Beaded Colorways: Freeform Beadweaving Projects and Palettes

I bought this because of the beautiful pictures and to learn how to use colors in my beading (and because I liked the term "bead soup"). I love color, but I needed a go-to reference for using it well. I was buying colorful beads, but I'm not good at visualizing colors together; all of my pieces were basic or monochromatic. Pretty, but not what I *wanted*.Beaded Colorways comes with two color wheels (one regular, one pastel) and half a dozen "wheels" you can lay over the wheel to get different types of mixtures. I was impressed, because six is two more groupings than I've found with other wheels. It explains hues and value and saturation, but right out of the box, the wheel was great.Every action in this book has at least one photo--not a drawing, a photo--of a person doing the step. If I'd known the book mainly uses netting, I wouldn't have purchased it. I'm glad I didn't know! I've never been able to find basic instructions for netting; this book has them. The netting instructions had ten steps, which means it had ten photos and one illustration of the first three rows.Some beaders are thinking "netting"? Netting brings to mind Christmas ornament covers. But there are three kinds of "three-bead netting" in this book: basic, modified, and wild. That was enough to get me started--if the middle had no rules, than I couldn't mess it up.I'm over halfway through a project I would never have been able to do without the encouragement this author provides--the encouragement to try it. Have fun. It's free-form, she repeats frequently, so you can't get it "wrong". That's the way we teach children to explore their world, but beading often has rigid rules and specific requirements. This bead, this brand of this bead, this size of this brand of this bead...I highly recommend "Beaded Colorways". It's not only informational, it's fun!

The great:Color Wheels that have 24 color wedges and three tones or shades in each wedge. You can find the color you are thinking of on these wheels. The black overlay cards for revealing the color harmonies make the colors jump out. There are more overlays which allow for creativity right on the wheel.Even if you mix colors intuitively and do not like the wheel, you probably will like these wheels. They are truly useful. And you can see pastels and saturated colors on these two wheels. This was worth the price of the book to me. Most color wheels are useless because they only show the primary and secondary colors and they are done. There is more to color mixing than the primary and secondary colors.The good:Well photographed, in good color, shows the color wheel alongside the actual project to see how it looks on the wheel, pictorial instructions, and a most useful section on proper ergonomics of sitting, light, and stretching and relaxing the eyes and the neck. I hope people take this to heart. Beading takes almost obsessive attention at times and it is easy to forget one's body.And useful information is given on making bead soups. I prefer dot bleed method of shading and do not like bead soups so this section is not for me. Do you find yourself picking colors out of a bead soup and defeating its purpose?The ugly:I find the designs really clunky and without finesse. I think free form beading is very hard to do well, and a little of it goes a very long way. This is not a design book, and the few beading stitches described netting, peyote, and embroidery and bezeling have all been done better in other books.

I purchased this book based on the good reviews of others, and I'm very glad I did. It is all that they enthused about, and more.There was mention of a color wheel. When investigating that (in a plastic pocket in the back of the book) I was surprised to find some templates as well, with guides to the different aspects of color matching. Yes, it is possible to make these up on your own, but I can't remember the last time I got the crayons/color pencils out to that end.Not only does it illustrate (with large illustrations) some of the basics of beading and bead weaving, it offers many projects and means of applying those techniques. Whereas I'm not sure I would create exactly these offerings, their projects are sure to get the creative juices flowing in directions of my own.My budget is pretty controlled these days, and I don't invest in too many new books sight unseen, but I'm very happy I invested in this one. It's a valuable addition to my library.

This book is amazing! The color theory really cleared my thoughts about how to use a color wheel. The book is easy to read and follow, the pictures are awesome and the attention to detail in teaching the various styles is great! I've already made some bead soup and some beads on metal for myself and friends. It goes fairly fast and the reception by my friends is that they are overwhelmed that I can make these myself. I saw someone wrote that these designs are clunky and lack finesse. Just make something out of this book for yourself and wear it, and you won't believe the compliments you get. This is Beverly's style and I love it! People have asked how I do it, and of course I won't share that information. I tell them, "buy the book!" This is a book I will treasure and should probably buy a second since this one will get destroyed from me using it so much!

Only five stars? I wish I could give this book 10 stars!I love this book - I have studied colours for years from many aspects (from interior design to web design, through nearly all arts and crafts...) but had never come across a book about colours which made so much sense.The beading techniques and projects are beautiful, wearable, well explained and clearly illustrated but this book goes way beyond beading and jewelry projects: it explains in simple and practical terms how to combine colours. It reveals the secrets of what makes a colour scheme/combination 'work'. I have studied colour for years and at different levels (from the science to the art (including web graphics and computer arts) as well as the psychological effect of colours) but this book really opened a new door for me!With the book, you also get 2 colours wheels and sliders to help you plan colour combinations such as 'complementary', 'analogous' etc.It is well written, artistically and clearly presented. It delivers much more than it claims - unlike so many other books...I love books - I think this one will be 'my book of the year'!! Thank you Beverly Ash Gilbert.

Love this book,The best part of this book for me is the two colour wheels and the black cut out wheels, that you put over the colour wheels, to see if you like colours that go together. This is an easier way to use colour theory. If you wonder about using different colours in your work. This lady is a great teacher. She also teachers you how to get from one colour to another in a flowing way. So if you want rainbow colours or just different values of one colour all is revealed. and she even shows you step by step how to make some lovely wearable designs too.buy this one for your library.

Lavish colour photos and a very useful free colour wheel and instructions how to use it in your crafts are just 2 reasons I like this beading book.If you enjoy making things from beads and are looking for tips on how to choose and use colourways this is the book for you. If you want inspiration and ideas its great.However for anyone looking for exact step by step beading patterns it might not be the best book for you as it does encourage you to experiment with your own designs based on the examples shown in the book.

I bought this book as wanted to improve my freeform beading. This book is well written and explained use of the colour wheel with choice of beads and although has ideas and projects I really bought it to help with the basic build up of a bracelet or necklace to make my own. Thoroughly recommended.

I love colour and this book did not disappoint. I still haven't got down to a project but I will be inspired soon. It is a good book to have on huge shelf anyway and even if you don't do beadwork you can appreciate the colour.