The truth is that you do not just wake up, go to the market to buy seed beads. Before doing that, you are expected to have enough information like the materials, sizes and the different types. This type of beads are small in nature, they look like seeds in the way they appear with some being round in shape while others are elongated. Most of them are made from glass. Countries such as the Czech Republic and Japan are known to be major manufactures of these beads.
Despite being very small in size, they can be used in variety of crafts like quilting, jewelry, embroidery, and other similar type of projects. When making bracelets as well as other stringed crafts, seed beads can be used as spacers due to their shape which makes them have a 3D appearance.
In order to buy seed beads, it is important to first of all become familiar with their sizes. For example, these small sized beads are measured in one inch increment. Therefore before buying, it is always important to know how many beads can be cut from a glass rod that is one inch in size. The measurement obtained when you cut 8 beads from one inch of glass rod is written as 8/0 and this is one of the things you must understand before buying. Note that the term 8/0 is spoken as eight ought with the “ought” meaning zero.
It is also important to understand that the higher the number, the smaller the bead. For example, seed beads of 20/0 are very tiny when compared to the one of 8/0 or an 11/0 is smaller than one with measures 7/0. Even though there is an ongoing debate over this standard of measuring these beads but the good thing is that it gives and adequate understanding of the general measurement which then gives way for a more precise way to determine what size is needed for a craft project.
Also note that the seed beads can vary in quality to a great degree. One thing that normally leads to this is that most manufacturers hardly use the exact method in production of these beads and as a result, there is always a possibility of having irregular sizes and shapes which leads to variation of quality to a large extent. However, some other manufacturers get it right due to the fact they use more precise methods. The output in this case is always exact and with the highest quality. One thing to note is that these kinds of quality seed beads are much more expensive since they are created with a precise method but are also more even in the size and shape.
The author is a freelance writer that specializes in writing about crafting projects. She is well versed and experienced in making jewelry and other crafting projects. This article is written to help people doing crafting projects to buy seed beads in order to avoid mistakes.
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