Beadweaving Brilliance

Book excerpt: Just in time for holiday hand-made-gift-making, comes this beautifully illustrated book that shows crafters how to create colorful and unique beaded accessories. Using a single needle and thread, readers will learn a variety of stitches, including herringbone, peyote (also known as gourd), brick, square, right angle weave and African helix, to weave beads into a flat fabric or 3-dimensional object. The off-loom beading technique lends itself to fashioning striking accessories; and in Beadweaving Brilliance, author Kumiko Mizuno offers precise instructions for 30 different projects that will take even a novice beader no more than two hours to complete. The book is divided into sections covering five different types of accessories - rings, pendants, straps, bracelets and necklaces - and also includes sections on basic techniques, color variations and tools.