Bead-Making Lab: 52 explorations for crafting beads from polymer clay, plastic, paper, stone, wood, fiber, and wire

Fill the year ahead with handcrafted beads that you can make yourself by following tutorials from Bead-Making Lab!

Imagine a year in beads. We're talking 52 handmade varieties all handcrafted by you! Bead-Making Lab makes this bounty of bead making possible with instructions for bead designs that run the gamut from sophisticated to playful.

Bead-Making Lab is organized by material, and single-spread lab tutorials for each bead design make the book simple to use. The tutorials are brief, accomplishable, and rewarding. Choose from traditional materials like paper mache and polymer clay, or opt for new materials such as resins and shrink plastic. Once you've selected your medium, follow the lab instructions for the bead-making technique of your choice. Try a new technique each week! With how-tos including molding, carving, painting, gluing, drilling beach glass and pebbles, and creating fiber-art beads with felting and embroidery, you'll have a year of unique projects ahead of you. Bead-Making Lab also offers ideas on how to turn your beads into jewelry and gives you a sneak peek at some contemporary bead artisans' best work. Get busy beading, crafters!

Heather Powers is a bead maker, jewelry designer, and author. She is a frequent contributor to bead magazines and her popular blog, Art Bead Scene (artbeadscene.blogspot.com) brings her love of handmade beads and art inspiration to jewelry designers around the world. Heather organizes an annual Bead Cruise and teaches at workshops and retreats around the country. She is the author of Bead-Making Lab, Jewelry Designs from Nature, and Beautiful Elements: Creative Components to Personalize Your Jewelry.