As usual, the pieces are from a variety of designers and have the look about them of being dazzlingly advanced. However, if you are familiar with forming even fairly simple embroidery stitches, these excellent photographic, staged instructions ought to have you beading like a pro fairly quickly. The way in which every tiny step has its own separate high-resolution photo and written instructions makes for a foolproof combination, and I don’t think I ever learned anything so fast. Other writers of how-to books take note! As for the projects, these include several floral studies, some abstract, dragonflies, a lovely bead-adorned portrait, as well as edgings that would make great jewelry with a little adaptation. The photography is superb, as are the invariable little additional touches, such as 18th and 19th century floral paintings, making this a truly beautiful book as well as a formidably useful one. This is definitely another one for the keeper shelf.

If you cannot find beads and threads locally, try SearchPress.com for a list of suppliers. You can also buy this book from this website.