Designing Jewelry with Semiprecious Beads

Designing Jewelry with Semiprecious Beads by Kim Gover (Interweave $24.95 US) focuses on bead stringing jewelry designs and some wire work using gemstone beads. The 128 page text includes 250 color photographs covering a gemstone bead directory, tools and supplies, gemstone buying guide, jewelry projects, and how-to techniques.

The techniques section is located near the back of the book and covers over a dozen methods for assembling jewelry such as closing bead crimps and bead tips; wrapping beads in wire; and forming wire loops. While the projects seem to be more designed around bead stringing, there is a fair amount of wire work in this book as well. However, newbies to jewelry making should be able to master most of them. Each technique described also includes a few photographs to help illustrate it as well.

The main point in this book is really about the projects, 75 plus, which include an illustrated pattern of the beads, photograph of the finished piece, and list of tools and materials required. The illustrated pattern includes call-out letters that correspond to the materials list as well as a few paired-down directions. Therefore, you won't find the usual list of steps, but instead, the steps annotate the illustrations.

I can see the pros and cons to this layout. For jewelry makers who are already familiar with basic assembly methods, the projects only require a brief glance to understand how it goes together. For absolute beginners, it may be more challenging and require them to flip back and forth to the techniques section in order to follow how the pieces are put together.

The section on gemstone buying and chapter on stones are valuable areas of the book, especially for anyone who has wanted to work with gemstones but was intimidated by the huge variety available. Like the projects, these sections are visually appealing and easy to locate information from quickly with just a glance or two.

If you are looking for a plethora of jewelry projects that for the most part are relatively easy to string up and include a little wire work as well, then you won't be disappointed with this book. Total jewelry making novices may at first be put off by the different format of the instructions in the projects section, but with a little patience, I think they could figure them out and find themselves stringing up many of the designs within a relatively short time.

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