After making gorgeous bead necklaces or other Venetian Jewelry, you’ll often find yourself with leftover beads. When your bead soup is starting to overflow, there’s only one thing to do: give those leftover beads a new life. Sometimes, a pile of unused beads can seem like an obligation that’s calling to you. Instead, you should see them as an opportunity. Since you don’t have a specific plan as to how to use your leftovers, you can do anything imaginable with them. One of the most flexible choices is to transform them into bead pendants.
Turn Your Leftover Beads into New Art
Leftover beads tend to vary in size, shape, style, and quantity. That’s why we’ve crafted a diverse list of possible applications for your new beads, so you can find a suitable project no matter the shape of your stockpile. If you have a few leftover beads to put to use, then you should consider making some beautiful bead pendants. On the other hand, you might have accumulated a stock of leftovers so large that you need a more ambitious project. In that case, you can weave your extras into an intricate beadwork tapestry.
Bead Pendants
No matter the number or style of beads you have available, you can always make a charming bead pendant. With just a few extras, you can make a charming, minimalistic work of art. If you have more leftover beads to work through, then you can create more flamboyant pendants. You can even go so far as to convert a large box of bead soup into dozens of pendants and wear a new one each day of the month. No matter your ultimate goal, you have plenty of options and the process is easy. There are many online tutorials on making bead pendants, but the basic steps are straightforward.
- Select your beads and head pins based on your desired look
- Slide the beads onto the head pin and string them together
- Use a set of round chain nose pliers to bend the top of the head pin
- Make a wire loop and wrap the wire ends together
Voila, you’ve completed your bead pendant. Now, you just need to choose an appropriate material to string your pendant onto and you’ll be enjoying your one-of-a-kind work of art.
Beaded Coasters
Beaded coasters are a simple, functional way to put your leftover beads to work. All that you need to do is string your beads together, place them in a spiral pattern, and secure that shape with craft glue. There’s no limit to the colorful patterns you can design. However, it can often be tricky to visualize a spiral design since they’re not as common as others.
Before moving forward with the stringing process, consider arranging your loose beads in a spiral pattern to get an idea of what the coaster is going to look like. Think of it as the beadwork equivalent of making a sketch before proceeding with the final work. From there, you’ll work from the center of the set of beads outward while stringing them and you should accurately replicate your starting design.
Make Bead Earrings
When your leftover beads are less quantity, more quality, consider using them to make stunning bead earrings. You mostly need basic materials like round chain nose pliers, wire cutters, and beads, but earring hooks and endpins are necessary too. Your endpin resembles a short, stiff piece of wire that you’ll need to cut to your desired length. You’ll use it to hold the beads and add them until there’s about 1/2 cm. to 1 cm. of extra space on the pin. Then, you bend the endpin at a 90-degree angle halfway through the empty space. This hook will hold your earring hooks.
Custom Bead Ornaments for the Holidays
Have any red, green, and white beads laying around? If so, then you have your work cut out for you when it comes to making Christmas ornaments. You can easily incorporate other colors and interesting stylistic touches based on what extra materials you have laying around, as well. Depending on your religion, you might make a star of Bethlehem to hang from the Christmas tree, a beadwork menorah, or anything else. Beadwork is all-inclusive, after all.
Craft a Bead Bracelet
Bead bracelets are one of the most popular forms of bead art for good reasons. They’re easy to make and easily tailored to your whims and preferences, and you can make beautiful bracelets with any leftover materials. All that you need to do is string beads onto a piece of wire, and then secure the ends with a crimp bead. You can design your bracelets so that they’re tightly packed with beads, or you can adopt a looser approach that leaves more movement between beads. The decisions are yours to make.
Freeform Bead Art
If you have a large supply of beads to burn through, why not use them all at once in a freeform bead art design? By applying the Peyote stitch technique, you can turn any number of beads into an intricate brick wall pattern of colors and shapes. This stitching technique is highly prevalent in Native American artwork, but it’s been independently discovered in many different cultures around the world. That’s because it’s fairly simple and still offers remarkably attractive results. If you have a large pool of leftover beads to work through, then embrace the freedom that leftover beads offer you and craft a beadwork tapestry.
Find the Right Tools with Venetian Bead Shop
No matter the bead project, you always need to make sure that you have the right tools on hand. Specially designed bead tools have the precision to allow you to work gently with your beads, as well as many quality of life features. Find all the tools and materials to elevate your beading passion to the next level with Venetian Bead Shop. We stock tools from respected, prolific brands such as Wubbers, and carry all the crimp beads and craft wire you could ever need.