Book Spotlight: Little Beaded Boxes

When holidays come around, even the most casual beaders are hauling out their supplies to stitch and string beautiful ornaments and gifts made from beads. You can’t beat the sparkle of beads on a Christmas tree, or the personal touch of a handmade piece of jewelry. But when it comes to giving a unique gift, beads can do so much more!

Little Bead Boxes by Julia S. Pretl is an absolute delight for the beader who asks “What else?”. If you’ve ever felt even slightly bored with the same old designs, this book will open up a whole world of weaving possibilities.

Using delicas and simple variations of peyote stitch, Julia shows beaders of any skill level how to sculpt amazing little containers for trinkets and treasures. These beaded boxes are irresistible - they somehow capture the very essence of what makes beads wonderful, and transform it into compact creations with unending interest.

There are 5 basic box structures to learn, listed in order of difficulty - triangle, hexagon, pentagon, square and oblong. The instructions are broken up into sections, with the more complex box bases described first. Once the bases are created, simple tubular stitching is used to build up the box, which can be finished with several different rims and lids.

The stitching directions are incredibly easy to follow, with big, clear diagrams of each step to guide you. Most beaders will recognize the very simple peyote technique used, but the tiny variations in the weave create the most incredible shapes and structures.

The tutorials also include steps to add bead feet and finials or handles to finished boxes, followed by full patterns for twelve different boxes. Each pattern includes color diagrams and a word chart with delica numbers, so you can recreate each of the fun designs.

Little Beaded Boxes is perfect for beginners and experts alike. Once you’ve mastered the techniques behind a simple beaded box, you can challenge yourself with some of the tiered and embellished designs. The book also includes blank graph templates, so you can create your own unique patterns for one of a kind beaded boxes.

I am oh-so tempted to start creating my own beaded boxes for Christmas presents this year, but I know I’ll be too smitten to part with them! Perhaps they can be this year’s gift to me.

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading
Julia S. Pretl and Creative Publishing

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