Jewelry & Beading

Compare & Contrasting Two Bead & Wire Books

by Tammy Powley on September 3rd, 2005

I mentioned last month that I received a review copy of Bead on a Wire: Making Handcrafted Wire and Beaded Jewelry by Sharilyn Miller.

Well, I finally managed to sit down and write a book review for my About.com Jewelry Making site. It’s funny because while I was totally impressed when I first took a look at this book (and I’m still impressed – this is a got to have book if you work with wire), I was also sort of freaked because my own bead and wire book had just come out (Making Designer Bead and Wire Jewelry). I couldn’t help but have doubts about Sharyiln’s book being better than mine. Hey, I’m only human, okay?

But, after I got a chance to sit down and really read through her book, I realized it wasn’t necessarily better. It was different – very different, which is cool because it shows how two people can take two totally different approaches to what seems to be the same topic: beads and wire.

Of course, read my review, but in a nutshell, the main difference is that Bead on a Wire is really all wire work, meaning there’s no stringing involved. She incorporates beads into the wire work, but you won’t find anything about how to string. Her book focuses primarily on wire fabrication. My book includes bead stringing and the wire work concentrates on making wire findings for beaded jewelry.

I can now say that I am so relieved to think that I’m not competing with someone as talented as Sharilyn Miller. While I’m very proud of my own take on beads and wire, I think there’s plenty of room for both of us on the Barnes & Nobel bookshelves.

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POSTED IN: Wearable Art