Every jewelry-maker needs a good reference library. Fortunately there are more gorgeous crafts book available today than ever before. Designing Jewelry with Glass Beads by Stephanie Sersich is a beautiful and useful book for your crafts library.

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This large sized paperback book is 127 pages and measures about 8.5 inches by 10 inches. It's published by Interweave Press, which is known for its beading books. The sturdy binding is standard for a paperback, but you'll have to put it on a bookstand to have your hands free for the projects. It doesn't have a spiral binding like a cookbook that you can lay flat.

The book itself is filled with gorgeous close-up photography of glass beads worked into a variety of designs all on a soothing white background. There are one or more photographs on every page. In addition, the 20 featured projects have step-by-step illustrations that are colored line drawings at close to life-sized (sometimes a little bigger and sometimes a little smaller). Aside from its usefulness as a tutorial, the book is beautiful enough to set on your coffee table for guests to page through and marvel at the colors, photography, and intricacy of the designs.

Here is a rundown of the table of contents:

The brief introductory sections are as follows: Living with Glass and Beads, Glass Beads through the Ages, Making Glass Beads, and the Elements of Design. The author describes her lifelong attraction to beads, gives us a history of the importance of beads in developing civilization through the ages, and provides a short technical explanation of the physical properties of glass and how modern glass-blowing is done. In the Elements of Design section, she spends a page each on repetition, contrast, balance, texture, and color.

All this is succinct enough that the experienced crafter won't start hyperventilating with impatience, but it provides some interesting facts for curious beginners. It also gives the book a veneer of scholarly reference (some science and some history) that elevate it beyond the simple craft-instruction you might find on a website.

The Projects. This is the bulk of the book and consists of 20 jewelry projects featuring glass beads. For each one, the author features a brilliant close-up photo of the finished piece designed and constructed by her from her own beads. She gives you a materials list, a tools list, and the finished-size measurement (length) of the piece in inches and metric. You also get some bulleted tips in a "Choosing Beads" section and a "Design Tip" section. Then you get the step-by-step project instruction with the line drawings.

If you like one type of jewelry more than another, here is a summary of what projects you'll get: seven necklaces, four pairs of earrings, four bracelets, three pendants, two brooches, and one collar. Here they are listed by title: Tinkerbell Drops (earrings), Fruit Salad Necklace, Funky Fiber Earrings, Wispy Necklace, Wirework Brooch, Trapeze Necklace, Stacked-Bead Pendant, Embellished Ribbon Necklace, Double-Clasp Bracelet, Spinning-Bead Pendant, Multi-strand Necklace with Pendant, Berber-Style Hoop Earrings, Fringey Bracelet, Spiny Knotted Bracelet, Flower Drop Earrings, Berber-Style Necklace, Fiber Bangle, Pearly Sewn Collar, Spiny Knotted Necklace, and Button Brooch.

Some crafts books start with apprentice-level projects and build to more difficult ones, but not here. These projects are all within the fairly easy to medium-challenge range. Some, such as the earrings and the stacked-bead pendant could be done in an afternoon by a complete beginner. Some such as the Spiny Knotted Bracelet are a little more difficult in that you need to learn some macramé techniques. The most time-consuming piece is the Pearly Sewn Collar which requires sewing different sizes of beads and sequins to a collar so that some of the beads dangle and some lie flat. But the end result is pretty enough to make it look worthwhile.

The author follows up with sections on Useful Information (at-a-glance diagrams of bead sizes, shapes, and diameters plus a conversion ruler and a wire gauge chart), Materials and Supplies, Glossary of Techniques, Sources for Materials and Artist Beads, a tiny Bibliography, and an Index. I recommend this book as a good addition to your crafts library.