The Illustrated Bead Bible, Terms, Tips & Techniques by Therese Flores Geary
Hard cover, 416 pages with lots of photos
This is a truly heroic effort and as someone who once aspired to creating a Dictionary of Beads, I know just how huge a job it is.
On the plus side, she got it done and that's impressive. After a 14 page introduction there are 300 pages of alphabetical listing for beads and anything that's related - often only remotely related.
On the negative side the coverage is uneven: it's very heavy on seed beads and related terms and techniques, understandable because that's the authors field, but lacking in information about beads from other cultures or times.
Low hanging fruit such as stone beads easily gathered from any good gem book, basic tools, techniques, and terms whose meaning is no different in the bead world from what's found in an ordinary dictionary also pad the list.
What's missing or too brief, is what I think is needed most: information about ethnographic and ancient beads from around the world.
Still, for an interested beader, or a beginner and/or one with interest in seed beads, this would make a nice gift or reference. It's a lot of book for not very much money at this price.
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