Artistic Seed Bead Jewelry

Using rich cultural imagery from around the world, Maggie Roschyk helps you think like designers as she examines how color combinations, textures, and finishes affect the final look of seed beads. Her friendly writing style makes even advanced concepts accessible for those with a basic proficiency in bead stitching.
• A visual feast for beaders

• Learn how to “audition” beads

• Translate inspiration into seed bead necklaces, earrings and bracelets

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Author: Maggie Roschyk
Softcover; 8 1/4 x 10 3/4; 112 pages; 300 color photos; ISBN: 9780871164292

Click here to see an interview with Maggie Roschyk.

Maggie Roschyk is an accomplished beadwork artist whose work can be seen in many publications, including Bead&Button magazine, Art Jewelry Today, and 500 Beaded Objects. Maggie shows her work and teaches at many venues, including the Bead&Button Show in the U.S. and the Bead Art and Jewelry Accessory Fair in Germany. She will be a featured speaker at the 2011 International Society of Glass Beadmakers (ISGB) conference.

Maggie is a contributing editor to Bead&Button magazine and the author of an online column called Maggie’s Musings at Bead&Button.com. Her goal is to inspire others to create beaded art that reflects their individuality.

Welcome to My World

PROJECTS
Herculean Knot Bracelet
Blue Flame Pin
Poppy Pod Beaded Beads
Uroku Pendant Necklace
Banded Carnelians Necklace
Helena Elements
Stiletto Earrings
Art Deco Necklace
Intergalactic Love Song Necklace
African Turquoise Tubes Necklace
Easy Big-Sky Earrings
Urban Bedouin Cuff
End-of-Day Necklace & Earrings

Author’s Gallery
Techniques Review
About the Author

Maggie Roschyk's book Artistic Seed Bead Jewelry: Ideas and Techniques for Original Designs is a collection of seed bead woven jewelry that uses standard techniques and stitches to create wearable contemporary art jewelry.
The first 24 pages are an introduction to tools and supplies which you expect, but along with that is a lot of information on working out color palettes, designing jewelry and where to find inspiration. It's well written and full of valuable tips for both the supplies and finding ideas. If you've ever found yourself in a color or design rut, you may find these tips helpful. I certainly did.
The projects are written with the assumption you know the basic stitches, but if you don't know them, or need a refresher, there is a techniques section in the back of the book. A lot of the projects in this book are great for the beginner who wants to be challenged, and are very nice for the intermediate beaders who want to explore new uses for favorite stitches and get some practice with stitches they use less often.
The first project, the Herculean Bracelet is a simple knot translated into a bracelet. In fact, I tried something similar once, my version didn't turn nearly as elegant as the herringbone variation the author used. One of the things you notice is that the inspiration is mentioned, then she goes into some detail about how that design came about so you can see the creative design process at work. She also shows a photo on the sidebar of the fabric that inspired the bracelet. Each project also lists the stitches used in it, in this case, herringbone, even count flat peyote, tubular peyote and ladders.
The projects are richly inspired and a lot of them use combinations of stitches. The colors take their cues from the inspiring material and work well together and most of the supplies are very easy to find. Those that might be harder like the glass art disks used in the Uroku Pendant Necklace can either be found online or possibly commissioned from local artists or you can use something else in the project. I think vintage buttons would make a wonderful variation on that project.
Some of the shapes of the finished pieces are reminiscent of classic jewelry styles and can be classics you will wear for years, they are also still very contemporary and wearable day and night.
There is a lot of texture to the pieces, they want to be touched and appreciated, the colors chosen are dynamic, not flat.
Recommended for advanced beginner seed bead weavers-intermediate seed bead weavers.
-Shala Kerrigan, BellaOnline

From the fabulous projects to the amazing photography, this book grabs your attention. I have loved Maggie’s work since I saw it on the cover of Bead&Button magazine a few years ago. She has a specific style that ‘speaks’ to me and makes me put down my embroidery to try her projects.
The first project that sent me to the work table was the Helena Elements. Totally cool because of the variety of projects that one can come up with using the cubes.
I also loved the Herculean Knot Bracelet. Herringbone is my challenge stitch and Maggie’s directions were excellent.
And the gallery!!!! Whoa!
I love this book just as much as I love the author. Maggie is a true gem and a wonderful artist. I highly recommend this book.
-Sherry Serafini

As beading with seed beads is my favourite technique I have amassed quite a collection of books on the subject. But I have to say, this is one of, if not the best book I have on my shelf at the moment! With Artistic Seed Bead Jewelery, Maggie Roschyk takes you on a journey through the creation of the pieces in her book while teaching you how to translate the things you see around you into beautiful beadwork.
The first section, entitled Welcome to My World, talks about The author's creative process, where her inspiration comes from and how she chooses just the right beads for her projects. After a comprehensive look into what she keeps in her beading toolkit (and why), it’s on to the projects!
The 13 projects are varied and include many of the stitches we know and love – herringbone, peyote, brick stitch, right-angle weave and bead embroidery to name a few – but turned into wonderfully exotic and rich bracelets, cuffs, necklaces , pendants, earrings and a pin.
As you can see from the cover this isn't a book for beginners, but I think that someone with some beading experience and knowledge of the the basics could complete some of the projects with no problem. Far from being overwhelming, many of the projects are made by creating smaller components and joining them together.
The instructions for each project are comprehensive, including not only the usual supply list, clear instructions and diagrams but they also explain the inspiration behind the piece and why she chose those particular colours, beads or stitch. Among the collection of beautiful projects, my favourites include:
•Helena Elements - a beautiful necklace made from square beaded components which would not look out of place around the neck of a Greek Goddess.
•Blue Flame Pin - a bead embroidered brooch that employs a very interesting way of getting the design onto the beading foundation.
•Poppy Pods Beaded Beads - a collection of five peyote beaded beads made with seeds and drop beads.
•And of course the amazing Intergalactic Love Song necklace which features on the front cover.
Almost at the end of the book is the Techniques Review section, a handy guide to the techniques used in the projects. I particularly like the information about adding and ending thread as I find this is sometimes missing from most beading books.
The only negative I have about this book is that the author’s gallery at the end is way too small, I would have loved to have seen more of Maggie’s amazing work!
In a nutshell I think this is a fabulous book that’s full of encouragement and inspiration, glorious projects and page after page of beautiful photography.
I really wanted to complete one of the projects in the book to accompany this review, but as beading time was in short supply this month I only managed a small component! This is one of the beads from the Banded Carnelians Necklace which I really enjoyed making, even if my choice of colours leaves much to be desired ;)
-Operation Tackle That Bead Stash