American Indian Beadwork by W. Ben Hunt and J. f. "Buck" Burshears (1995, Paperback, Reprint)

I found Mr. Hunt's book back in 1967 in our school library. It taught me how to free hand bead and bead on a loom the correct way and I've been doing it his way ever since. I feel like I've been re-united with an old friend.

This book is an absolute joy to read and filled with great tips and wonderful color bead charts.

If you can find the other books he wrote called "Indian Crafts and Lore" or "the Complete Book of Indian Crafts," BUY THEM!!! They are all jam packed with tons of information on making all sorts of authentic American Indian items from bows to jewelry to buckskins and head dresses. They're a real treasure you can use over and over for years...and pass on to your grandkids!

The book arrived in excellent condition, so there was no problem there. As for the information in the book, that depends on what you have in mind. At the end of the book are lots of pictures showing different beadwork motifs (strips, rosettes, what have you). Unfortunately, the instructions at the beginning of the book show only the very basics, so if you want to try to copy those designs, you have to use your imagination. The book is even less informative for appliqué work; the books offers a design or two, but aside from the basic technique, nothing: the book doesn't even go into how to sew outlines of leaves (pretty common among woodland patterns), let alone how to fill them in. Finally, a large percentage of the pictures of finished beadwork (all in black and white, but that should be no surprise, since the book was originally copyrighted in 1951--that goes along with the territory) are not even pictures of Native beadwork: they are examples of what the author calls 'Koshare' beadwork...'Koshare' is the name of a group of members of a Boy Scout troop in La Junta, CO. Excuse me, but if I want to see a da Vinci, I don't want to see a copy of a da Vinci made by an art student at UCLA, no matter how talented the person might be nor how attractive the final product turns out: if I want to try Native techniques, I'm not interested in a third- or fourth-party's interpretation of those techniques. If all you want is basic information, you may be happy with this book...if you want to learn how to do beadwork, you might want to consider a different source of information.

This is a fabulous book about the art
of Indian Beadwork. This book
is very informative and shows true
Indian Beadwork. It is interesting to see
what the beads look like and the colors
and patterns. It is just wonderful to read
as a novel. I was very happy to find it
on Ebay! Thank you jeri

I am interested in anything to do with beads. Many native American designs have gotten lost in the shuffle, glad to still be able to find info. The first place I looked was ebay!!

This is a great book for beaders. There are lots of color photographs large enough for copying, with a good narative to go along with the photos. I like the descriptions of each medallion and identification of the various tribes represented. A well spent dollar!