Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance: 20 Beaded Jewelry Designs

Maggie Meister's Classical Elegance: 20 Beaded Jewelry Designs published by Lark Books ($27.95 US; $33.95 Can) is another beadweaving book from this publisher's Beadweaving Master Class series. This series of books takes jewelry designers who are "masters" in their chosen medium and allows you take a virtual class with them through the pages of the text.

In this case, Maggie Meister takes her background in studying ancient mosaics and architecture and transfers it over into her expertise at bead weaving.

The first chapter covers the basics you need when it comes the tools and materials used in the projects for this book. For the most part, this is pretty common information, but one item to note is that the author tends to prefer using cylinder beads and round beads, often as small as size 15, in her jewelry designs.

After this chapter, the next explains the stitches used throughout, and most I would say the average seed beader will know. For example, there are various forms of peyote included, tubular, flat, drop, and so on. Ladder, brick, right angle weave, herringbone, and square stitches are also pretty familiar to anyone with seed bead experience, so that I found to be encouraging since if you already know these stitches, you have a head start as far as being able to do most of the project.

The next three chapters include the projects and are organized by classical elements: Ancient and Antique Jewelry as Inspiration; Mosaic and Textile Motifs as Inspiration; and Architectural Elements as Inspiration. There is a total of 20 projects organized around the theme of the three chapters. All of the jewelry has the look of ancient pieces you might find in a museum or dug up at an archeological site. One reason for this is the author's use of metallic and metal-colored seed beads, which I think is pretty brilliant. For example, one project called "Matriarch's Cuff," uses matte gold seed beads along with some seeds beads in red and blue and green. These are woven together using herringbone stitch and then formed around a cuff blank. The final piece is stunning and has a look of textured gold and inlay gemstones. I can see how this use of metal style beads could appeal to beaders who want to give a metal look to their designs without actually having to use metal fabrication techniques.

While there are a good number of time-intensive projects in this book, there are also a few that in relative beadweaving terms would not take all that long to finish or require an extensive amount of skill to make either. Still I would suggest this book more for intermediate level beadweaver than those who might know very little about making seed bead jewelry. There is lots of inspiration here for the novice, but for those with experience, I feel the projects are very doable.

As far as jewelry style goes, the idea of "classical" in the book should not be confused with "classic." The jewelry pieces are outstanding small works of art, many of them very wearable, but I would not compare them to something like a simple pearl necklace. All of the jewelry I thought to be very beautiful, and I think the general concept of the book - connecting bead weaving to classical ancient elements - works wonderfully.

Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.