The Tiniest Beads for a Necklace

A while ago, I purchased the wrong size seed bead from an online vendor. When I got them, I was shocked at just how tiny they were. They are so tiny I could not get a decent picture of the beads even on zoom.

This is my camera on SUPER zoom

As usual, I do NOT return beads (shameful action) so they went in to the future use pile. In this case, they disappeared into a plastic bin for six months until I was unpacking my new Beadland.

Also purchased a long time ago are these lovely handmade beads first featured in my blog about buying local back in March. They are very hard to capture on camera as the colors are so varied in each bead. Here was a good view of just one of the beads.

Dharma Fire Bead

I knew I wanted the handmade beads to be the focal point and that I wanted the remainder of the necklace to be as far in the figurative background as possible.

So I poured out all three colors of the itsy bitsy teeny tiny seed beads. Not one of the colors matched the handmade bead so I used all three to create the image of a new color.

I had to take breaks to avoid an eyesight induce headache

The color experiment worked.

My next issue arose when I realized the beads were incredibly tiny so that when I put the handmade bead on the beading wire it simply slid right over the tiny beads.

How to keep the handmade beads from sliding around? Spacer beads! But I wanted them to also be small enough so they would not detract from the different colors found near the bead hole.

I used these. The narrower ones managed to stop both the movement of larger sized silver beads while creating a bead brake against the tiny beads.

Tiniest metal spacers I could find

I am quite happy with the results but had a wicked time trying to capture my success on digital film.

Here is the overall piece where you cannot possibly appreciate the colors. Hopefully you can appreciate the workmanship.

Handmade Beads find a Necklace Home

This next picture shows a close up of the necklace.

Your close-up ma’am

This instantly went into my “current favorites” pile. I have worn it three times since then.

The necklace measures 20 inches.

I plan to activate my etsy store in January 2013. If you wish to purchase this necklace prior to then, leave me a comment. This will retail at $35 due to the cost of materials and labor. I will ship domestic and shipping will be included in the price.