The Beader's Stash: Designs from America's Favorite Bead Shop

by Laura Levaas

Book Overview

The finest independent bead shops across the United States and Canada open their doors and their bead boxes in this showcase of materials and techniques to inspire beaders of all stripes. Forty... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931499802
• ISBN13: 9781931499804
• Release Date: October 2006
• Publisher: Interweave Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 10.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful book, great designs!

As a novice beader, I found this book incredibly useful. It's laid out very well, very descriptive in the instructions, and had gorgeous pictures to boot. I also love that the book has much more creative projects than just jewelry. Highly recommended - a great gift for a fellow bead enthusiast!

Beautiful, creative projects

I love this book. Each project is more creative and beautiful than the last. It's hard to know which to start with - you want to do them all. In addition to the expected jewelry projects (all of them gorgeous), you also find martini sticks, tassels, a doorway curtain, napkin rings and buttons. The "Beading Basics" section goes beyond the basics and is very comprehensive. Truly a valuable book for any beader.

Like going into a beadshop

None of the stores are known to me and almost none of the designers. What interests me today is beadweaving and there are some really nice projects here. Each project gives the technique, list of beads required and interesting information on the shop which presented the item. There's a spiral necklace, peyote rings bracelet, peyote cuff by Shanigan, beaded beads bracelet with tubular right angle weave, herringbone bracelet, ladder stitch necklace, necklace in spiral stitch variation, necklace in netting, beaded sampler in loomwork, wire crochet necklace with earrings, brooch with herringbone and peyote stitch, dragonfly in ladder stitch, doorway dangles in stringing technique, poinsettias bracelet in peyote stitch, necklace with ladder st and tubular herringbone st, buttons in netting. If this book is like the same publisher's Knitter's stash, then I will be returning to it time and again and also expect to see more work from the designers included here. I didn't mention all of the projects but in the future I may find them interesting also. Only problem is now to find those 111 daggers!

delivered on-time and wasd as advertised

book was in excellent confition (mew) and received in a time;y manner

Gorgeous, Exciting Book with a Great Jewelry Design Concept

I must admit my first love in books, as a jewelry designer, is jewelry design books. I look for the ones which have pizzazz and are well thought out. I look for the ones which excite my imagination. I really like ones with quality paper and good layouts, as I am a perfectionist myself when I design my jewelry. This book, BEADER'S STASH, fulfills all my requirements and then it adds so much more, in that it actually offers a cool new concept in jewelry design books. It presents designs which bead stores from all over the world (the author, Levaas, even lists the honor role of stores which presented designs but unfortunately didn't get chosen in the "blind choosing" by a panel of jurors). The designs which did get chosen are fantastic, the stores are described in a short but well written sidebar in each case, so you can imagine each one vividly, and the designers are also discussed. The photos RULE and the sense of being in an environment where fun is the point is just a great addition to the ambience of the book. I recognized many of my favorite stores, including Beadshop. Janice Parsons' lush and outstanding use of color and design principle in her necklace "Gems of the Earth" blew me away. There are seed beed offerings, such as the one from store Bead Culture: the "Patterned Peyote Rings Bracelet" by Katrina Kimpell. It is REALLY pretty. There are so many I find it hard to choose what I liked most! Bead Works Inc. "Femme Fatale Collar" by Kathy Mamat is very sensuous and earthy. I loved that one, too! You just have to wander through this book as if you were taking a walk through a bead store. Believe me, it is worth it. Some of these designs look as if they should be in museums, but not in the sense that they are "please don't touch me" designs. Just in the sense that they are so lovely and so worth your time. I plan to try one or two, or three or four, as soon as I can. Until then, I will page through this book again and again and delight in the photos and information it brings me from all over the world!