The Advantages of Delicas
I’ve been wanting to do nice beaded projects for a long time; however, the price and availability in my area of the tools has put me off for a while. I’ve done loom work before and while my designs come out cute, the end product always seems to be slightly off, with little gaps in between beads or uneven edges. Well last week I found out that there was a Hobby Lobby in the next city, about 30 minutes away, and I told Hubby to take me over there so I could look around and see what the big fuss is about this place. It’s very similar to Michael’s but has some different bead products and prices are just slightly cheaper. By cheaper I mean 15-35 cents but with the trip that I have to make to the place (and gas use) the savings is basically unimportant.
Anyway, I found the famous Delicas! Tiny 11/0 seeds with a big whole and very standard size unlike regular glass seed beads that are very irregular. I found them at 2 dollars per 4 grams and the 25 yds of no-stretch thread at 1.75. Okay... so the prices aren’t that expensive... but when you look at it in big projects I can use up to 2 bottles (30 grams each) of seed beads (for loom projects) and these cost about 1.98 per tube. So with delicas that would be a total of about 30 bucks just for tiny little glass beads. It is quite an expenditure when you add it all up.
AHHHHH but it would be sooo worth it.
Check this:
Top piece is a swatch of black seed beads, as is normal with them, they are inconsistent in size and sometimes shape. Those are the most inexpensive beads. There are also Czech beads, but they are still not entirely perfect. Right next to it I added the delicas. Looks sort of weird because I was actually using wire to weave them together, but you can still notice the difference. Delicas are more standard in size and a little squarer allowing for a better fit within the pattern.
The lower image definitely shows a better representation of what these delicas are capable of. I used a brick stitch and that little inch test took close to 2 hours to make. But it’s beautiful. I kept staring at it and stroking it lovingly. It felt so good, like snake skin.
I’ve discovered that hand weaving is waaayyy more tedious than loom work, at least to me. I have been doing a choker with a peyote stitch (the one showed above with the black and white seeds) which is almost the same as brick stitch, except you work vertically (with brick you work horizontally, but the end result is about the same). So far I’ve done 10 inches on the choker, over 15 hours of work. I am on the finishing stages, adding a little edge but ran out of supplies so now I don’t know when I’ll finish it.
Artbeads.com also sells delicas (I just noticed! They used to only carry silver and Swarovski) so I want to thick up of several projects so that I can make one order of everything together. I think the order is gonna pile up... But at least I pay no shipping with them!
3 Comments:
They look gorgeous. I wouldn't mind one of those chokers :)
Japanese Seed Beads... now those are to fall in love with. They are probably my FAVORITE seed bead to work with and the most expensive >_<
I often get things in bulk on e-bay for seed beads, which saves quite a bit of money too. There is a store in anchorage that I absolutely love dedicated to beads that usually has constant sales going on. Sadly, we have nothing like that here in Fairbanks :( So online is where I end up going.
Like, I just bought a bunch of czech beads and miscellaneous from eebeads.com. Too many seed beads and not enough fancy beads :D had to replenish my stock.
TS: I can't wait to finish it! So far I like the way is coming out. I think I will do a complete series of necklaces in white beads. Yah! That would be good. At the rate i'm going it may take me like a week per necklace though. HAHAH
Lore: Yeah, Miyukis and Tohos are expensive in comparison with Czechs or other glass beads, but as I have just seens, the price is worth it because of how well the designs look. I hadn't visited eebeads.com. They seem to have a pretty nice selection of items, more than Artbeads, but Swarovski and fire polished beads are still more economical at Artbeads. :D Have you tried them out yet?
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