Beading Necklace

Never, ever, ever use scissors to cut your wire!

The wire will fray at the end and will create nicks on your scissor blades.

The horror! Could you imagine trying to string beads on that?

For a nice clean wire tip, use wire cutters.

~ Ava Arie

An advantage of using a slightly less flexible wire is stringing smaller beads more quickly.

Instead of picking up beads by hand to string them, try this:

Lay your beads on a cloth to prevent them from rolling around. Hold the wire a few centimeters away from the end and approach the hole of the bead.

Gently push down on the wire so that the bead tilts and starts sliding onto the wire.

Lift your hand up to let the bead slide down to your fingers.

Repeat!

Once there are a few to several beads on the wire, let them slide down beyond your fingers and repeat again.

Hopefully this tip will help you string beads more easily! C:

~ Ava Arie

Technology has made our lives a lot more easier. The Internet and other related technology had not only made life convenient, but also has taught us so many things. Thanks to the Internet we can learn new things every day. There are various type of software’s that are available to teach us to do various things. If you’re interested in learning to work with bead work, you have beading software that you can use to master this skill.

If you look up the Internet, you’ll find that there are various different types of beading software. These software programs teach you to create beading design patterns. Moreover if you want to convert a picture into a beading design, you can take the help of these software programs. And so with the help of these software programs, your able to see the end result, that is you can see what the completed design pattern will look like. Software programs also give you ideas as to what type of beads to use, colors to be used etc.

Beading designs can be quite complex, however with beading programs, these beading designs seem a lot of easier, and the tips and advice that these programs offer are extremely helpful and interesting as well. It really makes beading very easy.

You can also get plenty of information and details on different types of stitches that are used in beading. Moreover using software, you can also adjust rows and columns of beading patterns, thus giving you an idea of what your design and pattern will look once its completed. It really makes things very easy for you. Apart from this, if your not happy with what you see, you can use beading software to change beading patterns by using loom, square or loom patterns.

Some beading software programs also allow you to draw over the beading patterns. They have various easy to use drawing tools, which you can use for this purpose. Thus with these drawing features, you can create the patterns and designs that you want.

Beading programs are plenty, so how do you know which one to go in for? Well, you can start off by using the free basic trial packages that are available on the Internet. The rates for beading software programs vary, and could start anywhere from $100 onwards. If you search on the Internet, you may be lucky and get some discounted rates. But it’s always advisable to try a software before going in for one.

Essentially a beading software program, should help you to understand beading designs and patterns, give you details on the list of things that you would need to make a particular bead work design, such as colors, size of beads, types of beads etc.

Common beading software include Bead Font, Bead Wizard Software, BeadScape etc. Beading software programs are many on the Internet, its recommended that you check the credibility and authenticity of the software before you buy it.

Author: Karen Lincoln
Article Source: EzineArticles.com

I fell in love with this necklace from Elva Fields…

… but cannot afford to pay over $300.00 for it. :C

So I tried making my own version for less than $30.00!

This is how:

I found these beautiful beads and gold coated crimp beads. I was going to do all the bead strands in that green, but these sand coloured beads were too beautiful to put down!

Let’s start beading!

At each end, there were five crimp beads so that the clasp wouldn’t be crowded by the larger glass trade beads. The length was not premeasured on my neck like I usually would for a single-stranded necklace. This is because the seven strands would cluster and make the necklace seem shorter. So all the strands were beaded, and then crimped at only one end (Remember to leave some room in the loop for the strands to move around on!). Afterward, I took the necklace and tried the length out on my neck.

Alright! Once the length was adjusted, the other end was crimped around the other clasp  (They don’t have to be clasped in the same order).  All the strands were made to exactly the same length for that clustering effect.

All finished!

It’s fun searching around for things to pin onto the necklace with a safety pin.You can change the look of the necklace in so many different ways by pinning different things to it.

Doesn’t this look perfect for a day at the beach?

~Ava Arie

An Aught is used to determine the number of beads of a standard unit. The most popular seed bead size is 11/0(“eleven-aught”).  The commonly known largest sixe is 6/0 and tiny one is 15/0.