Beading Basics: Seed Beads

Seed Beads is a generic term used for small beads, although it can also apply specifically to doughnut shaped beads also known as rocailles.  A number of other shapes are available but for beadweaving, the delica, which is a small tube, is other most commonly used shape.

Rocaille - doughnut shaped bead

Delica - tube shaped bead

Hex - tube shaped bead with a hexagonal profile, or six flat surfaces

Bugle - longer tube bead

Triangle - have three rectangular faces and two triangular faces with the hole passing through the triangular faces.  May have sharp or rounded corners.

Drops - water drop shaped with the hole through the thin pointed end

Magatama - are difficult to describe.  It's like one side of the bead has been pulled out.  Sometimes described as comma shaped.

Dagger - flattish long beads which are narrower at the top, they slowly widen then narrow quickly to a point.  The hole is through the top, but goes through so that the beads lie flat with the dagger shape on show.

Charlotte - rocaille shaped beads with one cut facet to give extra sparkle.  They are very, very small.  One of my friends describes beading with them as like beading dust.

In recent years, a huge number of other bead shapes have been developed but these would not generally be used in the sort of peyote projects I am currently doing.  They would be used in bead stringing projects as well as bead weaving projects where the shapes can fit together like a mosaic or be used as the basis for further embellishment with seed beads (or both).  Some of them have multiple holes.  They deserve a post of their own and are not generally included as seed beads as most of them are larger.

Crystal glass beads, such as Swarovski or Czech glass also come in a vast number of shapes and sizes.  These sorts of beads are known as faceted because they have multiple cut smooth sides.  They add sparkle.  Some of them are tiny enough to be considered as seed beads but they generally are considered separately.

Seed beads are classed by size so that the larger the number, the smaller the bead.  I think the original size was down to manufacturers who would have their size 0 bead and they would get 6 size 6 beads on the same length of thread as their size 0.  Generally size 11's are a nice size to work with, small, but not too small.  Size 8's and 6's are also widely available and look great, just giving a chunkier look and a thicker piece of beading.  Size 15's are also widely available and smaller than size 11's, you will need a finer needle to work with them.  Charlotte beads are smaller than size 15's.

The sizing convention is generally applied to rocailles, delicas and triangles but less so to other bead shapes.  Many of the other shapes are described with metric dimensions.  A lot of the new shapes are standard to that shape, so a peanut bead will always be a particular shape and size and are generally described with metric dimensions.  Swarovski beads are also given in metric sizes but suppliers who specialise in these will often include line drawings of the shapes on their websites because there are just so many different shapes.  Many bead shops will stock some colours of the most common shapes and sizes, such as bicones (two cones joined at the circular end and then cut to give facets for sparkle) and rivoli's (coin shaped, flattish but rises to a point on each of the faces of the coin, often foil backed to increase sparkle, they have no hole and are beaded around for fancy designs).

There are three main manufacturers of precision seed beads, all based in Japan.  Czech seed beads are also available as are cheaper, lower quality beads.  Matsuno are the cheapest of the three and their seed beads are a little more irregular in size.  This is fine for peyote and bead loom work where you do not mind a little irregularity, as it can add character.

I am less familiar with Toho as they are not stocked by my local bead shop.

I generally use Miyuki beads.  Delica is a trademark design of Miyuki and the precision and uniformity of these little tubes is great.  They give a wonderful evenness to peyote designs.  That said they effectively look like little rectangles in peyote designs where as rocailles have a more elliptical profile which I also enjoy and use.

For flat beadwork, I would not generally mix makes and I would stick to one size.  Changing the size of beads is one way to introduce dimension to beadwork.  The different brands have slightly different sizing and the shapes may vary slightly and while this may not be obvious when looking at tubes of beads, it is often noticeable on flay uniform beadwork.

The beads come in a huge range of colours and finish is a huge part of the colour effect.  The finish can increase the size of beads very slightly.

So generally I use Miyuki size 11 beads in either seed bead / rocaille or delicas but my patterns will work with any type of seed bead.  In fact That Blue Bracelet was a deliberate combination of Miyuki and Matsuno to give an uneven finish.