Quick & Easy Stitched Jewelry: 20+ Projects to Make by Cathy Jakicic is published by Kalmback Books (2016) and retails for US $21.99 and CAN $22.99. It is a softcover book with a little over 100 pages to it and lots of color photos as well as some diagrams.

When most jewelry makers think of bead weaving, the idea of very tedious and time-consuming projects often come to mind. Of course, making large-scale bead weaving projects can give you hours of enjoyment as the maker of the jewelry piece; however, for those who want to make jewelry a little faster, it can be a turn off. This is especially true if you want to sell your finished jewelry designs since the time you put into a piece can be difficult, if not impossible, to get paid for when pricing your work. These are all issues that Cathy Jakicic considered while designing jewelry projects for this book. You can scale them up, and she shows you how to do this, but you can also construct a lot of simple to make jewelry items as well. Simple most often means less time when it comes to beadweaving.

Besides the time issue, another solution that the author has provided is the fact that she clearly states in the introduction that she will allow jewelry makers to resell items they construct with her design instructions. This tends to be a hot issue with some people claiming it is okay to do this anyway since they made the piece and others saying that they should get permission from the designer before doing this. Either way you want to look at this dilemma, though, it is always polite to ask (IMHO), and Jakicic tells you up front that she is giving you permission. How cool is that?!

As far as the 20 plus projects go, the idea of “plus” comes because she may show one design but then also spins off variations. For example, on page 74, she shows an Ombre Reef necklace, that is fairly complex and includes lots of branch fringe. However, her tones down spin includes branch fringe earrings and another necklace with less fringe on it.

I often had issues like this when I used to participate in arts and crafts shows. I enjoyed beadweaving but found the time input would not translate well into profits. While I was able to come up with a few seed bead type designs myself back then, they were pretty limiting. The projects in this book really answer that issue of time versus profit, and even if you don’t plan on selling your work, it is nice to spend less time on the “making” of a piece and more then the “wearing” of it.

Note: As with most books and crafting products reviewed on this blog, this book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.