I’m so excited to announce my new jewelry-making book, Bead Simple: Essential Techniques for Making Jewelry Just the Way You Want It! It won’t be in stores in March 2008, but now that it’s up on Amazon for pre-order and wish-listing, I can finally unveil it over here, too. It’s being published by The Taunton Press, and Alexis Hartman created the illustrations, and Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart took all the photographs. I love how colorful and lush it is, thanks to these three talented people!

I designed 50 beading projects for the collection, from necklaces and earrings to embellishments and ornaments. Each one has two spin-off variations, using totally different colors, materials or scale, to encourage readers to consider using their own favorites instead of exactly the same materials I did. And of the 150 total projects in the book, 39 of these variation pieces were contributed by some of my favorite designers — I love their take on beading and jewelry design, and it was amazing to see what they came up with!

There’s a front section of illustrated techniques (like wirework, beadstringing, knotting, and making clasps and earring wires) to get you started, and all the projects are arranged by genre, and rated beginner-friendly, moderate, or advanced difficulty. I used lots of vintage, reclaimed, and hardware store materials along with more traditional components like glass beads, semi-precious pendants, and metal findings, so instead of making a special (and expensive) trip to the bead store, I hope that readers are inspired to use favorite pieces from their bead stash or the thrift store to make something cool.

I’ve also created a book website at beadsimple.com that has more information on the book and my fabulous guest designers, but as the release date gets closer, I’ll be adding short technique videos, more resources, and links to other jewelry and beading sites.

I am so thrilled about the book and can’t wait until it’s out in the world! Thank you so much to my amazing guest designers, to my wonderful editor at Taunton, to Andrew and my friends and family for encouraging me, and to my susanstars customers for their support of my little business over the last six years.

Back to projects to make and other people’s craft doings tomorrow… and thanks so much to Megan for posting her interview with me over at Design Sponge today, it was a lot of fun to chat with you about craft projects, indie business and craft fairs — I really appreciate your thinking of me!