Beaded Bead Tips

I’m often asked how do I get my beaded beads so neat so I thought I would do a quick post with some tips. You’ll either need to already know how to make a peyote beaded bead or if you’d like to have a go at making one you can choose from one of eight different size tutorials in the Make It Yourself section of my Etsy shop.

You may be used to starting beads by making a band around the middle, fiddling around with trying to get it to fit and to stay in place. Sound familiar? It’s much easier to start from the holes, increasing to form a cup, popping the bead in and decreasing until you reach the opposite hole. If you’re working without a pattern just keep checking the fit of the bead right from the start, to make sure you’re increasing the right amount.

In my opinion, the best beads to use to make a peyote beaded bead are Miyuki or Toho. These are both Japanese brands and are fairly uniform in size and shape. But the fact that they do vary a little is what can make a great bead!

What I do when I’m working is try to pick up the medium sized beads from the pile. If I come across any that are much fatter or much thinner, I put them to one side in their own little piles. When it’s time to make the 2 bead increase, I head straight for the ‘skinny’ pile and pick up 2 of those. They don’t have to be crazy skinny (I throw those away as they’re so thin they could easily break!) but just thinner than average so that they don’t cause a bump. The same goes for the bead in the next round that goes in between those pairs, I choose a thinner bead if I can.

At the other end of the bead, having slightly thinner beads on the row preceding the decreases will do the same (the beads that are going to be pulled together to form the decrease). After you’ve made your decreases there’s usually a large gap between the beads on the following row. Here’s where the bigger beads you’ve picked out come into play, choose these to go on top of the decreases and they usually fill the gaps quite nicely! Tip: if you have huge huge gaps then you’re probably decreasing too early.

It does take a little time to select the beads as you’re going along but it’s well worth the extra effort when you’re rewarded with a lovely smooth bead!