Customer Reviews

Designing Jewelry with Glass Beads

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3 star:		(4)
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Stephanie Sersich's colorful book, Designing With Glass Beads, is easy to love! It has so much going for it. First, she gives you a great history of glass, very complete and well done, something which I enjoyed and found thoroughly fascinating. She also shares "her world" throughout the book, which means that you get to understand in a profound way why her glass designs are so beautiful. She comes from a super family of artists who live in Maine. In fact her very first quote which "taught me something" I hadn't thought of in that particular way before is, "Beading is a miniature game of organizing space". She says in the book she got this organizational talent from her father. You also "meet" her remarkable mother, an artist as well, and other friends such as the great glass artist Dustin Tabor.

However, even more than this, you get to play in Stephanie's exuberant world of glass! She is famous for her spectacularly beautiful Spiny Knotted Bracelet. The instuctions for this great bracelet, and for so many other beautiful pieces, will really thrill you if you love her style. They are all in this book! She has a great talent for using wire, ribbon, types of sewing, waxed linen and other bases for her jewelry pieces which enchance each one's unique and energetic beauty.
I particularly liked her Wispy Necklace (such a collection of beads and fringe!), her Tinkerbell Drop Earrings, which are simple but hip, and so many more! She is so good at what she does! It is a very exciting book to read and to have. There are all kinds of glass beads. There is lots and lots of color to entrance you as well.

There are also lots of small extras which are pleasing, such as the way she writes about what it is like to look forward to summer in Maine (an area which is pretty cold a lot of the time), and then ties that in to her signature lampworked starfish which she makes. She even shows the very first starfish she ever torched. It is sweet and pretty good!

She offers other pages of extra info like "The Art of Lampwork" which shows her making her glass beads as she explains in writing exactly what she is doing.

I like the book as much for the jewelry as for the information she shares. She is definitely an excellent teacher and a fascinating person. Her beads are beautiful and her jewelry is absolutely worth knowing how to make.

I have attended two workshops with Stephanie and I was thrilled to see that her book captures her personality and artistry. She gives you a taste for how she creates her wonderful lampwork beads and reveals her techniques for turning them into unique and fun jewelry. The photos are gorgeous and so inspiring, I immediately made a few of her stacked pendants for myself and my friends.

This book is full of unique, creative beaded jewelry projects as well as Stephanie's helpful comments on color, texture and design. Great for all levels. If you want to expand your beadwork skills, this is the book for you!

I have taken one of Stephanie's classes and love her work. The instructions are very clear and the photographs are outstanding. This book would be a great addition to your library.

This is a nice book if you would like to learn a little bit about the history of glass. I thought some of the projects were great and nice and fresh while some of the other projects were out in left field and not my style. This book is 128 pages in length with 20 projects. I was expecting some better projects in this book and also more projects. An example of one of the projects in the book is how to stack beads together and then adding this stack of beads onto at a piece of ribbon. Do we really need a project to tell use how to do this? One of the projects and why I bought the book was her Double-Clasp bracelet project. I love this idea and how you can make several variations of these little bracelets and mix and match them. I think some things are good in this book but some things need to be improved upon.

If you are into glass beads, Stephanie is the authority. The projects are beautiful eye candy that make your mouth water and you want to move to Maine to stalk her perfect artist family for inspiration. Her ideas are easy to follow but the results seem far from simple- intricate projects that look like they take a master to make.

I have attended several workshops with Stephanie. She is bubbly and enthusastic and her book shares her personality. The instructions are easy to follow and her history of beads is interesting. She is very influenced by her surroundings, family and associates. If you don't have a chance to meet her or take one of her workshops, then buy her book. If you meet her you will definitely want to buy her book.

I was disappointed that there was not more varied examples in this book. Everything looks the same.

I love this book! The author provides wonderful, easy-to-use illustrations, inspiring photos, and clear instructions. Her sense of color, whimsy, and design truly help one move beyond tried & true pieces. I have given many copies of this book to beginning beaders, especially those who want to learn the spiny necklace/bracelet pieces, which are such fun...and relatively easy to make after an initial learning curve. I can't afford many bead books--but this one is a must! Enjoy.

I was looking for something new and different to make. This book is just the visual I need.