The author is an expert on the history and use of beads around the world, and this book is a treasure for anyone who loves beads, ethnic jewelry, or world cultures. It is literally a trip around the world, concise by necessity yet substantial, examining bead-related customs and even beadmaking techniques. The book is crammed with stunning pictures of people wearing traditional jewelry, artisans at work, maps locating bead types, and finished pieces. Every other spread presents a project from the part of the world examined. Each is based on an existing piece and the author has tried to reproduce or approximate the original technique.

This is not, therefore, a book to learn a variety of beading techniques (many are simply the string-and-knot type), but an introduction to different cultures' approach to jewelry making, design choices and preferred materials. What the projects require is not skill so much as the appropriate beads, which can be quite exotic (praise heavens for online bead shops). As far as I'm concerned the DIY projects are secondary to the research and tremendous inspiration World Beads provides for both jewelrymaking and illustration. And if I haven't made that clear enough: the book is plain gorgeous.

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