Where to start your beading journey

As it is International Beading Week, which is designed to share the joy of beading with others. As well as hopefully encourage more people to try this creative art form. We wanted to help complete beginners to discover the love of beading. As it can sometimes be overwhelming. There’s often different opinions of where to start what you need and how to do it. We thought we’d create a useful blog post that gives you great pointers of where to start with your beading journey. From perfect beginner kits, quick video tutorials, top tips and great advice from our team and other customers.

Before you get started – how to pick your first project

Beginner videos are a perfect place to start. We’ve created a short video introducing you to using a bead loom. As well as how to start brick stitch and peyote, any of these could be a good starting point. I’d recommend watching them all, they’re only short, and you can see what piques your interest. Then take if from there. I’ve created a handy playlist of the videos just here;

Free projects

We have several free projects ideal for beginners on our website. These are on screen and often downloadable projects. It can be a great way to test out the whether you like the process. Or a particular technique, before committing to a larger project.

Here’s my top picks for our free projects, if you click the images they’ll take you to the projects.

We have great beginner video tutorials too, for those who are visual learners. These are projects that focus on one main beading technique with an end result of a finished item. Click on the image to be taken to the YouTube video. You can find all our free projects on our channel here.

Beading Kits

Kits can be a fantastic way for starting too. If only for the reason that everything you need to make the project is included. It eliminates the search for all the correct items, which again if you’re new to beading, can be a little daunting. Gradually your supplies will build and you will then know what items are called. As well as which beads work well for a particular design or stitch. It’s another great way to see what you want to try next.

If you’re still unsure what to try, pick your favourite kit colour. Or which project you could imagine yourself wearing and give that a try. Many of our kits have multiple colour options too.

Getting started with Equipment and Tools

Some essential basics include a beading mat (or tea towel) to keep your beads from rolling away. It also makes them easy to pick up with a needle. Sharp scissors, thread cutter or thread zapper are really useful too. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours creating beautiful beadwork, only to make a hash of the last bit, by attempting to use the kitchen scissors to cut that final tail of thread off. Beading needles are a must have too. Unlike sewing needles, beading needles have a very slim eye so that they can pass easily through small beads.

Good storage

This is a great tip we received via social media. I’d recommend clear storage boxes so you can see what you have (or an excellent labelling system). Start early on, even if you don’t think you have that much stuff, your future self will thank you! This is coming from someone who started off with a shoe box of bits aged 16. I still have the shoe box as well as large Tupperware boxes (none of it organised properly). Spending my beading time looking for things is very frustrating (so learn from my mistakes). I wish I’d got more organised sooner, now it’s turned into such a mammoth task.

Threads

Good quality thread. It’s a false economy to start with cheaper thread and beads when you’re starting beading. Having good quality beads and thread will make the experience much better for you especially as a beginner. You’re bound to go wrong a few times (I still do now). It’s so much easier to spot mistakes and correct them if your beads are consistent shapes and sizes and your thread will allow you to undo your work a few times as you’re learning. In addition to this if you go wrong, pull your needle of the end of the thread. Then pull the incorrect beads out instead of trying to bead back through your beads. If the thread splits it will become very messy. I mention this in workshops a lot and it was a great tip sent in on social media too.

Bead mixes

Getting started with lots of different beads can feel like a big expense to start with. However it doesn’t have to be. We have many seed bead mixes and delica bead mixes. These are perfect for starting off with as they have lots of complimentary colours all ready to use. Then you can continue to build your collection gradually. Here’s a selection of some of our bead mixes;

Workshops

As a beginner you always have lots of questions so attending a class suitable for beginners is ideal. You’ll often find you’re there with other beginners too. You can ask the tutor (probably me) questions and I love to help beginners get to grips with all the useful techniques and share lots of tips. 1-2-1 session are also available, where we can work on anything you like. We can run them either in person or via google meet, drop us an email for availability. Here’s a couple of classes perfect for beginner beaders;

We hope this has given you some good starting points for where to start your beading journey. We also hope you’re full of enthusiasm and ready to get going. Do let us know your thoughts and free free to contact us if you need any further advice.

Thanks for reading
Steph