Favorite beading materials?
Here's a discussion question for all of us to ponder. What are your favorite beading materials? What do you love to work with? Things to consider may be stringing materials, bead types, material that beads are made from (glass, stone, crystal, plastic, resin, bone, wood, metal), kind of clasps and findings, beading tools.
I personally love seed beads, glass beads, magnetic clasps or toggle clasps, Nymo beading thread. I also have this really nifty tool that has an element that heats up and cuts beading thread by burning it. It's great! I no longer have those little pesky thread ends when I do bead weaving.
So what about you? Favorite materials?
posted by Jennifer @ 1:37 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
As far as hardware is concerned, I love Beadalon beading wire for stringing, crimp tubes (hate crimp beads for some/no reason), and toggle clasps.
Beadwise, about the only kind I don't work with are crystals (I think they are too fancy for me or something) and plastic (not fancy enough!). I love natural materials like turquoise and quartz and jade. I'm also into wood and cinnabar and raku/ceramics. And I just love Czech glass! I also have a crazy huge collection of E size seed beads in all different colors. And I'm really fond of silver and gold accent beads in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
The best tools I ever bought were at the hardware store - curved needlenose pliers and wire cutters. I have some other ones, like the crimper and thin wire cutter, and they're good, but don't seem as well made as the regular old hardware store stuff.
Hmm... I'm big on using seed beads. I'm slowly collecting as many colors as I can in various sizes.
I adore lampworked beads and unusual beads in general. I have a wonderful strand of black lava rock beads that I hope to find a way to combine with natural pearls dyed a fiery red.
I had the pleasure of going to the shopping portion of the International Society for Glass Beadmakers convention back when it was in Alexandria, VA. I thought I'd only be there a quick hour since it was a small selection of artists vending. HA! 3 hours later and I had to drag my own self out or go broke.
Still looking for the best thread to use for beadweaving. For simple stuff, I'll using fishing line, 10-12 lb. test. For the more complex and those that need to have a colored thread, I've been using silamide. I hear that C-lon is really good but I haven't tried it yet.
For needles, I like what I think are called pony needles. I only have a few because they came in the kits I bought from Cynthia Rutledge. They're as thick as regular beading needles but the eye hole is longer than usual. So much easier to thread. I should email her and ask her for sure.
Oooh, great question! I love natural stones the best and sterling silver for the wiring.
Delicas in as many colors as I can get my hands on and nymo. I dabble with other materials, and crystals for my ornaments, but delicas will always be my favorite.
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