A friend sent me a copy of the new little booklet from Sundance called Sundance Beads for Needlepoint--How To and Why Knot! I'd been very curious about it since I heard Sundance had written a book to help folks put beads on their needlepoint. Sundance beads are a particular favorite of mine as they come in a lot of colors and finishes. Here's the Sundance website, but you won't see the booklet there. I guess they haven't updated their website in the last month or so since the book came out. Click on Catalogue, then choose beads from the drop down menu to see the huge variety of beads they sell.http://www.sundancedesignsonline.com/
Back to the book review--Sundance Beads for Needlepoint is a small booklet, only 20 pages from cover to cover, but it is chock full of information from Cassandra Prescott and her daughter Nandra Hotchkiss. They are stitchers as well as designers and since they use lots of beads in their stitching and sell beads, they wrote this as a guide to folks who want to use beads to embellish their designs. Cassie and Nandra explain the various bead sizes and tell you which ones work best on which size canvas depending on how you plan to stitch with them, then go into great detail about the various finishes of beads you can buy. They talk about beading threads and needles, tell you how to use Nymo and beading wax, and explain how to start and stop beading. They even recommend how to hold your beads while working with them.
But the best part of the book for me is their brief section on the basic bead stitches, which is immediately followed by 9 pages of diagrams of stitches they love to use with beads. This is invaluable information that I have not seen elsewhere, at least not in such great detail. And because I know the source is very knowledgable, this is great information to have.
I was unable to find a source for the booklet online this morning. Hopefully someone who reads this can tell us where they've seen the booklets for sale or if their shop carries it. I believe it costs $15 but without any online sources, I can't confirm the price.
If you are really into beading your needlepoint, this book is highly recommended.
UPDATE: Judy Harper's blog has more information about Sundance beads and photos of her beaded projects.
http://fairy-crafts.blogspot.com/2009/03/using-sundance-beads.html
Jane/Chilly Hollow
Main blog at http://blog.360.yahoo.com/chillyhollow
