Margie Deeb - The Beader's Guide to Color

The Beader's Guide to Color by Margie Deeb looks at color theory from a beader's perspective.

The book includes fantastic examples of beadwork that will provide inspiration and encourage you to challenge yourself to take your own beaded projects to a new level.

There's a broad range of styles represented in this book. Often the examples in craft books represent one clear style, and if the style shown in the book doesn't resonate with you, it can be hard to imagine applying the techniques to your own work. This is not the case with The Beader's Guide to Color. This book shows projects that represent a range of styles, making it easy to imagine applying the concepts to your own work, no matter what your style preferences are.

In addition to a clear examination of color theory and an in depth exploration of each color, the book also includes several projects. I've not completed any of the projects in this book, simply because I tend not to follow patterns and prefer to use books like this for inspiration and learning. However, for those who do like patterns, the projects are intriguing and make a wonderful use of color.

In the book you'll find tips on combining bead colors, with specific Delica bead color numbers provided so you can easily experiment with the color schemes.

For those who work with gemstones, you'll also find inspiration for creatively combining gemstone colors. These combinations are not laid out as clearly as the Delica color pallets, so you'll have to look for them in the text. My own copy of the book is full of notes I've made on different gemstone combinations and the pages where they are mentioned so I can refer back to those sections quickly.

The book is well designed in that the concepts are explained clearly in the text, and the same concepts are illustrated visually through color wheels that correspond with each example. Particularly if you are new to color theory, this structure allows you to understand and easily see the theory behind the color choices.

A short section of the book is devoted to beading basics, but it's not the focus of this book. This is not the book for you if you're looking for in depth instruction on stitches and beading techniques. Margie Deeb's The Beader's Guide to Color is ideal if you know the beading basics and want to understand color better, find some inspiration and make standout color choices in your projects.