Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!
Hi this is julie with beadaholique.com and today I want to show you an
overview of seed beads. We've gotten requests and questions at beadaholique.com
regarding seed beads. I thought it'd be helpful to just do a quick video
just talking about their sizes, shapes, finishes and so on
there are thousands of seed beads out there so before I start I do want to say this
is not gonna cover
every single one out there. It's going to cover the more common ones
first let's talk about seed bead sizes because I know this has confused a lot of
people. The most common you're gonna come across and there are others that
are more common ones, but
6, 8, 10, 11 and 15
and you'll notice that the 6 is quite
a bit larger than a 15. So it's a bit counter-intuitive. The larger the
number
the smaller the bead. I've done a little line here showing you their
graduating sizes and there is quite a difference
you'll see when you get down to a 15/0 it's very very tiny
probably the bead that you're gonna come across using the most in a lot of bead
weaving or bead embroidery projects is a size 11/0
which I have represented here. I actually have some Miyuki ones
I have some Toho and you'll see that even though these are both an
11/0
they are actually a little bit of a different
shape and a different size. Not all seed beads
are the same is what I'm trying to get at. This is a 15/0 Miyuki
and 15/0 Toho. You can see again just slightly
a different size. It's very small but it is there so I wanted to
just point that out and speaking of Miyuki and Tohos, well what's the difference
because you're gonna come across this a bit
Toho has a nice rounded shape to it
they're both made in Japan. They're both very
precise and even and uniform
but the Tohos are the round ones and the Miyuki
delicas which are the ones represented here
are more the cylinder shape which means they have a larger hole
compared to their outer body and that's going to allow you to create multiple passes
through the bead which is really nice. So here's an example of Tohos worked into
an earring. You can see that nice round shape
see how their woven together and they are glass
I'll skip over this one for second. I'll go right over to the Miyuki delicas
you can see when these ones are woven in shape they lock into place
this is a peyote stitch which is really
ideal for the Miyuki delicas. They're really great for
loom work as well because they are gonna be so uniform
and then here I'll come back, this a Czech glass seed bead
if you look really close you can see these are just not quite as even
which gives it a wonderful bohemian vintage feel
it makes them not quite as good for certain beads stitches
so that's something to keep in mind when you planning which bead to get
here they've been worked into a star ornament, you can see that
they are a bit irregular but it creates this really wonderful kinda vintage
old-world feel to them. I've also pulled out some charlottes
when you see charlottes, you might be a little confused with what that name means
it means basically a seed bead that has one cut
on the side. I'm pointing to one right here. It can be a little bit hard to see on
camera
but that one cut gives them a little bit extra sparkle
and now here I have a tri-cut seed bead. This is a czech glass seed bead. It's been cut
on three different sides
which gives it a very antique look. I love using these personally
and then I have these little hex cut and these are what they sound like
they're cut into a hex shape and these are little Miyuki 15/0
delicas and they beautifully reflects the light
so that's a little bit of an overview of the sizes and the different types you're gonna
come across
and I wanna talk about finishes. You'll see actually a lot of beads have more
than one finish
but I'm gonna try to go over the ones that just seem most common
so this one is a colorline seed bead. I'll take it out real quick
you can see it's got a green lining on the inside
and a transparent blue bead and now here
is a silver lined, so you'll often find a silver gold or bronze line bead and what
that does it gives it just a little bit of a hint
of a metallic look but you're still really seeing the dominant color
what would be great is to pair it with sterling silver accents
where you can really play off that metal color lining. I've got a transparent bead
just like the name suggests it's transparent, there's no
color lining, there's no metal finishes, it's just a see through bead
the opposite of course is an opaque, it's
a solid bead and you might have something like this
which is going to be an opaque matte
so it's a solid color bead but it's got a matte finish. See this one here is shiny
you won't see a bead that ever says opaque shiny
but you will see one that says opaque matte. If it doesn't
designate which one you can pretty much assume it'll have a little bit of
shine to it
this next one here is a luster
luster has a wonderful pearly sheen to it
and this here is actually a copper lined rose luster
and then we've got AB. You might be able to see it better in the tube
than on the mat
AB is like a rainbow finish. It's creates like a shimmer
you often see this on lighter color beads like a pink AB,
blue AB, a white AB and then on the darker colors
what you'll often see is an iris. It's very similar to an AB, it's still a
rainbow affect but it's pulling colors
that are close to the main color on the color wheel
It creates almost like a peacock effect. You'll often see this with a brown bead, a
purple bead, a green bead, a blue bead. These two are the same, they're both
galvanized. It's a shiny
metal looking coated seed bead. You'll see this on bright colors
but you can also see it here in like rose gold or
certain metal finishes also are galvanized
and then the next one is a metal finish. They don't just have to be
gold and silver. This one here is
like a purple color that has a metal
finish applied to it that beads look as if they're metal. They're super shiny
and then I pulled this as well. This is a matte galvanized
See how that looks. Compare that to the shiny galvanized
again you're gonna to often see a seed bead that has multiple finishes on it. You just
need to
read them carefully and figure out what they mean. It has
a more dull appearance, really pretty though and the final one that's popular
is a picasso finish. It almost looks like a paint splatter finish and you'll often
see it with
again browns, blues, greens, turquoises
and just more of a marbled effect and so there are more finishes
out there. These are the ones that you'll come across most often. So I hope
that that
helped to visually illustrate what they are and you can understand them better
when you're looking at your bead selection
and if you have any questions feel free to write us on our YouTube channel. We're
always
happy to help. I know it's confusing because there are thousands of seed bead out there
and these are just some of them but I hope this helped to clear it up a little
bit.
Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!