Necklaceology - Review and Give Away

Candie Cooper has produced an excellent book with 40 necklace projects that are fresh and youthful. Subtitled: How to Make Chokers, Lariats, Ropes and More, the book delivers intriguing designs with a very current perspective.

The book begins with an extensive section on materials, tools and techniques that is among the best I have seen. This is a very rich section of the book with some findings, tools and techniques that I have not seen in other books.

The projects are reasonably straight forward with both easy and more challenging examples. As a fiber artist, I particularly enjoyed that among the materials used are found felt, sari silks, silk ribbons, and kimono silk.   
I particularly liked her use of chains to separate the beads to lighten up the image and the weight of the necklaces.

Cooper included illustrations of her sketches of her design process and optional ideas for changing some of the projects.

The back cover suggests some of the variety included in the book.

The book would have wide appeal to crafters, jewelry makers and fiber artists. Some of the projects are simple enough for the beginner and some will intrigue the more experienced jewelry maker. I recommend the book highly.

If you are interested in owning this book, leave a comment by Sept 25 and I will randomly select a winner (USA only please) to send the book to. Be sure that I can contact you after the 25th to let you know if you won.

Nancy

Beautiful Beaded Ropes - Review and Give Away

Jill Wiseman's Beautiful Beaded Ropes is another in Lark Crafts' Beadweaving Master Class series. This is a stunning book with 24 projects to intrigue the beader. While I am a novice at beading in comparison to the author, I found the instructions to be strong, especially for those familiar with working with patterns.

The projects range from fairly elegant and simple pieces to much more complex and challenging designs. All of the projects are based on ropes either for bracelets, necklaces, lariats or even earrings and one intriguing ring. The projects are grouped by technique with a good supply list including tools needed for the projects.

While probably not the first project book to consult for the new beader, it would be great inspiration while one is learning and would provide good challenges for some time to come. I recommend the book for experienced beaders and those looking for new inspirations.


If you are interested in owning a copy of this book, leave me a comment on this blog by Sept 20 and a way to contact you (USA only)  and I will  randomly draw a name to send the book to.

Nancy

Showcase 500 Beaded Jewelry - Review and Give Away

Ray Hemachandra selected 500 stunning pieces of beaded jewelry for this sumptuous book. The photographs are highly professional and a number of detail shots are included. It is a real piece of eye candy and provides inspiration for all beaders.

The jewelry represents a wide variety of styles and techniques by both well known jewelry artists as well as lesser known artists, so the complexity varies, but not the high quality.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in beading or jewelry, either as a collector or creator.

If you are interested in owning a copy of this book, leave me a comment on this blog by Sept 15 and a way to contact you (USA only)  and I will  randomly draw a name to send the book to.

Nancy 

Memorium - Genji

Our beloved cat, Genji, died this afternoon of pancretitus. He was 3 years, 4 months old. He was a lynx, seal point Birman with gorgeous blue eyes and long, long fur. He loved to stay close to us even when sleeping and would go from room to room to keep us with our activities.

As a kitten he found a piece of swimming suit fabric that had a snake skin pattern in metallic blue and black. He would regularly attack the "snake" and kill it, so as to protect us, maybe? The snake would appear at different parts of the house, and never ceased to startle me just a bit.

His preferred position for sleeping was with his belly up, exposed to the air. I called it his "mommy trap" because I could not resist stroking it any time I passed by.

We will miss him greatly as he added a great deal of love, joy and even laughter to our lives.

Nancy

Making Fabric Jewelry - Review and Give Away

 Marthe Le Van has written a book to delight people like myself -- who love fabric and like to make jewelry. There are over 20 projects in this book with brief explanations that are well written and illustrated.

The projects range from very simple ones like the necklace of circles of fabric illustated on the back of the book, to more complicated pieces like the necklace on the front.

For those interested in more complicated challenges, there are plenty of those as well. This is a book that could keep one interested for a long time.

Any if one just wants to look at the pictures, Le Van has included a number of other examples of fabric jewelry by other artists.

If you are interested in owning a copy of this book, leave me a comment on this blog by Sept 10 and a way to contact you (USA only)  and I will  randomly draw a name to send the book to.

Nancy

Heat, Color, Set & Fire - Review and Give Away

 Mary Hettmansperger has written a fascinating book on making jewelry with very straightforward metal techniques. While I am not experienced with working with metal, the subject matter is interesting and she has written well with great illustrations.  I will be using some of the simpler techniques with my beaded jewelry in the future.

Fast and Easy Ways to Transform the Look of Metal Jewelry is the heading on the back, and it really sums up the focus of the book.

With extensive opening chapters on materials, tools and equipment, tool kits and basic techniques, her illustrations are quite helpful. To me, these chapters were highly informative in analyzing jewelry made by others.

With a series of projects, Hettmansperger teaches a variety of techniques that can make your metal jewelry uniquely your own. 

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in working with metals and has some basic skills in this medium. While the instructions are very good, I suspect that most people will want some experience in working with metal before tackling the projects.

If you are interested in a copy of the book, please leave a comment on this blog with a method for contacting you (USA readers only). I will randomly select a winner on Sept 5.

Nancy

Sabine Lippert's Beaded Fantasies - Give Away Update

This book review has had more hits on my blog than any other. It is a wonderful book. I never announced who would win the random drawing for the book, so I suspect many of the hits are checking back.

So, figuring that some may have bought the book, I am asking if you are still interested in it, please leave me another comment on this blog by September 1 with a way to contact you and I will send it to someone (in the USA ) randomly selected.

You can read the original review here

Nancy