Easy Crystal Stitching, Sophisticated Jewelry

This book contains lovely projects that appear to be incredibly complex and look as if they should be on the cover of a beading magazine. Then, you find out that they are easy to make and that even I can make them! Ms. Angel's genius premise in writing this book is to break down beautiful, complex beading projects into several standard motifs: circle, triangle, square, bezel, bail, spiral rope and toggle clasp.The first part of the book shows you how to make each of these motifs, if you don't know them already. The instructions are very readable and any intermediate beader should have no trouble making any of them. (BTW, the motifs make pretty earrings all by themselves!)Then, Ms. Angel combines the motifs into complex, incredible projects that you can scarcely believe that you made yourself. Really. I finished the "Rivoli Revelry" bracelet and then spent a good amount of time just admiring my own work, which is not my usual behavior. The bracelet came out so well that I immediately started on another one - this time making some changes to make the bracelet mine instead of one that came out of a book.And that's the real genius of this book: it gives you the confidence to make your own treasures by experimenting with the standard motifs she teaches you.Thanks, Ms. Angel.

Great value! This book costs around the price of just one of the amazing patterns contained within. For that, I don't understand how it could receive less than 5 stars in ANY case. The gripes about referring to other sections is very common in beading books, so it shouldn't come as a surprise. That said, the beautiful patterns and techniques you learn are worth at least 3 times the price. Get it!

Love the idea of component bead weaving and I was not disappointed there. The problems I noticed occurred when I was doing the gorgeous necklace on the front cover. First I order the 20 grams of seed beads and ended up using only 8 grams and since I ordered the 24K plated delica's this was an expensive error. I also found it incredible frustrating to have bounce from page to page to complete the components. Also the diagrams did not match exactly the photo of the necklace; for example, the triangular component that the main pendant attaches to shows some pearls but the actual photo is only crystals. Again, the basic components were great and I look forward to using them in other projects but the organization, editing, and consistency in the book were disappointing.

I love this book. Although it is a little annoying to bounce around to get instructions for all the components, after I made them a couple of times I didn't really need to refer back to the instructions too much. I like that I can mix it up a little by using different parts in different places. I was fortunate to meet Nikia at the Bead and Button Show in June and she is delightful. Her enthusiasm is contagious and I'm truly looking forward to her next book. I am always watching out for designs that are wearable, and the designs in this book are beautiful to wear and appeal to a broad audience.

I'm an experienced beader, but am always looking for books that explain stitches easily and correctly. I have found such a book! Easy Crystal Stitching is superior. Nikia's instructions are super, her images are perfect and her finished pieces are superior! Even though I have some experience I'm going to enjoy this book to the max because the instructions are easy to follow for beginners, too. I'm so happy I purchased this book and plan on making as many pieces as soon as possible. That's the one other good thing about this book...you get inspired immediately because of the easy steps that Nikia writes. She starts out with a easy and beautiful piece and works her way up to the more advanced pieces building on what you've learned. I bet she's a great teacher in person too!

I gave zero stars to the shipper because the book arrive in pieces. I mean, the book arrived so damage that it is hard to express how I feel. However some pages are ok, and my wife tried to make a piece of jewlery...she has to struggle a lot to understand the instructions, those are really hard to follow up. Firts of all, you need to get a book in good shape otherwise you can get only trash.... you need to request the shipper to protect your items very well.

The way this book is organized makes it difficult to follow a project from start to finish. You have a diagram for how the beads should be arranged for that particular project, then you are referred back to the beginning pages for the stitching instructions, and sometimes when you get there, the first thing in the instructions is: Go back to page (whatever) and do steps 1, 2 and 3. By the time you flip back and forth a few times, you're getting a headache. Also, (and this is a frustration I've had with many beading books and magazines) you love how the project is done in the picture, but it is absolutely impossible to get anything like the beads they show (in this case, pearls). So I managed to complete a necklace, but I'm disappointed in it, and did more ripping back because the instructions were unclear than I've ever done before (I do a lot of beadweaving). So I wouldn't rate this book very high, and if I hadn't already bought it, I wouldn't buy it.

The instructions are clear and easy to understand--just like her kit instructions. Everything was so clear that it encouraged me to try to bevel other sizes of rivolis on my own (both 18mm and 14mm) and use some different materials. I beveled some using 4 mm pearls. I did others substituting 8/0 seed beads for the bicone crystals in the instructions. It took more of them, but the technique using 11/0s and 15/0s stayed pretty much the same. I don't think I would have had the nerve to try it without the basic instructions from the book.

A lovely book , good easy to follow instructions and diagrams and well illustrated, all together veryexciting little projects which can be quickly worked giving any beader a sense of achievement in producingreally pretty results.

This is an excellent book. It has a variety of good designs with good clear instructions supported by excellent graphics. I am now in the middle of making my first project. I would recommend this book to any one interested in beading.

This is a lovely book, full of inspirational ideas with full instructions, and I have found it very useful. The novice or experienced beader would find this book a very useful reference book.

I have yet to start doing a project using this book but as I'm quite new to beading I'm a bit slow but it seems there are some good starter projects to try.

The book arrived long before the due date, was adequately packaged and easy to open. It is a lovely book to own.