Fabric Jewelry Wrapped, Braided & Sewn [With DVD]

I own about a dozen different cooks on Fabric Jewelry making and this book is by far the best one. The instructions are detailed enough for a beginning fabric crafter to follow. The photos and techniques are not the same run of the mill ideas and are a great basis of inspiration for and experienced crafter as well. If you can only buy one book, this is the one.

The book starts with very well photographed and explained explanation of tools, glues and techniques that you can refer back to as you make the beaded projects. One of the things I really like about this book is the fact there are projects to go with each technique for making a bead that you can use as a springboard for your own designs. Fabric is a fantastic medium for jewelry. The first projects are wrapped beads, starting with simple beads that are reminiscent of magazine page beads and ending in a great 3 dimensional pyramid charm. It covers what sorts of glues you should use for different fabrics and wrapping around a lot of shapes and forms to create beads including mandrels, wooden shapes, washers, buttons and the created pyramid. The second segment is the one that really excites me. Stitched beads made with tiny scraps of fabric using different techniques. I was expecting something like pillow beads, but these aren't.There are only 3 styles of bead in this segment but I love the techniques.There is one bead that combines seed beads with fabric covered shapes to create very striking beads. My favorite is the machine sewn fabric tile beads with eyelets because I think it would be a great use of scraps of very special fabric like old baby clothes to create a special charm bracelet. The next segment is roving and wool, making felted beads and it's a very basic section with great looking wool bead projects that are more elegant than you'd expect from wool beads. Lastly, my other favorite chapter. Knot tying and macramé bead making. Not the micro-macramé done with fine cording. These are brightly colored ribbons and 1mm cording knotted around wire forms to create beads. The book comes with a Create with Nancy DVD that doesn't show how to make the projects but does show how to make the beads. Nancy and Heidi show it well and production values are what you'd expect from Nancy Zieman. I like this book. It may convince my daughter to start working with beads because she loves fabric and loves to sew. The projects in the book use easy to get materials, but the techniques would work with fabric you buy to match an outfit, or maybe to use with old handkerchiefs or old clothes that have special memories. There is such a range in fabrics, you can do funky or sweet just by changing the fabric. I want to try big pendants using the fabric tile with eyelet technique and my favorite Spoonflower print.