Tip for Making Your Own Seed Bead Patterns

Seed Bead PatternsUsing seed beads for your projects be it jewelry, clothing or household items you will more than likely follow a pattern. A seed bead pattern is basically a set of instructions that guide you through your design. Seed bead patterns can be obtained either as downloads from specialist pattern websites or from craft stores and independent shops.

However if you have progressed beyond following patterns and would like to try out making your own but do not know where to start, here are some simple tips to help you along the way.

Understand the basics of bead work. This may sound obvious but before you go head first into pattern design ask yourself is your skill level good enough. Have you mastered the tools available in bead making to be able to produce an easy to follow pattern.

Settle on the complexity of design you want to make a pattern for. If you are a relative novice at seed beading maybe design a simple single thread design pattern first before entering into more elaborate designs for example a beaded bag or multi layered necklace.

Prepare your design. Using graph paper is a great way of planning your design, treating each square of the paper as a bead once complete along with the different colors it will give you a great idea how the design is forming. This method is also good for assessing the scale of your design.

Make note of your materials. Sorting out the amount of beads required and what size and color quantities along with the tools needed is essential when making a pattern. I prefer to make inventory notes along the way when designing my pattern this way you are not compiling at the end of the design which is much more difficult to keep track of.

Finally try out your pattern, give it a test run and see if any changes or tweaks are required. It is always best to soak test your pattern before unleashing it on the world, this means you won’t have to adjust the pattern when people are actively using it as this could spoil your reputation.

What are Seed Beads?

Seed BeadsSeed beads are small beads usually made of plastic, glass or metal, they can measure from one millimetre and are used for jewelry making, clothing adornment, household decoration to name a few uses.

Who manufacturers these beads?

The Czech Republic are the biggest manufacturer, they produce glass beads, firepolish beads and also crystal beads. Other countries that are known for making seed beads are Japan and France. The French usually make their beads from recycled metals. India and China are rapidly becoming as productive in mass bead making as other countries but beware, the quality is not as good.

What styles of Seed Beads can you get?

Seed beads come in all types of textures and shapes. They can be transparent, translucent, opaque, colored, lustered or matte finished for example. Japanese beads are known for their cylinder shape which makes the bead not as rounded but more space for better design work. Charlotte Cut beads have parts of the surface cut to make the bead shine more, Charlotte Cut beads are also known as single faceted beads as well are 2 cut or 3 cut beads depending on how many surface cuts there are.

What size do Seed Beads go up to?

Seed beads come in various sizes, typically a size 11 bead is an inch in size, these sizes range from 5 to 24. A bead is measured before it is cut so if you have a bead that has been deemed as an inch in size chances are it is slightly less than an inch due to wastage from it being cut. Unfortunately seed bead sizes are not exact.

How are the quantities measured?

Seed beads are not measured by quantity; the logistics of counting out thousands of beads makes it impossible to be accurate. Instead the beads are measured by weight or a hank. A hank is a bundle of beads made up usually of 12 strands if it is a size 11 beads for example. Buying beads in a hank does work out for value than buying them loose weight. Czech beads are usually sold as a hank were as Japanese beads are not.

Ideas for Seed Bead Patterns

Seed Bead DesignsSeed Beads are very versatile beads that can be used in all types of jewelry design and also adorn clothing and household items such as lamp shades. Seed beads are also very cost effective to use so are very popular with amateur and professional bead makers alike, but what can you do with them, here are a few of the seed bead patterns ideas you can use to create your designs.

Bracelet Patterns

Seed bead bracelets are very popular with jewerly designers, beaded bracelets never go out of fashion and they can be worn by both men and women. As they are small and relatively easy to make seed bead bracelets are a good entry level for first time pattern designers.

Mapping out your design is important, you want to make sure it looks good and also that you have the right amount and style of beads for it. Drawing a pattern is a great way of getting a finalised design, you can also chop and change the colors so they work especially if you are designing a bracelet to match an outfit. Once you have settled on a design then you can start the threading process.

Necklace Patterns

Seed bead necklaces have many different styles to consider, they can be funky, sophisticated, long and short. Try designing a choker as a starter, these tend to be smaller than a traditional necklace and require fewer beads to create. They also have the added bonus of being very popular especially with youngsters. You can then progress onto more traditional patterns; if you start building confidence you can start using more expensive beads like gold and silver beads to create high quality necklaces. Once you have mastered these you can move onto multi layered designs using multiple threads creating three or four tier necklaces.

Earring Patterns

Seed bead earrings are more difficult to create then other jewelry designs. Even though you are not using as many materials as other types of jewelry they do require an intricate approach, a steady hand plus plenty of patience. Earring designs range from pear drop, circular, diamond shaped and quirky designs such as triangular and wavy. Making earrings have a similar approach to necklaces and bracelets but you are working with less thread, tying knots can be fiddly and you will need to use paste to secure the earring hooks. All been said you should have some stunning looking designs however.