Kodansha America, Inc., 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011, ISBN 4-7700-015464-X, Softcover, 160 pages.

Our world of beads and fiber revolve around color and design. Designers of Fashion, Interiors, Products and Visual often use color guide books. Many artists in various mediums use color guide books. Color Image Scale is a book you can use whether you know color theory or not. This book has over 1,000 color combinations to express moods, tastes and lifestyles. Kobayashi includes two easy-to-use indexes. You are first introduced to the Nippon Color & Design Research Institute that played a part in the development of color combinations used in this book. Next you are given instructions on how to use the book. Included are a Hue and Tone System Color Image, a Single Color Image Scale, a Color Combination Image Scale, a Key Word Scale, an Image Word Data Base and an Eight Taste and Lifestyle Types and a Color Image Scale. Within the Color Combination Image Scale there are areas of warm, cool, soft and hard colors.

Sound like more than you want to fool with? Then use the color grids to match up your beads and fiber by the moods listed or labeled effect you would like obtain. If you like a color such as gold and want to add other colors to it that will make one feel extravagant, gorgeous or hot, then just use the color guide with the title and color combination. You can put your beads or fiber right next to a combination and it will help you decide. Pages 18 and 19 give you the basic eight Lifestyle explanations and what enhances them and what does not. If you use the same colors all the time and want to break out and add a little dash to your favorites, try using a color guide. Now that I pulled this book out, I can't put it down. I just started looking through the pages at different color groups and as always, color fascinates me.