{"id":20830,"date":"2013-11-09T17:29:21","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T00:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/?p=20830"},"modified":"2016-11-09T17:49:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T00:49:38","slug":"book-review-shaped-beadwork","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/book-review-shaped-beadwork\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Shaped Beadwork & Beyond: Dimensional Jewelry in Peyote Stitch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shaped<\/a>Shaped Beadwork & Beyond: Dimensional Jewelry in Peyote Stitch<\/a> by Diane Fitzgerald<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the first things I noticed was the feel of the book. It is a paperback, but it has a bit of a heft to the cover, making the book feel as if the cover wouldnt’ be damaged immediately.<\/p>\n

Upon opening the book, I was enchanted by a photo of a group of bead starfish. they look like they are photographed on a piece of Styrofoam, but it isn’t obvious and it is the perfect background. I love these little starfish.<\/p>\n

Both are, of course, irrelevant to the content. As with her previous books, Diane Fitzgerald<\/a> makes a brief introduction and then gets on the with the projects. This book is STUFFED full of projects, 43 in all. If you want a peyote stitch project book, you won’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Unlike Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects Designs from Stringing to Beadweaving<\/a>, which I reviewed before<\/a>, there is a ‘Basics’ section, which includes the contents of a Basic Beadwork Kit, understanding the Peyote stitch, general techniques (including unpicking!), and recognizing patterns. Chapter 1 is brief, but seems to be fairly comprehensive.<\/p>\n

After Chapter 1’s intructions, there is what I would call a practice\/basic pattern. It is a basic triangle (as 60 degree triangle, if you want to translate the patterns to quiltmaking), which is a component of many of the projects in this book. I see immediately, in the Oh My Stars! necklace (pg.18), a pretty and delicate piece, that this triangle is used. It is clear from leafing through the book that mastering this first pattern will go a long way towards success with the other patterns.<\/p>\n

Throughout the book, the author shows very clearly how to put the beads together into the larger units needs to make the various projects. In looking at these images, I am sure a clever quiltmaker could apply beads to a quilt project in the same manner and achieve a great, if flatter look. This book can also be used as a good source of inspiration as it has wonderful pictures of different beads used as well as different pieces.<\/p>\n

The Temari Beads necklace (pg.23) gets the reader early into the dimensional aspect of the book<\/p>\n

I was hard pressed to pick a favorite project as I started to look through them. I liked many of the projects as objects, but weren’t my style in terms of wearing. If forced, I would choose the Rivoli Bracelet (pg.104). I like the sparkle and flash and think it would go well with what I wear to black tie events. I also think the construction is interesting. The Navette Pendant (pg.132) is also something that I might wear. The construction makes it look like a very large gem and I can see people doing as double-take as they see from the middle distance. Aside from the eye bead, which I liked and was a bit repelling, the Eye of Providence (pg.142) is appealing. I can see wearing the Eye of Providence with Roses(pg.145) pendant.<\/p>\n

Chapter 6 covers pointed ovals. While the shape can look a bit weird and eyelike, I did like the variety of options presented in the book, especially the Eye of Apollo necklace (pg.133). This shape and the projects shown really look like jewelry to me.<\/p>\n

Each project has a good description of the supplies required along with the nice photos. Variations are mostly shown, though not always described. The reader can get a brief idea of what the project looks like in slightly different colors.<\/p>\n

The end of the book has a gallery of projects, by different artists, but all, presumably made in the peyote stitch.<\/p>\n

As I said, this book has a whopping 43 projects. At an MSRP of $27.95, that is about $.65 per pattern. If you want to try a lot of different techniques, this is a good buy.<\/p>\n

Enjoy this inspirational book and thanks to Lark Books for sending it to me.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shaped Beadwork & Beyond: Dimensional Jewelry in Peyote Stitch by Diane Fitzgerald One of the first things I noticed was the feel of the book. It is a paperback, but it has a bit of a heft to the cover, making the book feel as if the cover wouldnt’ be damaged immediately. Upon opening the … Continue reading “Book Review: Shaped Beadwork & Beyond: Dimensional Jewelry in Peyote Stitch”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[402],"tags":[6,86],"class_list":["post-20830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-402","tag-book-review","tag-off-topic-crafts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20830\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artquiltmaker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}