Book Review - Art & Elegance of Beadweaving

Art & Elegance of Beadweaving

By Carol WilcoxWells

Rating: 8 Beads

The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving was one of the first really complex beading books I purchased. It has many gorgeous pictures and projects for inspiration, as well as directions for many different bead weaving techniques. I wanted it for the extensive section on beaded beads but I learned a lot from several of the sections, especially the chevron chain stitch in its many variations.

This is not a book for beginners. The projects are beautiful but time intensive and very complex. The stitch directions are very thorough and accurate but also somewhat hard to follow. Without bead handling experience and a willingness to try and try again, many of the projects are frustrating when trying to learn stitches and make an intricate piece of jewelry at the same time. After I had completed some simple projects from other sources, this book was wonderful to come back to for the innovative project ideas.

One of the things I like best about this book is its many variations on each stitch and gallery of jewelry to inspire ideas for each technique. I am currently working through the bead crochet section and I am so glad I already know how to crochet without beads so that I can dive right in.

Book Reviews: Introduction

I love searching for bead books at book stores, online and at the library. I find old books, new books and books I might not hear of elsewhere. The library is a great place to check out books and try projects or find new techniques. That being said, I have an extensive collection of bead books that I want to keep at my finger tips for reference, how to’s and design ideas.

I have wanted to go through my collection, book by book, to make notes and rate each book as I decide which ones deserve a place on my shelf and what techniques I want to master next. I also keep a library list, both wish list and notes on books I have checked out that I may or may not want to check out again or purchase for my collection. In looking at my lists for owned books, wished for books and library books, I decided I should turn my notes in to book reviews and ratings. I plan to rate each books on a 10 Bead scale.

I am almost afraid to count how many books I own and I will need to pick a starting place on the shelf. I have stringing books, basic books, bead weaving books, color books, glass bead books and wire work books. Still, it will be nice to have a full list of my bead book collection.

Is the Magic of Tidying Up going to Change My Life?

I just finished reading “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and I think it was quite a read. It has inspired the most motivation to de-clutter, de-junk and otherwise clean up then any of the other half dozen ‘simplify, organize, declutter’ books I have read in the last half dozen years or so. In the past, I would start to read, get inspired, go on a cleaning binge, finish the book and then stall out. This book has taken hold a bit better, although there are some gaping holes in the logic there. I do feel lighter and more energetic then I have since removing about 5 garbage bags of ‘stuff’ from my house and also emptying several surfaces of there accumulation of ‘things’ that move into empty flat surfaces in this house, from mantle, to desk, dresser and even floor. It has inspired a real purge of unloved and unused items that found their way into my home and many of which have now left.

The logic holes in this book were succinctly captured in a meme: I read the book and removed everything I held that didn’t spark joy and the only thing I removed was all the veggies and a bill. I have many items that don’t spark joy, for example, the mouse traps I had to dig out last night. But removing 2 mice was a needed step that was surely a joy to my house. So I think I must keep things that spark joy for my house, like the vacuum and the mop. Though unless someone has ‘too many’ cleaning supplies, I don’t suppose they count as personal clutter the way clothes and other such does.

Also, maybe all storage can be in 1 location for a small house, but with 2 small kids and a 2 story house, some things must be kept on the right floor and possibly up out of reach of little fingers. I am working on reducing the number of places I store ‘my’ stuff versus  household stuff, but I am not sure how few I can really pare down to. I am, however, going to stop storing my things in my kids closets.

The books also doesn’t seem to take into account consumables such as food, medicine and soap. I am reducing and consolidating but that has mostly been done.

But I have yet to truly tackle my beads (or yarn or fabric or paint or creative stuff). I am not sure what is holding me back from this step. I think I don’t really want to let any of it go. My plan is to pull out beads and challenge myself to make things with them. Then they can have their chance to spark joy (or not) and I can rein in my collection to what I love to work with most.

Finding Time to Bead

A real challenge for me these days, with 2 small children, is finding time for beading. After my daughter was conceived and then born, my creativity dropped to an all-time low. It picked back up just in time for me to conceive my son. Since then, it has been steadily picking back up but I still find two main issues.

The first is kid safety. I actually took up crochet for a while, as a creative outlet, because beading needles and even knitting needles seemed too challenging to have around babies. The skills I picked up will easily add to my jewelry ability, so it was a well thought intermediate step, plus my kids got some cute hats out of the deal. Now as my kids have reached 5 and 2, I am moving back into tiny beads, breakable glass and sharp needles, albeit when they are out of the room and otherwise occupied.

The second issue is me time; finding someone else to be in charge of watching the munchkins! Time for me, just me, is hard to come by. Kids need lots of time, as do husbands, and there is always house work, exercise and other tasks, plus just getting off my feet and reading for a bit.

I schedule time, I plan time, I find a few minutes here and there to sneak off but it’s hard to get a lot accomplished. Plus there is always the lure of surfing for bead ideas, reading bead books and magazines and writing out notes and pictures for new projects that sit on my desk for weeks and months. It’s sometime nice to find these and start on them and sometimes sad to find the inspirations for them has vanished.

I have started a bead journal, a log of what I work on each time I sit down (hopefully each day). I try and capture a list of my plans and notes, projects worked on and other business notes like this Blog and such. I have a long list of updating my website, writing blog posts and book reviews, setting up Linked In and Instagram and posting to Mystic’s facebook page.This journal helps me decide what to do when I have finally found a few minutes to sneak away to my desk or bead nook.

After a few weeks of not getting my Blog updated, I am back to it with the goal of at least a post a week. Another goal is to get some of this year’s ideas and projects to completion. My journal is helping me remember what projects are current and which ones need more design time, which ones need to go back to the drawing board and which ones simply need time to complete.

           

I have finally finished to first of my 2 part circle project, the symmetric necklace. The asymmetric one needs a bit more time as I am far more comfortable with symmetry. I hope to compete it before the end of the months.