Laura McCabe's Embellished Beadweaving: Jewelry Lavished with Fringe, Fronds, Lacework & More (Beadweaving Master Class Series)

Laura McCabe is one of my favorite beading instructors, and I've been eagerly awaiting the publication of her new book, which I pre-ordered a few months ago. Her new book was definitely worth the wait! It has eighteen lovely projects in it, and each one teaches you new skills.This book differs from her first book in that that first one focused on using Swarovski crystals in all of the projects. This second book of McCabe's doesn't have that "bling bling" factor her first book had, but each piece is truly lovely. The pieces are slightly more subdued since they don't use Swarovski crystals quite as much, and instead focus more on using pearls (especially keshis), magatamas, and seed beads.The book is broken down into several main sections:* 1: Beads through History* 2: Basic Beading Kit (goes over supplies that every beader needs)* 3: Basic Stitches and Techniques* 4: A Comprehensive Guide to Embellishments* 5: Approaching Color and Design* 6: The Projects* Gallery of projects (by several other beaders, not just Mc Cabe)The first five sections total 53 pages, and they do a really nice job of covering background, design principles, and techniques. I was pleasantly surprised to see so much space devoted to these important fundamentals. There is a bit of overlap with her first book in some of the stitches covered (such as Ndebele and basic spiral rope), but the embellishments section is completely new and unique, and it covers many unique embellishments, which is an area that McCabe really excels in.As another reviewer pointed out, the embellishments section is just wonderful. Almost all of the designs are very natural/organic in nature, with designs like sea forms, berry clusters, and various petals.The patterns/instructions themselves are also very clear and are broken down quite a bit. There aren't as many illustrations as there are in Rachel Nelson-Smith's new book, but the instructions are so clear that the lack of extensive figures/illustrations shouldn't be a problem. Also, there are plenty of illustrations and photos in the embellishments section, so it should be easy to flip back to that part of the book while working on a piece.As for the actual projects, I was pleased to see that there were instructions for some of the newer pieces that I'd seen on McCabe's website, such as Keshi Pearl Necklace (the cover piece), Dahlia Necklace, A Well-Kept Secret, and April Showers Necklace.I also love how this new series by Lark is all in hardback format. It makes beading from a book so much easier if the book lies nice and straight while you're working.As for the target audience of the book, I would say that it is designed more for intermediate and advanced beaders. There are a few earring and ring projects that an advanced beginner might attempt, but you'd probably want to be pretty comfortable reading patterns.As of writing this review (5/1/10), Amazon doesn't have the "Look Inside" feature available for this book, but, as with all beading books, I usually recommend trying to look at some of the projects before purchasing to make sure that the style of the projects appeal to you. Hopefully Amazon will enable the "Look Inside" feature soon! If you like the necklace on the cover of the book, you'll most likely find that the projects inside are pretty similar in design aesthetic.Happy beading!

Laura McCabe's new book is the third book in Lark Books wonderful Beadweaving Master Class Series, so it has high standards to live up to. I think it does a pretty good job of that. The books in this series focus on one or more techniques and explore many ways to vary or embellish those techniques and this one follows that format.This book begins with some background information including: beads through history, basic beading kit, basic stitches and techniques. Then the meat of the book begins on page 27 with Chapter Four: A Comprehensive Guide to Embellishments. Here Laura describes more than twenty different embellishment techniques that are used in the projects found later in the book, such as simple bud, simple flower (uses a flower bead), simple leaf (uses a leaf bead), simple drop, simple dagger, flower cluster, berry cluster, basic beaded leaf (leaf made of seed beads), frond form, star flower, pointed peyote petal, rounded peyote petal, lacy stitch rosebud (lacy stitch=netting stitch), cherry blossom, pokeweed, basic peyote leaf, peyote grape leaf, tentacles, coral/branch fringe, bubble fringe, dagger fringe, peyote frond, rings and rods (for toggle clasps) pagoda (I just gotta do this one soon!), and bell flower.There are photos of each technique, written instructions and clear diagrams in color. The diagrams are such a big help if you are not quite sure what the written instructions mean. Sprinkled throughout this chapter are photos of various pieces of Laura's beaded pieces. Just browsing through this chapter many ways of incorporating these techniques into my beadwork kept leaping to mind. It's inspirational and makes me want to head for the beads. Laura specifically invites you to take these ideas as springboards for your own: "use them as basic building blocks for your own embellished forms. I genuinely hope you'll take what you learn here and apply it liberally to your own creative endeavors" That's a real teacher talking and that is exactly how I envision myself using this beautiful book. Chapter Five discusses color and design. Chapter Six contains 18 projects aimed mostly toward beaders of intermediate skill level. The projects may be described as lovely, detailed, beautiful, lush, strange, or thought-provoking, depending on your point of view. They are not projects that appeal to me to simply copy. But they do provide ample inspiration to get me thinking about how I would use the featured techniques in pieces of my own design.At the back of the book there is a gallery section featuring embellished beadwork of other artists.

The projects and detailed explanations are inspiring, if not a bit daunting at times (especially for me when I calculate how many hundreds of dollars worth of beads I will likely need to purchase, despite my huge collection of beads, to make most any one of the elaborate projects). A bracelet with 45 5x16 mm Czech dagger beads PER INCH (and the ones Ms. McCabe used in her project are the elaborate, beautiful high-end ($$$$) daggers). 315 daggers for her 7 inch bracelet. Aren't these fanciest of daggers more than $1 per bead?The part of this book I find most useful is how to make individual decorative elements, such as a seed bead toggle, and the separate layers of embellishments the author uses to decorate her beadwork. Copying one of her entire necklaces, well, I am not yet that ambitious, nor likely to spend the hundreds of hours (and possibly thousands of hours it would likely take me to copy her Dahlia necklace), and many dollars for a copy of someone else's art. As beautiful as I find most of the projects, I like best having instructions for the decorative elements.

Does offer some interesting techniques. Not a beginner's book. You might want to preview it.

Another wonderful book from the Lark series! This was the last one that I needed to complete my collection and if you are interested in beadweaving, then this entire collection is well worth purchasing. All of this series contains designs that although, may look advanced, with the detailed instructions, most anyone can handle them. This book in particular contains many beautiful designs that can be worn with jeans or a fancy dress. The illustrations are superb, instructions very complete, and with some imagination you yourself can add your own twist to any of them.

A little over the top for my taste but really neat designs. The designs seem to be taken from nature. I can see myself taking these designs and toning them down a bit.

Another beautiful book from the fabulously talented Laura McCabe, this book does not disappoint. I thoroughly recommend this book for any level of beader.

Molto belli i progetti che sono spiegati in modo semplice, per chi ama questo genere è un libro da tenere presente

Dieses Buch ist eine Inspirationsquelle für kreativ-arbeitende Perlerinnen. Es war etwas schwierige einige "Zutaten" (Glasauge) zu bekommen, aber wem das gelingt, der kann schöne Modelle nacharbeitenl oder eigene Ideen aus dem Gezeigten ableiten.

Illustra abbastanza chiaramente alcune tecniche base e altre di decorazione ma oltre a frange e frangette non va molto avanti. i progetti poi, a parte un paio, non sono particolarmente esaltanti...ma qui è forse più una questione di gusto personale.