Beginner's Guide to Bead Netting

Issue 4, June/July 2007

This book will inspire any novices to get started in this wonderful hobby. With a wide range of designs and information to inspire - you'll surely be enthralled. The book provides an interesting history on the art of beading to ground any newbies on the background of this wonderful craft. I always find it beneficial to learn the history of a craft so you can immerse yourself more fully into the hobby. You may well look at this book at first and think that you'll never be able to produce such wonderful results. But, follow the thorough instructions and you'll be producing wonderful works of art to astound yur friends. The book has a comprehensive list of materials that you should stock up with; this allows you to be prepared for any of the projects included and to alternate the projects with your own choice of colours. The projects include: jewellery, book covers, wall hangings, purses, needle cases and evening bags. Each of these is spectacular and I'm sure would gain lots of positive feedback from people. I'm already a big fan of beading but had never tried netting before, this book really made it appeal to me and provided the depth of knowledge which was necessary for a beginner but also included projects for the more advanced, so I plan on keeping this in my book collection for quite some time. I've already had a go at the simplest project and was impressed with what I produced. Following the comprehensive instructions in this book I'm confident that all my future efforts will be superb. This book is truly a goldmine of inspiration and I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this hobby.

Sarah Cooper

Mar 07

Netting is one of the most versatile off-loom stitches and here is a whole book of projects so you can practise and make some great wardrobe-extending pieces. Fancy evening bags, necklaces, chokers, bracelets and more bead up in no time and look stunning, as well as a needlecase and wallhanging.

Here are some wonderfully clear and explanatory diagrams for old favourites like peyote stitch, circular brick stitch and right angle weave as well as the netting. For once, increasing and decreasing peyote gets a mention with some photos - hurrah! This was worth the price of admission for me, other projects notwithstanding so you can learn more than just netting from this book. Several different kinds of netting are covered in here and once you know the basics off you go - it really does seem as simple as that thanks to the wonderfully clear and colorful photographic stages. Less appealing is the large number of gallery pieces shown, mainly made by the Saraguro people of Ecuador. The day somebody comes out with a book on how to make these fabulous pieces I will be at the head of the queue, but until then more projects and less large and luscious photos of these out-of-reach items would have been much more useful.