Good Beads for Hemp Jewelry

Monday, July 14, 2008

When it comes to making hemp jewelry, I just love using a variety of beads to add color and fun into the pieces. However, due to the size of the hemp cord, it can often be a giant issue as to what sizes you can even pull off for your beads. I ran into this over the past week, making me pass over plenty of beautiful beads that I would have loved to have used – but they were too small.

If you’re using a typical two beader strands for your project, then you’re probably looking at a 2 mm requirement with standard 20 lb hemp. There is 10 lb out there, but it’s harder to find. I usually just work beads into the piece off of one stringer instead of two, but that requires adjustments I’d rather not have to make. The smallest you can usually work with is .5 mm, which is the size of 10 lb hemp. I’ve tried working other materials into my projects as the stringing strands, but they’ve never really worked out too well.

Polymer beads are probably my most favorite of all of the bead materials – the holes are usually a perfect size, and even if they aren’t it’s not a total pain in the ass to fix things up. Plus they come in so many different varieties that it would make your head spin. I’ve seen some that look just like lampwork, and others that are all sorts of crazy shapes.

Lampwork beads, while usually sticking around on the expensive side, do tend to have bigger holes due to the way they are made on the rod the lampworkers use. The name escapes me at the moment, but it does make a great size.

Furnace Glass is beautiful and I want to get some of them added to my collecton post haste – and they also seem to have a pretty decently sized hole. This is one type of bead that I need to learn more about, to be honest.

8mm + Gemstones work great, although you always want to get a shot of the hole size prior to purchasing. Some suppliers default with a very small hole, while others give a great standard. At 8 mm you are probably going to be restricted to one beading strand, although that all depends on where you get it from.

Paper beads – I just saw these for the first time EVER at the Intergalactic Bead Show, and I have to say that they are just awesome. I had a few issues with varying hole size, but on the whole (hah) they worked out pretty well.

Focals are very rarely an issue, no matter what they are. When in doubt, add a jump ring seems to work out pretty well, and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever run into one that I’ve had an issue with.