Tips for Stringing Tiny Loose Beads

There are specialty beading needles available for stringing tiny loose beads 10/0 (approx 2 mm) and smaller. Twisted wire and split eye are popular ones. But frankly, I usually just use the low-tech alternative of a small sewing needle with sewing thread eye because I don’t seem to lose this as easily as the others. (I use a brightly-colored sewing thread for the thread eye loop just to make sure, lol.)

How you get loose beads strung onto your thread is a personal choice. Practice makes things go faster, so be patient and just experiment with what works best for you. Here are some ways you might try — 

Scoop

“Scoop” the beads onto the needle tip by dipping the needle into the bead dish in a somewhat sideways action. The beads find their way onto the needle in a hit-or-miss fashion. Tip: The scooping method works best if you have a lot more beads in the bead dish than you will need for your project.

Pop

If using a non-flexible needle such as a sewing needle, place the needle tip just to the side of a bead hole and “pop” the bead onto the point of the needle. Tip: Especially until you get the hang of this method, put a mat or towel underneath your bead dish to catch any bead that might try to pop out of the dish and go rolling away!

Pick up

Or you can just pick up a few beads in your fingers and place them onto the tip of the  beading needle. Tip: If using a sharp needle, be careful of stabbing yourself — no fun to say the least. Therefore, I would advise this method when using something like a twisted wire or split eye needle that does not have such a sharp point.

After bead(s) are on the needle tip with any of these methods, tilt the needle upwards to let gravity slide the beads closer to the eye of the needle. If you put your thumb over the bead(s) that are already on the needle, you can re-scoop or re-pop or otherwise put several beads on the needle. Then push the beads down over the eye of the needle and onto your thread.