Book Club: The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving

It's time for our October Book Club!  Just as a reminder, each month I choose a crafty book from my bookshelf and create something inspired by the book.   I hope you'll be inspired to do the same.

This month I chose The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving by Carol Wilcox Wells.

I also own Carol's first book (and one of my bead bibles): Creative Beadweaving: A Contemporary Guide to Classic Off-Loom Stitches.  Without reservation, I highly recommend both books.  They are both so well done with excellent instructions and fantastic illustrations.  Everything I know about beadweaving I learned from these two brilliant books.

The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving is divided into 8 sections:

1. Introduction, Materials, Tools, and Tips.  From tools to knots to how many beads per gram, this section is full of wonderfully useful information.
2. Beaded Beads.  This is the chapter I used to make yesterday's Second Floor Challenge beaded beads.  There is an inspirational gallery up front and then instructions for eleven different kinds of beaded beads.
3. Chevron Chain.  Chevron chain is a kind of off-loom beading stitch.  There are four projects in this section ranging from a necklace to a basket.  Carol also offers lots of great tips on creating variety in your chain stitching.
4. Crocheted Ropes.  These are so super fun and easy to make!  And totally addictive too.  Carol takes you through the basics of creating crocheted ropes, with lots of pattern variations, and then gives you four super cool crocheted rope projects.
5. Herringbone Stitch.  This is another kind of off-loom beading stitch.  The beginning of this section covers all of the how-tos in deep detail.  All the variations are included -- flat, tubular, increasing, decreasing, etc.  Then there are four projects.
6. Peyote Stitch.  Carol's first book made me fall in love with Peyote Stitch.  It's easy to do and looks great!  Again, this is another kind of off-loom beading stitch.  The beginning of the this section covers all of the basics of Peyote Stitch and then there are five projects.
7. Spiral Rope.  This section follows the format of the previous chapters: instructions on the stitch and its variations and then four projects.
8. Contributing Artists, Acknowledgments, Bibliography, Index

I think that this book is a nice mixture of aspirational beading projects by über talented artists and totally achievable projects with instructions.  The photography is very well done, and as I mentioned before, the beading charts are top notch.  Really well done.

Here's something I made inspired by this book:

The necklace has a secret clasp:

And here's what it looks like when I'm wearing it:

If you're into beading, or you'd like to be, do yourself a favor and pick up both of Carol's books!

Happy Halloween!