Customer Reviews

Glamorous Beaded Jewelry: Bracelets, Necklaces, Earrings, and Rings

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A very nice book - great instructions and pictures. Most of the jewellery is made with wire as opposed to thread. Beads are certainly easily obtained from any good bead shop. I would recommend to anyone who likes working with wire.

I LOVE beading and this book was a very nice one. I looked through over 20 bead books to find just the right one of my favorite two. I like that the instructions are in depth but not too complicated. The pictures are really helpful and motivating. I feel like I am capable of creating anything in this book. For absolute beginners, I think some of the projects are too much especially for those who have little patience. I thought that some of the pieces were gorgeous but a couple of them I really dislike.
For You if...
you have patience
you've had a little experience in beading
you have the supplies (all the plyers, some beads, etc.)
you're easily inspired
you want a book that uses a wide range of tecniques

Not For You if...
you're just starting beading
you don't want to make jewelry
you want something REALLY different
you're looking for strictly an inspirational book
you don't like transparent beads and light colors (they use a lot of those)

I bought this book thinking it would be impossible to find the supplies to do the projects in it and that the projects would be way out of my league. Boy, was I surprised to see that most of the beads I could get at my local bead store or I had them on hand! Good Book! Actually some projects I might just make - not just a coffee table book.

I have been designing jewelry for 12 years. There is always some elusive technique that I cannot find really good tutorial for. This book offered an excellent tutorial for wire wrapping briolettes. A great book for beginners with courage and moxy. A terrific book for intermediate skilled artisans. Whether you like the pastel colors used in the tutorials or not, the skills demonstrated in the book are a terrific springboard for developing your own individual style of artistic expression in composition that will render long enduring quality work-which is as it should be. The projects, with very little imagination, have room to personalize and augment into a design that is more than the initial project offered. All projects have an elegance and grace that are missing from many of the other books in my reference library. I highly recommend this one.

M.T. Ryan beautifully combine stones & materials that give the 'bling' and elegance effect on each of the projects. With step by step pictures & instruction, this book is a DO for beginners. For intermediate level, you'll find another insight in combining material, choosing colors and experimenting more in using georgeus chunky stones!

Due to a lack of experience & knowledge in jewelry-making, this was the first book I bought. I was able to make only one or two things in it, and
those I had to *dumb-down* to my techniques. But I LOVED the designs so much that I prepared as if I was going to reach the more experienced-level needed to make this beautiful jewelry. I actually picked out six or seven of the designs, bought all the pieces necessary to make them, put them each in a large pastic bag, marked them with the name of the piece and the book reference (I did doctoral studies so annotation is driven into my brain).
Now, about 18 months later, I have pulled out those designs. They are fabulous. I also pulled out the book again recently and found more items I want to make.
Someone wrote in their review that the designs involve wireworking, and that is true. The person also wrote that many of the designs involve light color crystals. Also true. It is from this book that I began my love affair with *Swarovski* crystals. This is personal preference. One can adapt most of the designs to use semi-precious stones.
A few of the designs are *vintage.*
So you can buy it before you learn how to crimp and use it to inspire your development, or you can buy it if you know how to wirewrap and just jump in. But you will find GLAMOROUS jewelry in this book! I hope they do another one.

I absolutely love the designs in this book. They are simply and elegant, but each one has a unique technique or element that makes them stunning. I want to make almost every design in the book. Also, there is a nice variety of techniques used--stringing, simple and more advanced wire work, and even wire crochet bracelet (no stitching projects, though).

And the detailed step by step photo instructions are some of the best I've seen. One project has 16 closeup photos of the technique! Some projects even have a photo diagram showing exact placement of each bead. Plus, the photography is fabulous.

I hope this author will come out with another book!

My local library recently updated their collection of jewelry-making books, and I'm glad this was one of the new additions. I haven't had the opportunity to make all or even half of the projects as of yet, but the instructions seem easy to follow, and some of the projects are - or at least seem to me - original and very beautiful, and not too difficult to adapt to my own taste. My favorite so far is the crocheted bracelet, which was easy enough to figure out even though I don't know the first thing about crocheting, and I'd like to get my hands on some 20 and 18 guage wire so I can construct some of the other pieces, like the chandelier earrings and the swirling-wire and pearl bracelet. If you enjoy wire-working, I'd recommend you consider adding this book to your collection; and if wire-working is not your prefered approach to jewelry-making, I'd recommend it anyway, since there are some other good projects like the double-strand orbiting beads necklace.

This book has some wonderful projects to inspire the buddinhg jeweler, with easy to follow instructions, I would recommend this book to have in your library and use as a reference.

I loved the jewelry projects and the easy-to-follow instructions, but I have been unable to find many of the beads used (or even reasonably similar substitutes). For example, I would love to know where Ryan got the pink beads used in the dewdrop necklace. It would have been helpful if the bead suppliers were specifically named for each project.