Marcia Decoster's Beaded Opulence: Elegant Jewelry Projects With Right Angle Weave (Beadweaving Master Class Series)

I pre-ordered this book back in March of this year, and have eagerly been awaiting its publication. I've been fortunate enough to have taken a class with Marcia before and have also completed a few of her kits. Her designs are always beautiful and elegant -- and the projects in this book are no exception.The book is divided into six chapters: Chapter 1 covers beading basics; Chapter 2 provides a good overview of right-angle weave (RAW) that will benefit both experienced beaders, as well as novices; Chapter 3 covers projects that involve flat beading that resembles fabric; Chapter 4 covers rope-based projects; Chapter 5 covers beaded armatures; Chapter 6 covers embellishments; Chapter 7 covers curved projects; and Chapter 8 covers layered projects. The Appendix also contains a lovely Gallery of RAW projects by other bead artists such as Nan C. Meinhardt, Huib Peterson, etc. that makes for great eye candy.In total, there are 24 projects to choose from; some of them (like Terracita and Etruscan Treasure) are older designs of Marcia's, but there are also plenty of new designs to choose from. There is also a good range of projects for both beginning beaders (such as earrings and bracelets/anklets) and more advanced ones.Another nice feature is that the supply list for each project lists the precise colors of the beads being used, which should make it easy to replicate the exact look of each piece. A few of the supplies (like various widths of rubber tubing for the projects that involve armatures, etc.) looked like they might be a bit hard to find, but a quick Google search revealed that they should be easy to track down, and Amazon even carries some of them. This is a definite plus since it's always frustrating to discover that a beading project requires hard-to-find materials.What I also noticed is that the directions in this book are very thorough and clear. I've had a few problems in the past following along with Marcia's directions, but the directions here are very clear and the diagrams are excellent. The instructions have definitely benefited from some good editing by the publishers of the book.I don't have the first book in this new series by Lark, so I was also pleasantly surprised to see that the book is hardback since hardback books are so much easier to work from while you're beading.I can't wait to get started on some of these projects!

This is the classist book on beading I've ever seen. Beautiful photography, beautiful drawings, as everyone says. It's great to find a book devoted soley to beadweaving, and right angle weaving at that. I'm fairly new to off-loom weaving. I like to learn one procedure at a time, and if I enjoy it, stay with it until I get fairly good at it. I think it's difficult to write good instructions so that people can easily conceptualize what's going on, and I find I usually have to read most instructions at least twice and hopefully see someone demonstrate if I haven't tried the procedure before. So for me, a little experience helps (and a tutorial I found at either Shipwreck or Fire Mtn.) for one or more of those AH-HA! moments, but I find DeCoster's instructions so well written and the drawings so clear that they will be easy to follow. The gallery is a lot of fun to look at, over and over. The only complaint I have is that the only mention of materials resources is by Lark Books, which I found misleading. I was looking for some rubber cord and heat-shrink tubing on my usual suppliers' sites, and couldn't find either one. Fortunately, my husband is the vp at a rubber & gasket company, and he brought home just what I needed.I highly recommend this book for all skill levels, and highly commend the author for a practical and beautiful work of art.

I now have 4 "Beadweaving Master Class" books and I love all of them...and I got them all at an amazing price! I think this is an important series of books for beadweavers because they are not just offering more patterns and projects to play around with. While each book in the series does offer tutorials for the specific designs, the main focus is an intensive look into a specific technique and the broad scope of design possibilities with each technique.This one, Beaded Opulence, really helped me to finally understand Right Angle Weave. It was one of those stitches that I just never gravitated towards but after seeing the beautiful designs in this book I was really inspired to try it out.Marcia DeCoster does a great job of explaining Right Angle Weave and the endless ways in which it can be used. The tutorials for the projects are very clear and well written with good graphics...and the photos are amazing too!I am not a master beader by any means, but I am not a beginner either. I love working with all varieties of Peyote, Ndebele, Netting, Embroidery etc but I had never attempted RAW before now and this book has everything I needed to actually learn and understand Right Angle Weave.I have done a few of the projects in the book just to practice and I have had no problems with any of them...and now I have fallen in love with the versatility of Right Angle Weave.I would definitely recommend this book and the rest of the series to anyone who wants to learn these techniques from scratch or if you just want to learn more about them. It's great for beginners and experienced beadweavers.

très beau livre pour de belle réalisation

Such beautiful jewellery designs. I have made several of the pieces from this book and I love them. Marcia has provided wonderful detail to help beaders achieve greater skills with their beading. Her designs are stunning.

In meinem Bücherschrank stehen bereits sehr viele Perlenbücher, was nach 6 Jahren "Fädelsucht" nicht verwundert. Dieses Buch allerdings toppt alles bisherige. Der Leser findet wunderschöne Ketten und Anhänger, aber auch Armbänder und Ohrschmuck vor. Die Technik des RAW wird gründlich erklärt und bei den einzelnen Projekten mit anschaulichen Grafiken neben den englischen Erläuterungen bebildert. Dies erleichtert das Nacharbeiten erheblich.Wie der Titel es sagt, handelt es sich überwiegend um opulente Schmuckstücke, die vielleicht nicht immer alltagstauglich sind, aber auf jeden Fall ein Hingucker. Die schönsten Stücke sind leider auch richtige "Perlenfresserchen", was sich in bis zu 1664 Swarovski Bicone in einem Armband wiederspiegelt. Trotzdem bleibt die Reaktion beim Lesen: Wahnsinn - muß ich haben!!!

questo è il libro con una marcia in più; dà la possibilità di poter realizzare dei veri piccoli capolavori con la tecnica raw.Non può mancare in casa delle perlinatrici esigenti

If you're into beading and making jewelry, this book is "a must have". It is truly inspiring. Don't expect the patterns with directions to be easy. How could something this gorgeous be easy? Having said that, so far the directions seem pretty clear -- I just don't think it's the book you will want to use to learn the stitches for the first time. There are other good books for beginning beading (such as Beth Stone's,  Seed Bead Stitching ). This book is truly for learning how to make the more intermediate and complicated patterns that look just fantastic. The designs and pictures are gorgeous, stunning, and amazing. Don a bib, because you're going to drool. Seed Bead Stitching