Book ~ "Beading Basics" (2006) Carole Rodgers

From Goodreads ~ Discover the basics of beading and beyond!

If you've been tempted by the beauty of beaded jewelry and home decorating pieces, but second guessed your abilities to learn the skills needed to create such tantalizing works, fear no more! 

"Beading Basics" reveals all that's necessary for creating everything from a simple single-strand necklace to a more intricate netting stitch woven wind bottle covers.

I recently found a couple cheap beaded anklets I'd bought about 20 years ago.  I'd forgotten all about them so started wearing them again.  But the clasps are broken and the strings are stretched so I wanted to repair them and figured I could do it.  I decided to put them them on an elastic string to remove the need for the clasps.  When I took one apart, I discovered the flowers are done in a daisy chain, rather than being a whole bead.  So that started my quest to learn how to do a daisy chain.  And that's what brought me to this book.

Daisy chain - Source

Plus I think I'd like to work with beads ... nothing fancy or flashy, just fun stuff.  Last week, I'd picked up a package of letters and a spool of elastic string and made this bracelet:

The chapters in this book are:

1. Getting started - beads and supplies/tools
2. Tips and techniques
3. Design principles and colour theory
4. Projects - there are 40 projects including bracelets, earrings, necklaces, wine rings, lampshades, etc. along with pictures

For the most part, I found the instructions in this book fairly easy and there are lots of how-to illustrations.  I think they will make more sense once I actually try them.  Some of the projects were too fancy/flashy for me but I got some ideas on some fun things I'd like to try.

The good news, though, is that I now know how to do a daisy chain!  Mission accomplished!