The Complete Guide to Traditional Native American Beadwork: A Definitive Study of Authentic Tools, Materials, Techniques, and Styles [ペーパーバック]

There's another book available here at Amazon.com: "Native American Beadwork: Traditional Beading Techniques for the Modern-Day Beadworker" by Georg J. Barth. While that one does not claim to be complete (which no book can be) it actually comes pretty near to that goal. For example the Crow stitch, which has been a common technique among the Plains and Plateau beaders, is covered by Barth in a whole chapter while Monture just "devotes" one single paragraph -- and the worst thing is: Mr Monture has not understood this beading technique at all and presents a completely wrong instruction.

The overlay stitch -- a beading technique that was used on almost all of North America and that employed two needles -- is also completely misunderstood. Mr Monture presents a technique that almost never was used by the Native women who did (and do) most of Native style beadwork but unfortunately is very popular among non-Native beaders. The "running stitch" that Monture recommends results invariably in a humpy surface and does Native bead artistry no justice.

"Native American Beadwork" by Barth covers the various weaving techniques on more than thirty pages with as much diagrams, while Monture does away with a single page. The same applies to the various techniques of Peyote or Gourd stitch. While Monture is satisfied with one technique that is mostly used by Non-Native beadworkers and that is dealt with on two meagre pages, Barth's book is the first one that offers a comphrehensive description of the Peyote Stitch on more than thirty pages, including as many diagrams and illustrations.

As to Monture's computer generated diagrams: these are some of the poorest illustrations that I have found in a book on this subject or any other.

That the author is a Native American is no guarantee that he automatically knows everything about Native American beadwork. Even his position as a professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe should not make you think that this makes him automatically an expert on beadwork.

This definitely is NOT a complete guide, and it definitely is NOT the book you can learn from how to bead Native American style!

Again, its more about where you're from. Some could say it is 'romantized', as it doesn't go into how much work it actually is to produce hides, that its smelly, you need a lot of guidance & practice, etc.

Different tribes use different techniques, & this book is definitely written from a more northeastern tradition, perhaps difficult to appreciate as it is less known outside these communities. (Plains beadwork is usually what the mainstream usually recognizes as 'authentic'.)

That said, one probably needs a little background to get the most from this book. I do wish there was more discussion on color use and Great Lakes pattern development, but these are also skills which are best honed by doing. I enjoyed this book, which does pack a lot of information into relatively little space. The construction techniques are excellent!