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Japanese Beadwork with Sonoko Nozue is published by Lark Books, which is a division of Sterling Publishing, and sells for $27.95 US. This hard cover book is 128 pages long and includes color and black and white photographs as well as drawn illustrations, some of which are partially color coded.
Beading artist Sonoko Nozue is well-known in bead weaving circles. She has taught at the Bead and Button Show, and before publishing this book with Lark Books, she already had a number of beading books published in Japan.
Beads and Basics
This first chapter discusses the basics as far as materials, techniques, and stitches used for the projects in the book. As explained in the book's introduction, like many Japanese crafting books, this one relies a great deal on graphs as apposed to lots of written instruction. You will use them both, but the graphs are really important to be able to follow. To help with this, there is a list of symbols used for these graphs, and the symbols are also color coded. For example, when a symbol's color is gray that means it is a bead that has already had thread woven through it. When the bead is a color other than grey, then that means it is a new bead that has not been woven into the jewelry piece yet.
The stitches section has graphs illustrating eight different bead weaving stitches used in the book: Zulu stitch, spiral rope, Chevron stitch, peyote stitch, daisy chain, netting, brick stitch,and tubular bead crochet. Along with the colored bead graphs for each stitch, there is a brief written description on how to do the stitch as well.
The Projects in the Book and Gallery Section
The project chapters has instructions for making 25 different jewelry pieces, primarily necklaces, but also some bracelets, earrings, and brooches as well. It is divided up into five chapters: Causal, Feminine, Elegant, Noble, and Gorgeous. I thought these chapter names were kind of interesting because they really do describe the author's designs, especially the words feminine, elegant, and gorgeous. Many of the projects weave seed beads and crystal, specifically Swarovski crystals, together. She also uses glass pearls in some of the designs as well such as the "Power Snow" bracelet. It weaves white glass pearls and silver and gold seed beads using netting stitch, and this is one of my favorite projects in the book. The piece is really classic and wearable, something I could see putting on almost every day.
One addition to this book that you don't always see that much in jewelry books like this is the use of models to show off the finished jewelry pieces. This is not the case with every single jewelry piece in the book, but it is a nice touch when it is done and a good way to have a feel for how the jewelry pieces look when worn by someone.
Some other favorites of mine from the book are the "Cheerful Midafternoon" necklace, which uses Zulu stitch; a beautiful beaded shawl called "Sweet Breeze," which uses netting stitch and peyote stitch; and "Night Dew," a bracelet that uses netting stitch to weave together clear seed beads and clear and pale blue crystal beads.
Following the project chapter is a gallery. This section is 14 pages long, and it exhibits some other amazing bead weaving designed created by the author.
Final Thoughts about the Book
Author Sonoko Nozue's jewelry designs in this book are all beautiful, and what I liked most of all was that the majority of them I felt were very wearable. The design and artistic elements did not overtake the practicality of the jewelry pieces, something that I see happens sometimes. I really prefer to make jewelry that I can enjoy wearing, and especially considering the complexity and time required to make many of these jewelry pieces, you should be able to enjoy wearing them when you are finished. It is nice to know that is possible when you finish one of her projects from this book.
Beginners will probably find the designs to be a little challenging, but there are some projects (for example those that use brick or netting stitches) that are not completely out of the realm of possibility. Intermediate and especially advanced bead weavers will be ready to jump into any of these projects since they are all based on fundamental stitches most will know how to do already.
Publisher's Site
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