Beading with Crystals: Beautiful Jewelry, Simple Techniques

by Katherine Duncan Aimone and Jean Campbell

Book Overview

Bicones, buttons, drops, rhinestones. Glittering and?colorful, these and other multi-faceted glass crystal beads have become the jewelry maker's material of choice. They're the star of the show in this sparkling entry in the Beading with series, which features a fabulous combination of both simple and more complex projects. Crafters start their creative journey by learning basic techniques, including stringing and simple wirework (looping, wrapping,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1600590365
• ISBN13: 9781600590368
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Lark Books (NC)
• Length: 143 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.8" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

A beader's must have

This is a must have book for any beader. The projects are not only beautiful, but also very elegant. The instructions are clear cut and easy to follow. This book is full of inspiration, information, and good instructions. A definite must have.

Perfect Addition to Any Beader's Library

In the past few years, there has been an explosion in the number of bead books. Many are worthless, and most are written for beginners. As a result, there are a whole bunch of beading books that get a quick read, and then end up on the shelves in my bookcase, gathering dust. This book isn't gathering dust. It features many projects at an intermediate level, and is written in a very clear and precise way. The directions are so clear that many beginners will attempt the projects and could get into trouble, due to a number of editing mistakes in the directions. One grumble could be made about the pictures: they don't always match the beads listed for the project. Be patient, though: the beads they show are listed as a variation, along with a bead list that is right for the featured project. Like most beading books, there are 20-ish pages in the beginning that deal with the most basic of beading topics (Beads usually have a hole in them) and can be skipped if you have read even one bead book before. One of the authors is Jean Campbell of Bead and Button magazine, and the book has a very similar reading style. Like B & B magazine, this book has many submissions from talented bead artists. B & B magazine claims to work every pattern before publication, which makes the mistakes in the book very surprising. The projects begin with simple stringing techniques and basic wirework, then become more complex. By the time you finish the 36 projects in the book, not only will you have an amazing collection of bling suitable for wear at any Oscar or ribbon-cutting ceremonies you might attend, you will know all the basic beadwork stitches and quite a bit of beginning wirework as well. Most beading books cover a much narrower scope. I loved the way that the author took relatively inexpensive bicones and rounds and used them to create complex, expensive looking components. I also like the way she saved me time/skill buy using readily available Swarovski components in some designs. However, she often called for 3mm bicones, which are relatively new to the Swarovski lineup, and many beaders will have to order the beads before attempting the projects in this book. Not always fun if you are like me - I see a project and want to start beading right away. In order to save myself money and frustration, I made the projects using inexpensive Czech fire polished beads before deciding whether to go to the expense of Swarovski or Presciosa crystals. By doing this, the projects cost approximately 1/10 the price of working them in cut crystal and are more suitable for daywear. It has the added benefit of helping me find any mistakes in the directions (or changes I want to make), and I write the corrections in the margins. For inspiration and eye candy, this book is a lot better than many of the competing publications, which try to teach beading with crystals. It has an almost unheard of scope in beading books, by having both beginner projects and almost advan

beautiful jewelry

This book was well worth it. The photos were incredible and the instructions easy to understand. I LOVE this book!

Lovely book, unique projects

Great for the intermediate beader. Some really nice projects and colour combinations in this book. Clear and consice instruction and great photos. The front cover does not do this book justice as there are better quality pojects inside. I would not recommend for beginners though.

Great catch all book if you love your sparklies!

The first 20 pages contain the usual newbie information on weaves, making loops, terminology, etc. As an experienced beader, I tend to skip those pages but wanted you to know this book still has great information if you love crystal and think this might be your first book to get started learning. I can see myself wanting to make and actually wear 21 of the 36 projects on the remaining pages in this book. That's a FANTASTIC and unusual ratio in my opinion!! You know how it goes, usually you buy a book of 101 ideas and only actually like 10... and 5 of those you plan to make for someone else. ;-) The other reason I consider this book a rare buy is all the different techniques. I was expecting mostly thread weaving/netting or plain bead stringing. I'm overjoyed to report some really cool wireworking & wrapping in here! There's also cab wrapping in seed beads (capturing a swarovski crystal rivoli, but you can do cabochons too with what you learn here), a fiber/ribbon necklace, crystal beads made of crystal beads, even a jig pattern for some awesome chandelier earring components. You're getting a bunch of beautiful sparkly designs that cover a broad range of techniques. An excellent catch all book! I have 2 complaints/comments for later editions, the picture on the "Superstar" necklace, pg 38, and the squared cube necklace, pg 68. The stars are done with black pendant bicones which I thought made it hard to see what the end result would really look like. Those stars are alternated with 5 beaded stranda kinda going around a cube? Sounds wonky to try to get 5 strands to rest nicely around a 4 sided cube, and the picture doesn't give you a view of 5. But the directions are clear enough to modify the design on your own, I still like it so I guess I'll figure it out when I try to make it! As for the squared cube necklace, I'd suggest redoing that picture/design with an odd number of columns so it can come to a point on the bottom. The even number/off kilter rows have the abstract free form look of a kid's drawing... or maybe that's the point?