Create Jewelry:Stones is the newest offering in the Interweave Press Create Jewelry series. Like the other books in the series, it's a gorgeously photographed book with simple projects. The focus in this one is stones.
The introduction explains stone basics, the hardness scale, the difference between semi-precious and precious stone, and has a beautiful full color list of a lot of common stones in beadwork, then it goes into the projects.
The projects are simple, and a lot of them have really wonderful beads that you may not find at your local bead store. Not to worry, there is a really well laid out resources list at the back of the book so you can find the beads the authors used. Most of the projects are strung, although a few of them have bead weaving as accents. I really love the Earth and Sky earrings. The inspire me to try something similar.
The projects are, as I said, simple, but they are lovely. Multistrand bracelets, instructions for wrapping briolettes, and ideas for using center drilled stone flowers. They are a nice mix of very delicate to chunky designs, so there is something in here wearable for everyone.
As much as I like the projects and introduction of this series, my favorite part of these books is the little "Did you know" pages with pictures of amazing historical uses of the subject matter and the story about them. I think I'd love a book just made up of all those lovely bits of ornamental trivia.
If you're looking for a book with complicated ideas and that will teach you techniques, these are not the books for you, but if you enjoy stringing, and want inspiration and information for color combinations and ideas for multistrand bracelets and necklaces, these books are lovely and a good foundation.