Beads & Materials

Bead shopping is full of numbers that mean the opposite of what they look like — a 15/0 seed bead is tiny while a 6/0 is chunky — plus aught sizes, Delica versus round debates, and stringing materials from silk thread to stainless beading wire. This collection turns all of it into plain references you can actually shop and design with. We evaluate materials on the properties that show up in finished work: size consistency, hole diameter, finish durability, drape, and strength. When a Japanese seed bead earns its premium over a Czech one for a given project, we explain why — and when the cheaper choice is genuinely the smarter buy, we say that too.