Book review and giveaway: Show Your Colors

What do you get when two beading superstars team up to explore the limits of colorful flexible beading wire?  Non-stop fun, that's what!  Jewelry artists will all know the work of Jamie Hogsett and Sara Hardin Oehler.  Show Your Colors is the result of their collaboration: 30 fun and fabulous jewelry projects that keep the colorful wire front and center!

The new colored flexible beading wire is used as a key design element instead of hidden away.  This unusual treatment adds a fun and very colorful flair to the contemporary designs that the authors share.

This book is especially excellent for beginners, since Jamie and Sara decided to make their projects accessible for all ability levels.  They've included all the basic techniques you'll need, plus...you're really gonna like this!...sources for all the beads and components.  Yay!  Although the ladies want to encourage us to explore color and pattern for ourselves, they also recognize that many beginners really want to reproduce a few projects exactly before venturing off on their own.  Well, be happy...they've made this possible!

There is a whole section of projects that use a knitting spool, and one of my favorite designs can be found there.  The Long & Winding Road bracelet uses three lengths of knitted wire in three colors, with seed beads randomly placed throughout.  The knitted pieces are braided together and wrapped twice around your wrist...very cool! 

***Free Stuff Alert!!!***

Just leave me a comment below and you'll automatically be entered to win.  If you tweet or post on Facebook or other social spots about the contest, you can leave a second comment and be entered twice!

Please make sure that your link will lead me to an email address, or else I won't be able to contact you.  No contact, no win, and I simply have to go on to the next person.  Deadline: May 23, 2012


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