Special occasions deserve significant jewelry! Making Elegant Jewelry for Special Occasions, from BeadStyle magazine, offers 30 projects for celebrating life’s landmark events with stylish, sophisticated pieces that add the perfect finishing touch.
Unlock the transformative power of needle and thread with *Stitching for Special Occasions*, your ultimate guide to infusing every celebration with handcrafted charm. Whether you’re a seasoned stitcher or just beginning your journey, this book will help you create memorable pieces that echo with personal meaning and beauty. Dive into Chapter 1, where it all begins with an exploration of why handcrafted elegance is so important and how stitches convey emotion and meaning. Discover how to choose the perfect fabric for your creation, taking you through a fascinating world of textures and sustainable options, ensuring each piece is just right for the occasion. Explore the tools of the trade, from the essentials to advanced gadgets, and learn how to care for them, ensuring your stitching journey is as smooth as it is rewarding. Chapter 4 guides you in designing your masterpiece, transforming inspiration into stunning patterns that capture the imagination. Master the art of stitching with basic techniques—running stitches, back stitches, and the versatile French knots. Then, elevate your craft with intermediate personalization methods like appliqué and embroidery, combining techniques for extraordinary results. Each chapter is a gateway to creating something special for life’s biggest events. Design welcoming blankets and nursery décor for new arrivals, craft intimate wedding accessories that tell a love story, and create commemorative pieces for anniversaries and graduations. With projects for holidays and heartfelt tributes, you'll find no shortage of inspiration. Learn to blend colors and textures effectively, adding the final elegant touches with lace, ribbons, and professional finishing techniques. Ensure your creations last by mastering maintenance and care, and find joy in sharing your passion with others, building a community around your craft. Embrace the joy of creation with *Stitching for Special Occasions* and leave a legacy of thoughtful, personalized gifts for every milestone.
Features step-by-step projects and full-color examples Create unique jewelry to wear with everything from jeans to a ball gown! Want to make your own jewelry? This easy-to-follow guide gives you lots of hands-on instruction in making simple, fabulous jewelry and working with beads. From wire wrapping and knotting to weaving and polishing, you'll get all the skills you need to make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pins, key chains, wine charms and items for the home. Discover how to * Create funky and elegant designs * Work with leather, silver, and stones * String, knot, and weave beads * Avoid common mistakes * Host a trendy jewelry party
“There’s plenty of variety in both style and technique here, making this an appropriate choice for crafters looking to sample different methods for beading.” —Library Journal Discover the amazing versatility of beadwork in this scintillating selection of more than thirty projects that you can make in just one weekend. From jewelry and clothing to home accessories and embroidered textiles, there’s something here for every taste and level of ability. Projects include lampshades, decorative candles, fringed throws, embroidered table runners, tassel covers, embellished scarves, hair accessories, and more. Big Book of Weekend Beading teaches an exciting variety of methods, from general beadwork to stringing, bead embroidery, and wirework. Simple projects at the start of each section give beginners an instant taste of success, leading them on to try larger-scale projects and more impressive techniques. The projects and techniques are designed and written by a team of experienced bead crafters, each one an expert in her field. “A first-class instruction manual for a popular pastime that is sweeping the nation, a perfect activity for quiet winter weekends.”—The Midwest Book Review “If you enjoy using beads or want to learn how to do beading, the Big Book of Weekend Beading by Jean Powers is the perfect place to start.”—Kelly’s Thoughts on Things
French Beading is a bead-and-wire art from the Renaissance used primarily to make flowers. Learn the art from designer Lauren Harpster in this new publication made specifically for beginners who've never touched beads or wire, but is also an excellent resource for experienced French Beading artists. This title is a hard copy of my Learn French Beading: Beginner Course video series on YouTube. Instructions for accessing the videos are included inside the book (Videos will be available after Feb 29th). *Part 1 is the "Getting Started" guide. Before making French Beaded Flowers it is very important to understand the materials needed to make them. This section explores tools, beads, wire, and other supplies in detail, though not all of them will be necessary for this course. *Part 2 is the "Technique Guide", which contains six lessons that teach the techniques included in this course - Continuous Loops, Continuous Crossover Loops, Continuous Wraparound Loops, Fringe, Basic Frame, and Lacing. These lessons are important for learning French Beading terms and