First off, seed beading is something that has never really appealed to me before. It always looked so fiddly and time-consuming. Yes, I know that’s odd, what with me being a wireworker which could be described in the same way. It seemed to me to be a lot of work for not much result.
Recently I have seen some beautiful seed bead pieces, and it made me think that perhaps this is something I should investigate. So I’ve decided to learn seed beading.
Question is, where do you start? I asked in FB groups for help, and lots suggested Youtube videos. Usually, I start with a book though, but there doesn’t seem to be many around for absolute beginners. I’ve found a couple online that may be ok, and I am waiting for them to arrive.
My next job was to see what I had in my stash, I have seed beads because of my love of kumihimo and macrame. However, a lot of them are not uniform in size. This is apparently important with seed beading. I also found 3 kits that I must have bought as part of a job lot at one point.
So the first one I attempted was ‘Deluxe Seed Bead Lace Bracelet’ by Carolyn Schulz.
The best thing about this kit is that it had a big eye needle, so no faffing about trying to thread it. I will admit it took me a while to get the hang of the initial instructions, due to me having no familiarity with what it was asking me to do. (As you can see from the photo.) It was relatively straight forward to create and that surprised me. It took me 3 hours to complete the bracelet.
I had been worried about the finishing, but there were crimp beads and I know where I am with them. So not bad for a first go, though I really need to stop sticking myself with the needle.
I also asked my jewellery making friends for help. They pointed me to Halfpenney Beads, that is only a short drive from my house. This shop is super friendly and helpful. I totally recommend it for other newbies to seed beading who are apprehensive about taking the jump into this new hobby.
