much more.
You'll also find a few not-so-great color photos of the projects. But I find the book useful nonetheless, for it covers a vast amount of beadwork territory in well-written instructional text that is nicely augmented by line-art diagrams.
-Sharilyn Miller, author of Bead on a Wire

I purchased this book to learn HOW TO ATTACH CLASPS. Well, there are NO PICTURES to go along with the step by step instructions. I am a total NOVICE at this, and with all the great reviews I figured this would be the ONE BOOK to get ... no. I still have no idea how to modify a necklace on a leather cord to attach a clasp. If anyone can offer any help, I would appreciate it. But I would not buy this book if you don't know how to attach clasps.

As a beginning to intermediate beader, this book was a disappointment to me. I guess I should have taken the title more seriously! The projects lack inspiration and the photographs are of poor quality. Many of the pictures are repetitive. I also felt that the book is not organized in a logical fashion and, although it covers wirework, it does not even mention wrapping a donut or a pendant or a basic rosary turn. If you are looking for a really good basic book on beading or you want to find some fresh new projects, this book is not for you!

I thought this book was very good at informing customers who have never had any experience in Jewerly making. It does give great steps to all the lingo and explains all the items you would need to start. Then go onto exlplaining more projects you will be able to do. I am very gald I bought this book

I bought this book to sort of help me learn my way around the beading world, and it was an excellent guide. It breaks down the different kinds of beads, what they're called and what they're made out of. Chapter 2 teaches you how to make your own beads and discusses the different materials used to make beads. Chapter 3 goes over findings, what sorts of beading wires and strings there, beading tools and supplies. Chapter 4 discusses design basics. It offers some suggestions to help inspire creativity and it goes over the different lines used in beading (symmetrical, asymetrical, etc). It discusses jewelry weight, texture, color, and styles. Chapter 5 discusses more in depth the different kinds of beading wires that can be used. Chapter 6 provides a few beading projects to get you started. Chapters 7, 8, and 9 discuss bead weaving both on and off of a bead loom. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 go over beading with wire and some unique wire work projects. Chapters 13, 14, and 15 discuss beading with fibers and fabric including bead embroidery, bead weaving, and even hemp knotting. Chapter 16, 17, and 18 discuss organization how to take of your beads and supplies and a few bead decorating tips and tricks. Chapters 19, 20, 21, and 22 all provide some great beading projects. The Appendix in the back are very helpful, they go over some beading websites, books, and videos, and it also provides some very useful charts including bead size, chain styles, birthstones, zodiac stones, and chakra stones.

This book isn't too bad, especially for beginners, and does address some basic loom work, stringing, and the most common off-loom stitches. However, it seemed the instructions were sometimes tough to follow, and the author often did things 'the hard way." Better off buying the 'for dummies' guide to beading.

Really like this book. Answered all the things I wanted to know about beading. I learned much about the type of tools and beads needed to help make the jewelry I wanted. Very helpful book. If you want information on the do's and don'ts about beading then this book is for you...