abbreviations, and how to read French Beading patterns. I like to teach techniques separately from flower patterns because there's so much more I can teach you about an individual technique than what I can cover in a single flower pattern. There are also some variations of the techniques that are not used in the practice patterns, but are included for education and reference. This section is also intended to be a one-stop technique reference so you can quickly look up specific techniques while working with other flower patterns. Each lesson has a video demonstration so you can see the techniques in action, but they also contain picture and written instructions for the techniques. *Part 3 contains four wildflower patterns that I've developed specifically for helping you practice the base techniques learned in Part 2 - Lavender, Dame's Rocket, Blue Virgin's Bower, and Black-Eyed Susan. The patterns have been written with beginners in mind and contain a high level of detail, so they're a great way to dip your toes into the art. This section is important for seeing practical application of the techniques, reinforcing the ability to read patterns, and learning how to assemble and shape a variety of flowers. I have also made video demonstrations of each of the flowers. While I demonstrate flower parts fully in the videos, I only show techniques as they are used in that particular flower. So you can start with Part 3 if you use the videos, but I do recommend that you go back through the lessons in Part 2. *Part 4 will demonstrate how to arrange the flowers from Part 3 to make a wildflower arrangement. I am not a professional florist, but I'd like to share what I've learned about arranging beaded flowers. This section is included only in the book version of the course.
From Abalone to Zipper Stitch, this profusely illustrated guide covers a broad range of beading subjects and presents encyclopedic entries on historical background, technical details and cultural customs.
A former professor and museum director offers a fascinating, in-depth look at the culture and history of beaded objects around the world. From a beaded dress found in an ancient Egyptian tomb to the beaded fringe on a 1920s Parisian flapper’s hem, humans throughout history have used beading as a way to express, adorn, and tell a story. Bol explores beadwork across the world and through the ages, showing how beading has taken on many different styles, forms, and purposes for different cultures. She looks at children’s clothing, puberty ceremonies, burials, emblems of social status and leadership, festivals, and many other cultural occasions that involve the use of beadwork. Images of artifacts and heirlooms as well as photography of people and their beadwork enhance the scholarship of this book for a beautiful, enlightening addition to art, history, multicultural collections everywhere.
Traditional bead work is fascinating and a great craft to learn. Many ethnic groups in Africa and all over the world are proud of their beading crafts. It’s a wonderful way of keeping the stories of the past alive. As time goes on the younger generations lose interest in their traditions and crafts, which is sad as one wonders if these crafts will eventually become something of the past – lost and forgotten.
Make bracelets, necklaces, earrings, rings, pins, key chains, and more Want to make jewelry and gifts from scratch? This new edition of Jewelry Making & Beading For Dummies provides the easy-to-understand information that makes it easy. Updated information on getting started and setting up the necessities of a jewelry maker's workshop New innovative ideas for materials such as making beads from scratch, customizing components like glass pendants, and up-cycling found objects for new creations Updated trends including Victorian, Steampunk, Indian-inspired, and wrap bracelets Advice on how to gain project ideas through websites like Pinterest without infringing on someone's rights New and updated information on setting up a storefront, turning your hobby into a business, and gaining exposure through Etsy.com, blogs, and social media sites From attaching clasps to working with wire to stringing beads, the companion DVD features watch-and-learn episodes that show you step-by-step how to create one-of-a-kind designs using beads, glass, found objects, special mementos, and more With hundreds of detailed photos—now featured in full-color—Jewelry Making & Beading For Dummies is the ideal resource you'll turn to again and again to create one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces and assorted gifts.
Author Maya Brenner has designed jewelry for Cameron Diaz, Anne Hathaway, and Reese Witherspoon. Now crafters can create her exclusive designs with simple step-by-step projects that can be done inexpensively at home with Beaded Jewelry. With clear explanations of beading techniques, inspirational color charts, and tips on what equipment (and what not) to buy, Beaded Jewelry gives crafters the know-how to design and make their own unbelievably beautiful jewelry. A craft book with both style and substance, Beaded Jewelry contains 18 stunning projects, including necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, as well as specially commissioned photographs that clearly show each inspiring step-by-step sequence.