What can I make with beads

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

Wondering what can I make with beads then you should read on for some fun ideas

When it comes to beads, the types available are nearly endless. This makes for infinite design possibilities and ideas.

Beads come in tons of colors, materials, shapes, and sizes. An easy way to categorize beads is by what they?re made of. Beads are typically made out of base metals, bone, clay, crystal, glass, plastic and wood.

Base metal beads are made out of base metals such as iron, nickel, copper, zinc or lead that oxidizes or corrodes easily. However, base metal beads are plated which makes them resistant to corrosion and resemble precious metals like gold and silver.

Bone beads can be carved into various shapes. They?re one of the earliest beads — created by Native American tribes. Bone beads are made from animal bones such as vertebrae.

Clay beads are either ceramic or porcelain. With a glaze applied to give a gorgeous sheen, ceramic beads are fired in a kiln. Porcelain beads are usually shaped on a potter?s wheel, fired in a kiln, and painted by hand.

Crystal beads can be more expensive than other types. Swarovski crystal beads are the most popular. Crystal beads are very sparkly because of different cuts allowing light to enter at different angles. There are lots of imitations of crystal beads, and the imitations are typically made out of common glass beads.
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Glass beads can be made by mantling rods of colored glass using a high temperature torch flame and fused in a kiln. Lampworking is the most popular technique. Lampworking is when hot glass is twisted or wrapped around a rod.

Plastic beads may be plastic or acrylic and resin. Plastic beads are inexpensive and lightweight. They?re readily available and widely used. Plastic beads are difficult to break and safe for children to use. Plastic beads can be used to imitate more exotic beads and metallic beads.

Wooden beads are made from various woods by different methods. They?re easy to carve and shape. The woods used are bamboo or palm, pine and other soft wood, temperate hard wood, and tropical hard wood.

The types of beads typically used are pearls, glass beads, crystal beads, semiprecious stone beads, seed beads, plastic beads, metal beads, wooden beads, stone beads, and bone beads.

Decorate your clothing

You can personalize your clothing with bead embellishments! Jeans, shirts, hats, shoes, and sweaters?think of a design and sketch it out! After you have your idea sketched out, lay out the piece of clothing on your work surface.

Lay the beads on the garment to make sure the design is what you want. This will help you envision the final product. Turn the garment inside out and mark the places you?ll be placing the beads.

Thread a needle with cotton thread, and pull the thread from the underside of the garment to the outside. Slide the needle through the first bead, and pull the needle back through to the underside as close to the spot it went through in the previous movement. This stitch will hold the bead into place. To make sure the bead will stay in place, repeat a few times for strength reinforcement. Repeat as many times as you desire!

Make your own jewelry

Learning how to make beaded jewelry is fun, creative, and cool. Beaded jewelry can be a great gift for a friend or loved one. Also, it can easily transform any outfit from dull to dazzling! You can make beaded bracelets, earrings, lanyards, necklaces, and pendants. There are a few techniques used to make beaded jewelry such as bead crotchet and bead stringing. Bead stringing is the easiest and most common.

All you need are beads, wire, cutters, and jewelry pliers. There are different types of stringing materials you can use like beading wire, jewelry wire, and memory wire. Making beaded jewelry is too easy not to try?connect a strand of beads together on beading wire to a jewelry clasp with a crimp bead.

There are so many possibilities?dog collars, pillowcases, lampshades, sunglasses. Get creative! You can have tons of fun designing with beads.