Needles

You might be able to get some slim sewing needles through the hole of some beads (don’t force them through or you will shatter the bead) but if you are working with seeds beads then it is essential to use beading needles. We stock two different types of needles – John James hard English beading needles that resemble household sewing needles but with an eye hole that is the same width as the shank of the needle; and Beadalon collapsible eye needles made from twisted wire that have large easy-to-thread eyes which collapse and then reshape when they pass through a bead.

The John James needles we stock in a size 15, and a mixed pack of size 10 and size 13. Size 10 is a ‘general purpose’ needle as it is the largest in diameter. It can be used with most beads that can be strung onto a supple thread and with seed beads as small as a 13/0 seed bead. A size 13 needle is slimmer than the size 10 and this can be used with size 13/0 to size 15/0 seed beads where the thread has to pass several times through each bead. Size 15 is slimmer still and also fits through seed beads from size 13/0 to 15/0, but it can be used for bead weaving designs that have a complicated thread path. These long thin needles will naturally arc over time, but this can make them useful for threading into difficult to reach spots!

The Beadalon collapsible eye needles that we stock come in a pack of three assorted sizes from fine – 0.30mm, medium – 0.36mm and heavy – 0.51mm). The twisted wire construction makes these needles stronger and ‘kink-resistant’. Size 15 seed beads have a 0.5mm hole, so between them this pack of needles will fit most seed beads.

Please feel free to reproduce this guide for personal or educational use, ideally crediting Big Bead Little Bead as the source. If you wish to reproduce this guide for commercial use then please contact us at info@bigbeadlittlebead.com to discuss your requirements.