The Irresistible Bead: Designing & Creating Exquisite Beadwork Jewelry [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Linda Fry Kenzle (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
An excellent introduction to many aspects of bead craft, The Irresistible Bead thoroughly explains how to design your own jewelry and bring the designs to life using wirework, stringing, card beading, weaving, and polymer-clay techniques. Each of the 20 clearly illustrated projects is fully explained in step-by-step instructions. The chapters for each technique conclude with a helpful "designer's notebook" that is filled with colored diagrams offering several more ideas for exploring the methods. The final chapter showcases elaborate work by nine bead artists, and the seven helpful appendices include charts of bead sizes, diagrams of various findings, a glossary, and three different design graphs that can be photocopied and used over and over for your own designs.

Product Description
Jewelry designs to suit every taste are included, such as Victorian brooches, shimmering amulet bags, and brightly colored clay necklaces. The Irresistable Bead captures the allure of beads while taking beadwork jewelry into the 21st century. Twenty-one jewelry projects are explained with color illustrations and beautiful color photographs.

Product Details

• Paperback: 113 pages
• Publisher: kp books; illustrated edition edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801988438
• ISBN-13: 978-0801988431
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #903,666 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for All Levels of Beaders, May 28, 2000

By	"ragan_b" (Cambridge, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This book was recommended to me by someone I met online quite some time ago, and I have yet to be disappointed. At a very basic level, the photography is excellent and even though it is a paperback, it seems to be pretty hardy.

"The Irresistible Bead" is a great book for all levels. I have been beading for more than a year and took art classes in high school, so I skipped the information on color and the other basics. However, these sections are great for reference (or, if you've never picked up a bead before or don't consider yourself artistic, read through them and they'll help a lot).

The instructions for the various projects are well-illustrated and easy to follow. If you don't have one of the items needed for the project, you can usually substitute something else from your bead stash, and you probably already have a lot of the non-bead supplies around your house (tape, straight pins, toilet paper tubes, etc.).

For the advanced beader, there are a lot of new kinds of projects to try. There's a section on polymer clay, and a stitch or two you may not have tried before.

For the really creative person, just flipping through the book and looking at the photographs can spark lots of ideas. You can adapt the projects in the book, or you can work up versions of the beautiful pieces of jewelry that are shown just for inspiration (as opposed to being projects included in the book).

One thing that might have been nice is to see what some of the pieces of jewelry looked like on models but most of the bead books I've seen don't do that anyway, so it's just wishful thinking on my part.

All-in-all, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in beadwork.

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars recommended!, July 17, 2000

By A Customer

I've never beaded before and this is the first book that I bought. The instructions and diagrams were precise and easy to follow - I finished two projects within the first week.

The designs are beautiful, and are very easily adapted to your own tastes . In addition, the author includes a "designer's notebook" at the end of every chapter, with her own variation ideas.

I'd definitely recommend this to a first time beader - and I'm sure that the beautiful designs would provide great inspiration for a more experienced jeweler.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for Beginning Designers, January 1, 2003

By	D. K. Atkinson (Southern Illinois USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book starts with a chapter on color, design, and the texture. It ends with a basic list of tools and supplies for making the projects in the book.

There are chapters on wireworking, bead stringing, bead embroidery, woven beadwork, and polymer clay. There are a few projects in each chapter but I really love the Designer's Notes at the end of the chapter. These pages include sketches of other ideas that can be created with the technique just learned.

The gallery is yummy with enough to whet your appetite for more or better yet, making your own masterpiece(s).

But the Appendix is what I really love about this book. There are guides to bead sizes, a standard list of jewelry lengths, and pictures of basic jewelry findings. Plus a glossary of precious and semiprecious stones; a beader's glossary of terms; birthstones - both traditional and astrological; blank graphs for loom/square, peyote, and brick stitches.