Tonight, local crafter and author Susan Beal will be at the downtown Powell’s location for a celebration of her new jewelry how-to book, Bead Simple. Ms. Beal will be doing a reading and book signing, plus showing off some of the designs featured in the book. Guests will also be able to make and take home a pair of earrings.

Bead Simple is a hefty book filled with over 150 designs for earrings, necklaces, brooches, rings, charms, barrettes… even iPod cozies. The book features an informative introductory section that has a bead encyclopedia, as well as helpful jewelry making tricks and techniques that make this book non-intimidating for a beginner like myself.

Each project in the book shows precise step-by-step instructions, and also has a nifty key to let the reader know if each project is easy, moderate, advanced, takes less than an hour to make, doesn’t use a ton of materials, and costs less than $15 to make.

Bead Simple Book Event, Powell’s, 1005 W. Burnside, tonight, 7:30 pm, FREE.