General Tips and Notes on Crafts & Jewelry Making
This page is intended to be a collection of general tips with respect to various crafts and/or jewelry making that I cannot quite categorize elsewhere. So that being said, it will be inevitable that this page will grow over time. Please come back here for a visit or just bookmark me!Don't Throw Away your Cheapy Seed Beads
Yes, I love, I adore my precious Miyuki and Matsuno and Toho and Czech seed beads - but I confess I still hang on to my cheap (economical is the word!!!) Chinese seed beads. I just love them even though I don't use them for precise beadwork.I always thought that there is really nothing wrong with the economical Chinese and Indian seed beads. Their colors are pretty darn lovely. Their glass is robust and edges rounded. Their colors are long lasting. Their biggest downside is their irregularity.
But that can also be their biggest advantage. For example, I use them in some of my crochet beadwork - especially bead crochet ropes and such. Their very irregularity lends a definite sense of imperfect organic feel to the final product. For some designs, that is exactly what you want rather than the monotonous regularity of the more expensive seed beads.
So hang on to you cheapy seed beads. They may delight and surprise you!
Samples of beaded crochet ropes made with chinese seed beads
(with some Swarovski bicones thrown in)
4 June 2013 - this is all I have right at this moment. But I will be back to add to this page so you might want to revisit or book mark me! :)
