Anne,
Wow - what fun! I Love, Love, Love beads! Not the single strand stuff that is so popular now, but the weaving.
Somewhere in my stacks of old magazines I have instructions for doing loomed beadwork with kids. The project used a box - I'm remembering pizza box. I will look for that for you. Anyway, for starters, you might pick up a bead magazine - I subscribe to Beadwork - www.interweave.com - and try some stuff there. The current issue has quite a range of ideas to try. Generally they look fairly easy.
In every issue of the magazine (p 8, June July 2004), there is a general list of techniques. They do not show loom weaving, however. They do show other methods of beading, not using a loom, but building on previous rows of beadwork. If you try these techniques, be forewarned that the first couple rows are the most difficult. When you buy beads, the cheapest beads will work, but they are not sized regularly. This means that your beadwork will not be exactly even from row to row. Not a problem, particularly, unless you want to do a large work and it must be even. Then I'd advise seeking out Delicas or Miyukis as they are more regularlly sized (but more expensive). Oh, there's so much more.
The books I have are pretty old - my 2 favs are Those Bad, Bad Beads, by Virginia Blakelock, and New Beadwork by Moss and Scherer. The latter is a book of arty stuff - not techniques. Blakelock primarily creates peices on the loom, so you might want to look at her book, too. SInce these are pretty old, perhaps the best for you would be to simply go to your favorite bookstore and see what they have, both in the book section, but also the Beading magazine section. Currently there are about 4 or 5 magazines devoted exclusively to beading. Also, you might try online - I have lots of sites. Try www.bead-patterns.com to start with.
I could go on and on, but won't. If you want more info, feel free to email me personally! When I taught HS - 20 yrs ago, I did beadwork with the kids and they loved it!
Jan
-----Original Message-----
From: carm@dtnspeed.net [mailto:carm@dtnspeed.net]
Sent: Mon 6/28/2004 7:11 PM
To: ArtsEdNet Talk
Cc:
Subject: Re: Jewelry Making Books (Jan and Gelato)
Jan and Gelato,
Thanks so much for responding. I am such a neophyte that I don't know
what I don't know! Your questions helped me clarify. Let me tell you
briefly what prompted my questions.
When we do our cardboard loom weavings, I often have "super weavers"
who are so far ahead of others that they often do additional weavings and
I'm able to show them more difficult weaves and knots as well. I've also
noticed that when some students have free time, they often ask to go to the
yarn scrap box and make bracelets and necklaces.
I've been recuperating these last couple of weeks from some outpatient
surgery and I have been learning to make friendship bracelets using
different styles-----trying to learn some new things I can share with
students. I would like to learn more about beading and realize it's more
than simply putting beads on a string. I think I'd want to start with the
variations of a single strand. I also like the idea of integrating it with
other units when appropriate as in Native American artwork.
I went to amazon books and art catalogs to see what books are
available. A highly rated book is the first one Gelato mentioned. I almost
ordered it, but I am always glad to hear what my ArtsEdNet colleagues think
first. It's difficult to narrow it down when starting something new. Many
thanks.
Anne C-H
>What type of beading are you interested in? Do you like the single strand
type of necklace? Or are you interested in the type of beadwork where small
regular sized beads are sewn together invarious stitches to create either a
flat work or 3d work looking much like mosaic ?
>Jan
>Somewhere I have the directions for making a simple Native American beaded
bracelet out of seed beads. Kids loved it. don't know where it is though.
Still have the sample. I started them with a simple seed bead ring. Have the
directions for that too---somewhere.
I remember we used # 32 wire. These were fairly simple. even my LD/ ED kids
whipped out tons of these and gave them to their friends and decorated their
back packs with them.
>hope this helps. the back of the Sax catalog should have some simple bead
books.
>Gelato
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