Book Review - Netted Beadwork
Netted Beadwork by Diane Fitzgerald (Author) Paperback: 122 pages Publisher: Interweave Press; (September 2003) ISBN: 1931499152
This Beadwork How-To Book gives step-by-step instructions for vertical, horizontal, and freeform netting. Make fabulous jewelry or use the technique to cover objects or even make clothes. |
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Netted Beadwork provides a cursory introduction to the history of netted beadwork, with descriptions and photographic examples of netting from around the world. After this overview, Diane gives instructions and projects for irregular, vertical, and horizontal netting. The final section of the book is a gallery of inspirational netted beadwork. The projects include beaded beads, netted flowers, necklaces, bracelets, small purses, and using netting for covering eggs and bottles. The written instructions, diagrams, and photographs are very clear. Diane provides great directions for increasing and decreasing and developing your own style.
I would target this book for a beginner beader. I think that an intermediate to advanced beader will be disappointed with the projects and the scope of the techniques. The book is very narrowly limited to irregular, vertical, and horizontal netting. You won't find information about incorporating other stitches into the work. I'm okay with that - it's a book about netting, after all. However, I really would have enjoyed seeing examples of other forms of netting, such as the more complicated thread paths commonly seen in Ukrainian work or any of the American (e.g., Ecuadorian) styles. Even if these techniques were beyond the scope of the instructions, they could have been included in the gallery.
Overall, a very nice book. Diane does an excellent job covering basic netting techniques. This a good introduction/reference for a beginner and one of very few books that focuses on netting.