Stitchboard Admin message #2
Re: New to this site
November 25, 2015 at 7:36:32 AM  (in response to Brenda1962 message #1)
 
Brenda,

Welcome! 

If you're referring to beadweaving, one thing that I often recommend is a really good book that helps with a lot of the questions you may have.  There are many excellent videos, and I'd be happy to suggest a few if you'd like , but I also like books because they can really help to clearly see what you may not be able to see with a video.

One of the books I highly recommend is Creative Bead Weaving by Carol Wilcox Wells.  It's actually the book I started with when I was very new to beading, and though it's out of print, there are plenty of places to buy it used for a nominal price, or at the very worst, you can borrow it from a library.

As for materials, I tend to use Fireline Crystal for bead weaving.  The beads I most prefer to use are cylinder beads (e.g., Delicas) or Japanese seed beads, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish.  I have used Czech seed beads, but they're not quite as regular as the Japanese seed beads.  If you don't have a nearby bead store, you can also buy online.    I know of two wonderful sellers who handle online sales.

Also, depending on how new you are to beading, there's one other thing I might recommend: start with very large beads.  I usually start people out with pony beads and yarn for thread.  The beads look very clunky, but they're large and can help you to really see what you're doing...I've even used them recently, to learn bead crochet!  There are also beads called Perler beads, which somewhat resemble cylinder beads; you can generally find them at craft or toy stores (they're normally put onto a shaped, pegged object and then are baked, but they're great for weaving, too).

Let me know if you'd like to take a look at some YouTube videos, as well. 

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