Does anyone have tips for Beading?

Question

I wanted to try and start to make my own jewelry designs. I was wondering if anyone has tips/websites or advice. Are there any good, affordable places to purchase beads? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! =D Thank you!

Answer 1

buy everything on ebay, its way cheaper. if you get a book on beading it will give you cool designs and tips. also, be patient. it it really hard if you use whats called seed beads, the tiny tiny glass beads. they are a pain but look awesome

Answer 2

One tip on seed beads:  always use a doubled thread.  The thread will need to be doubled through the eye of the needle no matter what you do, so it's simpler to always have it doubled and never deal with "extra" bulk at the needle's eye, just the same bulk all through the process.

If you can get your beads in hanks or strands, rather than loose, do so.  it's easier to see odd-sized beads when taking from a string than from a loose pile.  The odd-sized beads can be saved for circular designs or used for turning at the end of tassel strands.

Answer 3

Hurray for you starting your own jewelry designs!  It's so much fun and really feels good to know you are wearing a true OAK!  (one of a kind)

It's best to start with a beginner's book.  You can find one just about anywhere to purchase, but they can be a little pricey.  So if money is an object, try doing a search online using the key words, "jewelry making tutorial".  There's a lot of tutorials online, including UTube.

Also join beading forums.  A lot of folks list tutorials on their forums.

Don't forget to do a search on blogs too.  Beading blogs with tutorials are plethora!

I am a beader.  I not only make jewelry but I am native american and do a lot of traditional beadwork using those tiny pain in the tail seed beads.  LOL!  

I buy a lot of my supplies on ebay or goZbay as well as at yardsales and other more well known internet sites like firemountaingems.com, shipwreckbeads.com

good luck to you and I hope you have a lot of fun!  Beading in any form is addictive, so be prepared to invest some time in it.  There's just something about those tiny little round things infinite variabilites!