Irresistible Bead

by Linda Fry Kenzle

Book Overview

Capture the allure of beads while taking beadwork jewelry into the next century. Twenty multi-faceted projects illustrate techniques such as wire work, molding polymer clay, stringing beads, and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801988438
• ISBN13: 9780801988431
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Krause Publications
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.3" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

Excellent for Beginning Designers

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.

A few great pieces

This is a beautifully done jewelry-making book. The pages are nicely organized and uncluttered with large, colorful photographs and drawings that clearly show details of the jewelry pieces. There are a few items I don't care for, but most are very pretty with wonderful color and texture combinations, in a variety of styles.This is not a complete beading book however, for example, as one reviewer mentions, there are no instructions for knotted bead jewelry. Rather, the author focuses on a few techniques, with a few projects given for each technique: wirework (brooch, stickpin, a beautiful "cleopatra" necklace, and a wire-wrapped rock bracelet); bead stringing (choker, three pretty necklaces of different designs, beaded watch strap, and an Indian-look fringed bead necklace); sewing beads onto a surface (brooch, pin, necklace); woven beadwork (daisy chain necklace, diamond shaped earrings, bracelet, peyote stitch pouch necklace...all made with seed beads); polymer clay beads (which includes instructions for making the beads, some in the shape of flowers). My only complaint is that there are only a few projects for each technique. Yet, some of them are so very pretty that I decided the low price of the book justified its purchase. Note for beginners: There is not a techniques section; instead the techniques are taught within each project's instructions, so a beginner should start at the front, where the most basic techniques are taught, and work her way through the book. Although the instructions are mostly clearly explained and illustrated, a little prior experience with jewelry findings (such as clasps), and doing some wirework may be helpful.

recommended!

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.

Great for All Levels of Beaders

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.

The best beading book I've ever used!

This is a wonderful resource for both beginners and advanced beaders. Covering a myriad of beading projects, I had a chance to try different mediums without having to purchase a book on each one. The color photographs make it exceptionally easy to follow the directions. You'll be beading like a pro in no time!