[.ca] Bead Fantasies: Beautiful, Easy-To-Make Jewelry (ISBN 4889961283)

Color, design and ideas galore!:
Over the years, I've come to love Japanese books because of their instructions. Certainly, they are not for everybody. But for beaders with a little experience, the thread path instructions will be enough. The instructions are printed in color, and each bead shape is shown, which makes a lot of sense. It took a while for me to figure out that the tiny black star indicates the start and the teeny black crescent moon indicates the end, but that wasn't a lot to overcome. There is a lot to like in this book: 1. The different projects--bracelets, rings (lots of rings!), pendants for necklaces, necklaces in several lengths, eyeglass leashes, barrettes, even cell phone leashes--If you don't own a cell phone with a leash attachment, you can easily use the patterns for necklaces. 2. The color photography and the color directions. Makes flipping through the book like a walk in the garden. Also makes the small-format-size book cost $18.00 in paperback. 3. The additional information in the back on techniques and materials, all with lots of photographs. 4. Once you learn the basic technique that Takako Samejima favors, you can zip through her ideas and start working on your own. I've found the circle-style weaving can be achieved with two needles, but using one as Samejima does makes the work easier. And a few things that can make a reader cranky: 1. The book is perfect bound, so you will have to weight both sides down to follow a diagram. 2. The pages on tools have tiny pictures, so you can't really tell crimping pliers from round-nose from cutters. 3. The author seems to favor nylon filament, which, if it is fishing line, will disintegrate in five years or so. Use Nymo, Silamide, Fireline, or for the larger projects, SoftFlex. 4.The instructions tell you to use your jewelry pliers to work with memory wire. Don't. Memory wire is steel and will damage most jewelry tools. Use hardware store tools or those especially designed for memory wire, The book is a treat and well worth the money for beginners with a little experience, intermediate beaders who want to expand their product line and advanced beaders who need a gallery to get their inspiration kick-started again.

Absolutely Love It!:
I love this book! I was so excited when I opened the box and flipped through the pages! Straight to the couch with a cuppa and a thorough examination! So many beautiful pieces to create! Previous beading experience is a must I think, otherwise you would just sit there and scratch your head. Just about everything is done with 2 needles, Threadpath diagrams and the most basic written instructions make up the guides for each piece. If you want gorgeous creations and can follow diagrams get this book! Also a good book for inspiration, once you get the hang of the patterns in the book it's not that hard to come up with your own pattern.

Beautiful pictures---not so great instructions:
I was very excited to get this book. The descriptions I had read sounded great and the pictures looked wonderful. Unfortunately the instructions weren't so great. They follow along like most japanese bead books. With a diagram and very few actually word instructions, leaving you to puzzle out how to actually do it. If you like japanese style instructions you'll love this book, if not it does have great pictures.

Great Book if.....:
this is a great book is you can learn from drawings... this book does not have any real instructions that i can see... get diagrams. The artist has great designs and ideas... I just loved the rings that i made from this book.

Easy to follow and alter:
This is not for the asbolute beginner, and goodness knows I was quite frustrated at first, because there were no written supplements to the instructions. I also didn't understand the symbols, and the small sizes of the pictorial instructions took some getting used to. But, now that I've gotten over the learning curve, I am enjoying this book a great deal. Most of the projects I've done so far I have altered. It's fun to provide my own variation on a design. I'd have given it 3 stars, but the benefit of having this book once you understand it is worth 5. The projects look complicated, and yet are so easy to do.