Learning About Seed Beads

Here's a photo of a bracelet I made recently. I have been struggling with the seed beads for various reasons, and this was one of the first pieces that I felt was really successful. I made it several weeks ago, and today I noticed that the beads are fading. At the bottom is a striped "bead" made with several colors of some beads called Delica. As far as I know, they are from Japan. They're beautiful, but I'm disappointed that the dark blue ones at the bottom have faded.

I like to wear my jewelry even when I take a shower or go for a swim. That way I can tell prospective clients that the pieces are durable. I still have the belief, maybe old-fashioned, that jewelry should be lasting, have a certain permanence to it. Certainly there's lots of jewelry, specifically costume jewelry, that doesn't have that attribute, but I don't want my work to fall into that category.

I read in a bead book that some beads will fade so I guess I'll just have to assume that any and all of them might be likely to do so. I am bothered by that though. It makes me feel unsure about selling pieces and wondering if they might fade. I'm not sure if that's something to mention to people. Of course, the other option is to just keep trying the different beads to see what happens.

I find it hard to manipulate the seed beads because they're so tiny, but I'm getting better at it. The other thing that's tricky is the fact that the beads are different sizes even those that are marked a certain size. And some of them are more regular in size and shaped than others. Regularity is important when I'm trying to create an even pattern. If the beads aren't the same size, it makes it harder to get everything lined up properly.

I have now managed to collect a pretty good supply of different colored beads. But the other thing I've discovered is that I like the matte beads the best, the ones that aren't shiny or transparent. Or I should say that for some projects I like the matte finish. They seem more chic to me than the shiny ones do. However, I've been making beaded beads and rosettes out of a combination of matte, shiny, and crystal beads. The crystal ones are larger, but they make a nice combination. That's one of my goals, to eventually combine other beads with the seed beads. I think that will creat much more interest in the long run.