Thursday, January 12, 2012

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Link to The Beading Gem's Journal

Book Review - Stitch Workshop : Right Angle Weave

Posted: 12 Jan 2012 04:00 AM PST

I previously wrote about Kalmbach Publishing's Stitch Workshop : Peyote Stitch .  It was a wonderful book ideally suited to beginners and intermediate beaders.

They recently sent me the latest one in the series is Stitch Workshop: Right-Angle Weave.


This one too is very much in the same vein. A 28-project celebration of one of the most popular stitches as well as a solid reference book for learning it.


Don't get me wrong. Advanced beaders who want a break from more challenging projects will also like this book.  There are some innovative designs which will appeal to those who want to learn alternative RAW approaches.

There aren't any ring projects and the majority of the designs are for bracelets. There are also a few medallion designs which look lovely in necklaces.

While the book covers the basic techniques, there is a page full of tips for RAW by David Chatt.  He is the guy who first developed single needle RAW some time ago and thus help popularize this stitch.

Did you know Fire Line is known as a parallel filament plied gel-spun polyethylene material and that nymo is a parallel filament nylon?  No?  Neither did I.  It's amazing what little snippets of information there are in books like these.

You can take a peek inside the book here.   I can't say I liked some of the flat bracelets especially since this stitch works so well for more dimensional designs.   Most of the projects mercifully used larger seed beads and crystals for faster completion as shown in Crystal Ribbon bracelet.


There were some bangle standouts which quickly became my favorites.  The Crossing Paths bracelet is really a double stranded tennis bracelet.


Another delight is the Loops Add Drama bracelet which features a scalloped edge.


The Zig Zag Bangle is really neat as the beads are put together around a craft store bangle core.


Yet there were other designs which used the RAW stitch to form a bangle without a core support. One stunning example is the A Metalsmith's Match bracelet constructed entirely with 11/0 beads.


It was inspired by the metal work method of granulation which fuses tiny small metal balls into beautiful patterns without soldering.  The ancient Etruscans were well known for this technique and how they did it remained a mystery for centuries. It wasn't solved until the 20th century. See my post Victorian Fashionistas and their Etruscan Style Jewelry.

This delightful book does indeed deserve the Stitch Workshop title.


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Original Post by The Beading Gem


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