Another wonderful entry in the Dummies series!  This one, Jewelry and Beading Designs for Dummies was co-written by Heather H Dismore and my friend Tammy Powley.  Both have extensive experience with writing directions for beginner projects, making both simple and complicated steps clear.

Jewelry & Beading Designs for Dummies
by Heather H Dismore & Tammy Powley

This book is a follow up to the original Jewelry Making and Beading for Dummies, so if you are a complete beginner, you will probably need this book first.  The current book is focused more on designs and creating finished pieces, although they do cover many basic techniques quite thoroughly.

There are hundreds of illustrations and photographs to help you as you stretch your skills and create all different types of beaded accessories using lots of different materials.  Yes, there are projects as well as techniques, and they will help you master skills while you end up with lots of fun new wearables for yourself or for gifts.

More than 75 different designs, with fool proof instructions and lots of backstory information on the materials, Designing Jewelry with Semiprecious Beads is a book that stone enthusiasts will love!

Designing Jewelry with Semiprecious Beads
by Kim Gover

There are so many features that make this a useful book, starting with the bead directory that teaches you about the characteristics and best companions for each stone covered.  A project selector will help you to quickly eyeball the design that you wanted to try next.  Next you move on to the actual projects, with amazing diagrams and more information.  These are each cross-referenced to the techniques used, which are covered in the last section at the end of the book.

I love the organization of this book, and I also love the way London-based author Kim Gover has included projects by many talented designers.  You won’t feel it’s the same old thing over and over with this book.

Check out The Bookshop for lots more links to books about jewelry-making in addition to this helpful guide!

Custom Cool Jewelry
by Melinda Barta

Melinda Barta came up with a brilliant idea for this fun book. Instead of spreading her many talents out too thinly, she concentrated on just three areas: pendants, charms, and clasps.

It’s often hard to find exactly that perfect piece to customize your jewelry, and if you can make your own pendants, charms, and clasps, you can add them to readily available lain beads to create a masterpiece that is distinctively yours. Melinda includes over 275 quick and easy ideas for mixed media components as well as 7 full stringing projects. Once you start making these components, you’ll never run out of ideas about what to do with them!

Custom Cool Jewelry teaches you how to create personalized, affordable, and unique alternatives to store-bought beading components using a wide range of jewelry and basic crafting materials including embossing powder, collage papers, wire, fibers, glass etching cream, patinas, found objects, fabric, memorabilia and more.

Check out The Bookshop for lots more links to books about jewelry-making in addition to this fine guide!

***FREE STUFF ALERT***

Elements of Style
by Rosemary Hill

Make wearable pieces of art with the clever techniques and unique designs ideas in Elements of Style. It’s all about the mix in this creative approach to making fabulous jewelry.

These seventeen modern wire, bead, and fiber jewelry designs using knit, crochet, and felting techniques will appeal to jewelry makers of all levels. Get familiar with materials, tools, and techniques—crafters will use basic wireworking, beading, knitting and crochet for most projects.

And now you have a chance to win a free copy of this fun fun fun book! All you have to do is leave me a comment and let me know that you would love to have this book, and on Friday, Jan 30, I’ll be randomly picking a winner. This giveaway is a part of The Bloggy Giveaway promotion, so make sure you visit the site to see what else you might like to enter to win! Also, please visit my other three sites to see what’s up for grabs there!

Layers Upon Layers
Busy Family Meals
Cooking Gadgets

What’s Up Wednesday

I have a permanent page on Jewelry & Beading that I add to from time to time. It lists the books that I consider to be the best of the best in many different beading and jewelry making categories. It’s called simply The Library! You can always find it by looking in the right-hand sidebar under the heading Pages.

A Charming Exchange
by Kelly Snelling & Ruth Rae

Having taken part in several really wonderful collaborative projects, I was immediately drawn to this book. All of the wonderful wearables shown in it are the results of round-robins, collaborations, and swaps. It’s amazing how much time and energy it takes to organize just one of these projects, and here is a book that is full to bursting with…well, they claim there are 25, but I swear there are more!

I found several pieces that inspired me to get going immediately and to make something. That doesn’t happen to me with every book I read. Often, I’ll run across a technique that I want to try, or a style that appeals to me, but rarely do I end up toting out my bins and diving right in. Here’s one thing I made, a bracelet:

The projects aren’t overly detailed with exact counts and sizes. For some that may be frustrating, but it’s just the nature of working with found objects and mixed media. Know that going in: you’ll find lots to inspire you here, but if you’ve got to have everything spelled out completely, you’ll want to borrow rather than buy this book. For everyone else…buy it! Quick!

Bead Journey
by BeadStyle Magazine

The top 26 projects from BeadStyle Around the World special issue, plus eight all-new projects representing five countries and three additional new pieces, provide even more inspiration. Where do you want to go today? Asia and the Pacific Rim, Africa, Europe, the Americas? Take an exciting trip around the globe with Bead Journey!

If you didn’t get to see BeadStyle’s special Around the World issue, you’ll love the projects packed into this booklet. With the large, easy to follow step-out photos that BeadStyle is famous for, there are projects that will take you all over the globe with their materials, color combinations, and style.

I found a project near the back that inspired me to use some of the lovely lampwork glass beads that I bought when we were in Italy. Funny enough, it wasn’t one of the Italian designs, but nonetheless it seemed to speak to me to get out those beads…now!

It’s not exactly what the project shows to make, but isn’t that part of the fun?

Glass Bead Workshop
by Jeri L Warhaftig

Just when you thought you’d never need another lampworking book, Jeri Warhaftig has come up with one that takes you from the intermediate stage and beyond! There are projects in here that will make you see glass in a whole new way, and will send you running for the torch.

Reviewers agree: this is the book for you if you want to make more than dots and swirls. Sandblasting, applying enamel, working off the mandrel, and blowing hollow beads are just a few of the techniques that Jeri will introduce you to, and then inspire you to explore further!

Color Report for Bead Artists by Margie Deeb

Margie Deeb, the author of The Beaders Guide to Color has produced a new guide for the upcoming seasons, based upon the Pantone color forecast. Margie has compiled the 10 big color stories and has expanded them into multiple color palettes for each, including appropriate gemstone choices and the Delica bead numbers!

From blue iris to twilight blue, and from withered rose to burnt orange, fans of Margie’s Muse will love the 40 new palettes for inspiration and rejuvenation.

The Naughty Secretary Club
by Jennifer Perkins

Ohmygosh, never before have I wanted so much to leave my boring world of glass and gemstones and get into plastic and resin!! Jennifer Perkins has written a totally delightful book, full of naughty kitschy fun (naughty because she was making jewelry back when she was *supposed* to be collating and filing. Well, who can blame her? These projects are WAY more fun!

If you don’t have a sense of humor, leave this book right on the shelf. Jen invites us all to not take ourselves seriously, and I found it to be a breath of fresh air Her projects are marked as to difficulty, and in an attempt to get my feet wet in kitsch, so to speak, I made this fun fun fun bracelet, which I have unimaginatively named Cloth and Sparkle. I’m boring, so sue me!