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It's a very creative and happy book--lots and lots of smiling faces decorate the pages. The book is colorful and attractive. It has a *getting started* section that tells how long and how many pieces of hemp to cut for each type of bracelet, choker, necklace, or anklet. (There are no directions for hemp rings with blue beads. Don't want to put those vending machines out of business anyway, do we?) After you've cut your hemp, the book shows, with explicit drawings, how to start your project with a loop. Securing your project is also discussed. The next two pages discuss and show different ways to finish your project.
There are 10 different types of bracelets described, and each of these styles could also be made into a necklace or anklet, too, by making the project longer. There are different levels of difficulty, and options are given so that the styles can be varied. The drawings are very detailed. A diagram is provided for each step of the project, and an actual photograph of the finished product is provided. I found the directions easy to follow--not confusing at all.
It's easy to get extra hemp at an arts and crafts store. We got a roll the size of a fist for about $5.00. Granted my daughter hasn't run out of hemp that came with the book yet, but my son wanted to try his hand at making a bracelet so extra hemp was necessary, plus I'd like to make a few bracelets, too! There would have been plenty of hemp for us all to use the hemp that came in the kit, but I didn't want to ask my daughter to let us use hers. Clasps can be bought separately at a crafts store. The book does give directions for finishing your project, but a clasp would be a lot more handier for me. I'll have to look around the next time we go to the crafts store and see if there are any clasps that would work with the hemp.
My 9yo daughter needed help with beginning and ending the bracelets and necklace that she made, and my 11yo son didn't. My daughter needed help with one of the bracelets, but once I showed her and propped the book up in a convenient location for her to look at it, she did fine. Once in a while she had to back up a few loops to clear up a mistake, but I have to do that with my projects once in a while, too. We had to adjust our beginning loop size. The first bracelet we made we started it with too big a loop which makes fastening the bracelet on your wrist difficult--so now we try to make the beginning loop a little bit smaller than the book shows.
One drawback to this kit is that some of the beads' holes are too small to be strung on the hemp. So some (20%?) of the beads aren't usable--well, some of ours weren't. Possibly all the beads that you get with your kit will have adequately-sized holes. Plus we're going to make some of our own beads with The Incredible Clay Book. I've made some really pretty ones--it's easy because the book shows you how! The kids haven't made any beads yet because I wanted to try it first to see how it worked out. It's a fairly long process. Anyway, so if you make some of your own beads, the hole size of the ones in the kit isn't as critical. Besides, you can always buy a few beads at the arts and crafts store. But I suggest waiting until after you've made a couple of bracelets because then you'll have have a better idea of what new types of beads you might like to work with.
I'm not sure how sturdy the hemp is. I know that the hemp ring that my daughter gave me wore out after about 9 months of sporadic wearing. But then, I sorta used it as a fidgeting device, so possibly I wore it out prematurely with my rubbing it. I'm guessing (hoping) that a tighter weave will produce a longer-lasting product. I guess we'll just have to experiment here to see how long these items last.
Another thing that we're finding that we have to experiment with is the initial length at which we cut our hemp. The other night we had some friends over and my daughter showed them how to make a spiral bracelet. We cut the lengths a little longer than the book suggested, however, out of the five people making bracelets/anklets, one didn't have enough hemp. Early on in her project, I noticed that her weave was a little looser than the others', but I didn't think much about it since I didn't realize that a looser style would require more hemp. It was kind of a downer to work for over an hour on a bracelet to find that there wasn't enough hemp. So we'll watch that and add a little more length when we have friends over who might have a looser style of hemping (I'm quite sure hemping isn't the right word, but neither is braiding or weaving. I have no idea what to call it. Tying? Looping?)
The book seems to be aimed only at girls. There are a couple of boys pictured in Hemp Bracelets, but they are only seen on four pages (that I can see) and not as models for the jewelry. So, I don't think that this book would appeal to many boys unless they are interested in making jewelry their sisters, moms, or other girls. Or do a lot of boys wear hemp jewelry and I'm just too far out in the boonies to notice? Hey, we just realized that we can decorate a key ring with hemp and a few beads. So that's another item that can be made by boys--girls too, for that matter.
This kit can definitely be used for arts and crafts in your homeschool or just for fun. And it can be a fun co-op activity if you're in a co-op or just invite some other homeschoolers over and make some friendship bracelets one afternoon.
All in all, this is a superb little kit. I've bought a few other
kits from other sources, and this kit has done what it tells you it's going
to do. You're given lots of hemp, a fair amount of beads, great instructions
in a colorful, up-beat book. I really like little kit/project books
like this--the projects don't take forever, and you have a nice, usable
item when it's all said and done! This one's definitely a keeper!! 
You can buy Hemp Bracelets Kit or other hemp jewelry books from Amazon.com
Hemp Masters |
Making Beautiful Hemp and Bead Jewelry |
Hemp Masters: Getting Knotty |
Friendship Bracelets |