Book Review: Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects

Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects from Lark Jewelry and Beading

A few things you might want to know about this book:

• Hard cover – lays flat for easy reference
• 126 pages
• Diane Fitzgerald’s Favorite Beading Projects includes 24 projects
• There is a project gallery at the end of the book for further inspiration
• The MSRP is $27.95 (USD) and can be purchased for $17.69 at amazon.com.

This book contains 24 projects that Diane has taught over the years. While she says in her introduction that they range from beginner to intermediate level I really found only one project that I would consider BEGINNER.

And it’s not a jewelry project.  While that’s not a bad thing I think that if you are truly a beginner to the beading world you might find this book to be super challenging and possibly even frustrating. There is no introduction to tools or techniques in the book or a glossary explaining terms. It is assumed that you come to this book with some previous beading knowledge.

Having said that, if you are an intermediate or advanced beader you will find plenty of projects that you might enjoy making and even some to challenge you.

I like that the book not only contains the projects like this Art Deco Necklace…

but also includes a couple of photos after the instructions to inspire you to create variations on the original project.

The piece that caught my eye was the One-to-Many Strand Necklace. You know I LOVE color and I also love my jewelry to have a little “chunk” to it so this should come as no surprise.

So I decided to give the project a try and create my own One-to-Many Strand Necklace.

While Diane does provide a supply list for each project, and I did read through it, I decided to use beads I had on hand and purchase some based on those colors.

Even though I used beads I had on hand I still spent about $35 on beads to go with them so it’s definitely got a lot of beads in it. But don’t worry, I also have enough left over to create a bracelet that goes with the necklace and maybe a pair of earrings or two as well.

When I looked over the instructions I couldn’t understand them at first glance but once I got to working with the beads I quickly figured it out. And while I didn’t follow instructions 100% (using product I already had on hand lead to some changes) I’m super happy with the way my necklace turned out.

(To see a list of supplies I used and an idea of a few of the things I did differently in creating this One-to-Many Strand Necklace please be sure to visit The Creative Goddess blog today.)

This is a book that I intend to keep on my shelf. I already have 3 or 4 other projects book marked to make in the future. Like the Art Deco piece mentioned above and this Majesty Necklace.

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About Vicki

I also blog at vickiodell.com, a daily creative lifestyle blog where I share craft and home decor projects as well as recipes, inspiration and my own brand of Creative Goddess wisdom. I can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. Be careful... I'll talk your eyeballs off if you let me. 🙂

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