Category: Handicrafts

This book promises a wide variety of two-hour crafts, but I bet that once you factor into the time allotment how much time it takes you to get the materials together, learn the basic techniques you need to use to make the craft, make the craft, and then clean up, you’re past the two hours.

That snark aside, the book draws from a wide variety of craft veins, including needlework, knitting, beading, painting, scrapbooking, and paper arts. It offers a couple of small projects in each and prefaces each section with a list of materials you need and basic techniques you use. Then, each section has a couple of projects using those techniques.

However, when it comes down to the actual crafting, you get three steps to everything, no matter how complicated. Because that’s how it’s laid out, you see. Even when step 1 to the build an automobile craft is assemble the engine and drive train. I exaggerate, but not by much. I’ve mentioned that I don’t care for steps in anything that require more than one sentence of imperative mood followed by a couple sentences, maybe, of explanation for why you do it.

The book is a pretty good primer on a bunch of crafting things, but I’m not sure I’ll do any of these projects. I might take some things away from it for inspiration, maybe. As a very early starter book to crafting, though, it’s probably worthwhile.

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This is the first book I’ve looked at about pyrography, the art of using a soldering iron-like implement to char pictures into wood. So I’ve learned a lot, including the word pyrography. The book inludes a number of projects to get you started and a fair number of templates you can photocopy and trace to make designs on wood. However, the book was first and foremost a good primer on the use of the tool, the different tips, and the different techniques for shading and whatnot. Granted, I probably would have gotten similar instruction from any book about pyrography that I’d bought, but this book will do the trick for you if you’re like I was.

Well, if that isn’t the briefest and most useless book report you’ll read all day. But these are craft books, not novels examining the sweeping themes of human existence. What’s important is that you know I read it.

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It took me quite some time to get through this book, as you can well tell. Its projects are very elaborate and detailed, with lots of shapes and textures working together. I’ll be honest: I don’t have an eye for these sorts of designs, so I wasn’t too engaged with it. That said, if you’re into that look, this book has a lot of ideas for you.

The projects include a number with stringwork, a multi-strand necklace, numerous earrings, and one using a fabric cord. The other features in the book include some good insights into design, including the use of textures and balance, as well as sidebars on lampwork beading and artist profiles.

I’d better find more books on stitches and woven patterns, since I think that’s my balliwick these days. Maybe I’ll come back to this book in the future, when I’m more advanced.

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This book is not a bead jewelry book; it is a book about bead designs, which include using beads to augment clothing and even to make tapestries. That is not to say it’s not worthwhile for a bead jewelry maker to review, since it includes a lot of information about making fringes and whatnot that can be useful in making pendants. And so forth.

The book is forthrightly declared to be a reference book; as such, it mostly does not follow a project format. Instead, it identifies and gives different patterns you can use in your own beading work and gives a gallery of photographs of things using the designs. There is a projects chapter that gives step-by-step instructions for a couple things, however.

So the book focuses on patterns you can use in whatever beading projects you have in mind as well as techniques for cords and fringes, but these books would not be quite the same without step-by-step projects. This book’s projects include:

• A dragon box band
• A fringe for an organdy bag
• A striped bracelet.
• A netting border for a gourd bowl.
• A scissors chatelaine.
• A crochet bracelet and purse.
• A loomwork wall hanging.

And so on. The book suggests a whole world of beading as sewing that escapes the narrow focus of jewelrymaking using beads, but some of the patterns and techniques might come in handy, particularly the fringe strand techniques and the cord making.

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This was my second book on beading, and where the first focused on sparse arrangements of beads, this book focused on more elaborate pieces.

The book talks about using found objects for beading, including but not limited to beach glass, stones, Christmas tree light bulbs, springs, Scrabble pieces, and a host of other things. For the most part, the projects involve drilling holes in the found objects to string them, almost completely wrapping them in strands of beads, or gluing them to leather and then creating a woven bezel around them.

Considering how much trouble I’m having with getting a simple weave stitch down, it will be a while before I’m ready for these projects. But the beginning of the book spends a lot of time on bead-weaving, as one would expect given the nature of the projects, so its basic educational material is very strong and it does provide one with an idea of the different things you can make into jewelry.

An excellent book. Lots of diagrams and pretty pictures.

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This is the first book I’ve read on beading, so I cannot compare it really well to others in its field. It offers about 24 pages on the basics, including the types of beads, tools you need, techniques, and whatnot. I have gotten far enough into another book about beading that I recognize many of them include this section for novices. So I learned about the different beading “stitches” there are–ways to string beads that are not just pushing them in a line.

Then the book goes into chapters based on different types of jewelry and a couple of sample projects for each. In all cases, the beading style is sparse, with large beads popping out from between seed beeds and whatnot. I don’t know if that’s a style I’ll emulate, as I think I’ll end up with more elaborate weavings.

Still, it’s a clear book, with good photography, and detailed steps for each project, including watches.

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