About this Book

For anyone who loves working with beads, the natural next step is to create your own. Go right to the beginning of the process with five highly talented designers, whose ingenuity, mastery of the medium, and playfulness come through again and again, whatever material they're using. Work wool magic by rolling it into hard balls, and shaping them into crescents, dying them, or adding metallic fiber. Try papier mâché over wooden beads-especially elegant when done with beautiful Asian rice papers. Coil polymer clay for a real impact, and create faux ivory that's just right for ethnic styles. Turn shiny, polished metal into fancy decorative tubes, and get in the groove with ridged glass beads. You'll find that the simplest techniques yield incredibly lovely, one of a kind 'jewels.'