Kid Craft Ideas

Kid Crafts: Beading for Beginners Part I

Three or four years ago, I was a bead fanatic. I loved beading and I made bead animals all the time. After I had completed more than hundred bead animals and creatures, I gave it up. I got bored with. A few weeks ago, it came to my mind and I decided to start beading again. After I've made some animals, I noticed that I still love beading.

It's just fantastic!

So, let's get started!

First, you'll need:

• beads
• wire (or nylon fishing line)
• pattern

By the way, what do you use,
wire or nylon fishing line?
Formerly, I used fishing line, because I found it easier to use. And it's easier to use indeed, because its end won't kink. However, it has no definite shape. The animal won't stand on its feet. The wired animals will stand. You can bend them as you like. And it's a great advantage! So, I would suggest the wire, but very thin wire.

Important

if you're making an animal that has to be round, 3D or plump (like a penguin), always use nylon fishing line, because the wire will be almost completely flat.

I have a good example to prove this:

Once, I decided to make a bead owl, which was rounded on the example picture.

After I finished it (using wire), it looked like a bat and not an owl. It was
completely flat.

I was very angry and I scolded the book. Later, I read the text beside the owl which said, that use nylon fishing line.

The next day, I made the owl again, using nylon fishing line. When I finished, it looked like exactly on the picture. It was
fully round.

So, use fishing line for rounded and 3D animals.

And what about beads? I've been using seed (small) beads for the body of the animals since I started beading. There are also long beads (I don't know the proper name), use them for wings and sometimes for legs.

Seed Beads:

These are the basic beads that we use for beading. They usually make up the body of an animal. Nowadays, you can buy them in whatever color, size and shape you want. I use quiet small (I don't know the exact size) and round seed beads.

Bigger Beads:

These are much bigger than the seed beads. I usually use them for the eyes of an animal. However, use them whenever you want to highlight something.

Long Beads:

The size of the long beads is between the seed beads and the 'bigger beads'. I use them for wings, legs and sometimes for some other parts of the animal's body.

So, in the next part, I'm going to write about the basic beading techniques.

To learn more about it
click here!

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About the Author

Marcel Vigh
Marcel's Kid Crafts

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