Feeling The Heart and Soul of the Beads

Beading for the Soul: Inspired Designs From 23 Contemporary Artists

Beading for the Soul, despite what the title says and leads you to believe, is not really a beading project book.  It does have some beautiful projects and related instructions, but they are secondary to the mission of the book.

To me, first and foremost, the book is about the lore and legacy of beads and their place in the lives of the people who create with and wear them.

Bead Soup Daisy Chain: Seed Bead Stitching

I'm jumping ahead in the seed bead stitching projects.  I can't help myself though.

Beth Stone has two seed bead stitching books - with the second one appropriately titled More Seed Bead Stitching: Creative Variations on Traditional Techniques .  It has a lovely Daisy Chain necklace on the front and I had to try something similar.  You can see it in the picture above, right in the middle - which is a little strange because the necklaces on my cover are exactly the same, but in a different order!

Seed Bead Stitching: Diagonal Peyote Band

My second project from the book Seed Bead Stitching by Beth Stone is a bracelet band in diagonal peyote. I used Japanese cylinder beads again.  This is easier for a newbie like me since they have a consistent shape and lock into place, helping with any issues of thread tension.

Seed Bead Stitching by Beth Stone

I haven't added a jewelry book review in a while, but I have read a lot of them during that time.  Most recently, I have been reading and doing the projects from Seed Bead Stitching by Beth Stone.


If you've read my jewelry making blog or prior reviews, you know I mainly make wire and gemstone jewelry.  But I've always been fascinated by woven bead jewelry especially the lovely earrings by Miguel Ases that are becoming more popular.  I'd like to learn how to make something similar.  But, I'd also like to understand the stitches used in seed beading to help with my wire wrap work.

Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders teaches techniques not projects

Beautiful Wire Jewelry is Beautiful Eye Candy

I started out loving the book Beautiful Wire Jewelry for Beaders: Creative Wirework Projects for All Levels.  I love the way it is organized. The introductory chapters are well documented, thorough but not overly detailed.  There are beautiful pictures of the jewelry projects throughout the book - and the author has a fantastic sense of color.   

But, when it came time to choose a project -  I didn't feel excited about choosing any of them.

Beginner Jewelry Projects

Appropriately enough, I started at the beginning.  The pictures look great, but the actual projects just didn't grab me.  There is not a single beginner project that I wanted to try making.  And it took me a while to figure out why - but I figured it out!