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Beadmaille: Jewelry with Bead Weaving & Metal Rings
Jewelry makers—and beaders in particular—are hungry for new ideas, so they’ll rejoice in having a brand-new, easy, and gorgeous technique to try!
Beadmaille offers an entirely unique and beautiful way to craft chain mail–like jewelry, using the simplest of bead-weaving processes to link together metal jump rings in classic patterns. The 25 pieces—bracelets, necklaces, and earrings—all showcase seed beads in luscious colors, and both handmade and commercial jump rings in gold, sterling silver, copper, or bronze.
Beadmaille offers an entirely unique and beautiful way to craft chain mail–like jewelry, using the simplest of bead-weaving processes to link together metal jump rings in classic patterns. The 25 pieces—bracelets, necklaces, and earrings—all showcase seed beads in luscious colors, and both handmade and commercial jump rings in gold, sterling silver, copper, or bronze.
128 pages, Paperback
First published May 4, 2010
29 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 11, 2011
4.5 stars
There are other maille books that use beads as an integral part of the jewelry design, but this one uses bead weaving.
Since I haven't seen much use of seed beads in chain mail, this book excited me with it's use of seed bead weaving methods. The seed beads are used to connect rings, form structure, add bright color and they are just as important as the mail knitting is to the designs.
The designs are innovative and different. Instead of being something just to wear to Renaissance Faires or with costumes, they are every day wearable. They are artistic and colorful. The basic techniques the author uses to weave the beads and rings together can inspire other designs. Indeed, like traditional chain mail techniques, a lot of the stitch styles can be used to build larger more dramatic pieces.
The introduction covers both basic beading stitches and how to make the rings for chain mail. So if your strength is seed bead weaving, you can just quickly go over that section, and pay more attention to how to wind and cut rings. If your strength is chain mail, you can pay more attention to how to do the bead weaves. It also covers the tools and supplies you'll need.
The projects themselves are wonderful. Some of them don't use hand cut rings, but instead use easy to find findings like hammered rings which are connected by bead weaving. The combination of metal and glass creates wonderful possibilities of variation by the metal type or color of beads you use.
My favorite projects are the Cleopatra Necklace which combines right angle weave in 3 dimensions with hammered rings and basic chain making techniques to make a bib necklace that makes a great statement, the Triad ring which combines peyote stitch with chain mail for a simple and lovely little ring and the thick star patterned Two-Tone Double Wide Cuff which combines jump rings in 2 colors with seed beads for a substantial heavy piece that will garner comments.
There are 23 projects, and they cover many techniques and use a few different stitches. Some of them as presented aren't to my tastes, but they are still inspiring. I can see how I'd prefer them with smaller seed beads, or different colors.
If you're a chain mail artist who wants to add seed beads to your pieces, or a seed bead artist who is fascinated by chain mail, this book is a great start to learning how to combine both techniques.
There are other maille books that use beads as an integral part of the jewelry design, but this one uses bead weaving.
Since I haven't seen much use of seed beads in chain mail, this book excited me with it's use of seed bead weaving methods. The seed beads are used to connect rings, form structure, add bright color and they are just as important as the mail knitting is to the designs.
The designs are innovative and different. Instead of being something just to wear to Renaissance Faires or with costumes, they are every day wearable. They are artistic and colorful. The basic techniques the author uses to weave the beads and rings together can inspire other designs. Indeed, like traditional chain mail techniques, a lot of the stitch styles can be used to build larger more dramatic pieces.
The introduction covers both basic beading stitches and how to make the rings for chain mail. So if your strength is seed bead weaving, you can just quickly go over that section, and pay more attention to how to wind and cut rings. If your strength is chain mail, you can pay more attention to how to do the bead weaves. It also covers the tools and supplies you'll need.
The projects themselves are wonderful. Some of them don't use hand cut rings, but instead use easy to find findings like hammered rings which are connected by bead weaving. The combination of metal and glass creates wonderful possibilities of variation by the metal type or color of beads you use.
My favorite projects are the Cleopatra Necklace which combines right angle weave in 3 dimensions with hammered rings and basic chain making techniques to make a bib necklace that makes a great statement, the Triad ring which combines peyote stitch with chain mail for a simple and lovely little ring and the thick star patterned Two-Tone Double Wide Cuff which combines jump rings in 2 colors with seed beads for a substantial heavy piece that will garner comments.
There are 23 projects, and they cover many techniques and use a few different stitches. Some of them as presented aren't to my tastes, but they are still inspiring. I can see how I'd prefer them with smaller seed beads, or different colors.
If you're a chain mail artist who wants to add seed beads to your pieces, or a seed bead artist who is fascinated by chain mail, this book is a great start to learning how to combine both techniques.
July 7, 2010
Weaving Soft Flex through metal links or jump rings to create a modern feeling jewelry design is a very appealing technique that I've been playing around with this past year. It was really neat to see the beadweaver's version. The illustrations in this book look as if they would be really clear and easy to understand. Although the design ideas may look complicated, it seemed like all of the projects were doable by a new beader.
From the back cover: "An Innovative Approach to Chainmail Jewelry Using Beadweaving"
In this book, you will find you will find 25 jewelry projects including but not limited to:
Art Deco Necklace
Centipede Bracelet
Copper Clusters Lariat
Musubu Earrings
Spiral Chain Necklace
Triad Ring
X Factor Bracelet
I think that this book would make a great addition to any jewelry maker's library.
From the back cover: "An Innovative Approach to Chainmail Jewelry Using Beadweaving"
In this book, you will find you will find 25 jewelry projects including but not limited to:
Art Deco Necklace
Centipede Bracelet
Copper Clusters Lariat
Musubu Earrings
Spiral Chain Necklace
Triad Ring
X Factor Bracelet
I think that this book would make a great addition to any jewelry maker's library.
September 21, 2010
A really beautiful book full of wonderful ideas by mixing chainmaille and bead weaving. The author included several projects for people who have done chainmaille but not bead weaving and vice-versa. This way a crafter may add new skills and create new designs for their type of jewelry.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews