If you are a jewellery enthusiast and want to keep up with the latest trends then there are some great new ideas in here, shown in many handsome large photographs that sprawl opulently across the pages. This book was first published in Italy (home of this new jewellery fashion), before coming out in the States and finally in the UK. Turn to the back and you can see suppliers based in the first two locations, but not in the UK. At the time of writing this, some of the products featured in the book are not available to British beaders, so making exact replicas of some of the pieces is not always possible. You can learn the techniques on how to attach findings, bend wire into the required shapes and tie various useful knots, and then browse the Net to see what you can locate, or improvise with what you have at hand as I have done. This is not the best place to learn crochet though, as chain stitch is not covered and only half the method of double crochet appears, making this section the least useful unless you can already crochet. But the innovative methods employed to make the pieces make creative hands itch to have a go, and most are refreshingly simple. It doesn’t take long to bead up a storm with this type of beadwork, and although I would hesitate to recommend the book for a total beginner, even novice beaders ought to make some great wardrobe extenders.

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