Beading Basics For Beginners

Here are some beading basics for beginners. Beading is a wonderful hobby to take up if you love creating pretty things. Some people find it quite a lucrative side line as they end up selling what they make. Beadwork is also a popular craft due to its relatively simple components and the many different designs you can make from these.

Doing beadwork is a tremendously versatile craft and you can make many different things like keychains, rings, necklaces and bracelets. Sometimes people end up getting so skilled that they end up making things like entire animals out of beads.

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What Is Beading?

Basically, in a nutshell, beading is the art of stringing beads together to make jewellery or other artworks. There are many different patterns and stitches that one can learn if getting involved in this hobby. They include:

  • Peyote Stitch
  • Brick Stitch
  • Square Stitch
  • Right Angle Stitch
  • Tubular Stitch
  • Daisy Stitch

Here is a video to show you some beading basics for beginners.

If you are interested in some beading basics this book will help you to get started.

This compact little book takes the mystery out of beading and provides you with a one-stop, all-purpose sourcebook for every aspect beading basics. Bead Basics 101 is great for beginners and will guide you in what tools and materials you will need to make things like earrings, bracelets, watches, necklaces and more

Explore the joys of mixing colors, using focal beads to your greatest advantage, creating unique accents, stringing multiple strands with confidence, and more. Just follow the easy step-by-step photos and you’ll be stringing lovely works of dazzling jeweled art in no time!

Beading Basics Materials

This kit on the left will help you to get started with beading and has all the tools that you will need in the beginning. The joy of buying a kit is you don’t need to shop for all the tools separately.

The tools in this kit include:

  • 1 round nose plier
  • 1 flush cutter plier
  • 1 chain nose plier
  • jewelry wire
  • tweezers
  • caliper
  • jump ring opener
  • thimble ring
  • Awl
  • thread scissors
  • tape measure
  • needle threaders
  • beading needlws
  • 12 styles of jewelry findings

And all these things come neatly packed in a black zip pouch for your convenience. Simply click on the picture to find out how you can get your own set.

For more involved beading projects, you might like to make use of sticky bead mats and rimmed bead trays to keep your beads organized.

Stringing Material For Beading

Let’s look at stringing material for your beading basics.

There are many issues surrounding the choice of stringing material for beading. Here is an interesting look at the different stringing materials and how they are used.

For the art of beading, there is no one, all-purpose (Universal) stringing material.

Here are the main stringing materials used in beading basics along with how and when to use each of them.

Silk Thread:

Silk has a soft and flexible feel and it comes in many sizes and colors.

It normally comes packaged on spools. this classic stringing material forms beautiful knots between pearls and beads. The down side is that silk tends to be quite fragile and it can stretch and be cut by abrasive beads. It can also rot when it gets wet.

If you have pearls that are strung on silk, they should be restrung every few years. Silk thread is best suited to pearls and other lightweight and smooth-holed beads.

Nylon Thread:

Nylon thread comes in many colors and sizes and like the silk is normally packaged on spools or bobbins.

Nylon can be used where-ever silk can but it is not quite as fragile.

Nylon thread knots beautifully and can be used for pearl stringing. Nylon stretches much less than silk does and it won’t rot if it gets wet.

Like silk, you shouldn’t use beads with sharp edged holes or very heavy beads. I recomend coating your thread with bees wax before use to prevent it from fraying.

Fishing Line:

Fishing line is a hard, semi rigid single strand of plastic. It doesn’t know well and in time sunlight or ultraviolet light can cause it to weaken and fall apart.

Fishing line also comes on spools and is normally sold in sporting goods stores. Fishing line is great to use while designing a necklace and then you can transfer the beads to a better string for the final product. The good thing with fishing line is that you don’t need a needle.

Bonded Nylon:

This is a much stronger form of nylon thread and the strands are physically bonded togethr for extra strength and abrasion protection.

It knots well but is not as comfortable to work with as silk. You can use bonded nylon with more abrasive gem beads and this is the most popular choice of beading string.

For detailed instructions on how to complete your first beading project, you can visit https://www.wikihow.com/Bead

6 thoughts on “Beading Basics For Beginners”

  1. When I was in high school my brother taught me how to make jewelery with beads and I enjoyed the process so much but somehow I stopped this craft. I started dressing up bags and jeans items with beads and accessories and never thought of making sales out of my hobby. 

    After reading about this book that’s on offer Its got me interested again and I think I’m going to buy that book and see if my creativity still exists. If I do not sell anything at least I can make gifts and also use this as a great way to relax, some bead therapy! 

    Thank you so much for the article:-)

    Reply
    • Hey Janine,

      I am a firm believer in having a hobby, and not necessarily to sell anything, but just to feed our soul and get our minds off the daily stresses we face.

      Enjoy rediscovering beading.

      Reply
  2. I am a man, and I love to bead!  It started in the 80’s when I would put beads on a safety pin and attach them to my shoes.  Fast forward 30 years later and my love for beading has grown.  I have a daughter now and we love to go to a beading store in town and make beaded necklaces and bracelets.  Thanks to this website I am realizing I can bead at home with my daughter just as easily.  Thanks for the beading tips!  I am off to bead!  

    Reply
  3. Excellent article on Beading Basics. I had had that thinking that any thread could serve in putting the beads together which I now know that that is not the case but that there are different threads of any kind. From what material is a bead made? And how can one differentiate from the different types of patterns and stitches from the other? I had used a bracelet made of beads and really did not know anything about it till now. Thanks

    Reply
    • Thanks for stopping by. Remember that if a bead is made from rougher materials like clay, then you will need to have a stronger thread so that the bead doesn’t wear the thread down.

      Reply

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