Everyone knows what a beaded bead is, a discrete cluster of small beads stitched together to make one larger bead, which can be strung onto thread or cord, etc.
I have been thinking about the idea of in-line beaded beads, that is, that a beaded bead can be made as part of strung chain of beads, without adding or breaking the thread. For example when you are making a necklace, the long strung part (as opposed to the main work part) could contain in-line beaded beads.
A simple inline beaded bead might be a variation on Horace’s lakota chain:
Or a simple covering of seed beads.
I also made one with bugle beads (pictured above) which is a nice effect.
My only other consideration with this method is that there would only be one line of thread through most of the beads, which may not be strong enough. In the necklace pictured above, I zig-zagged back between each pair of beaded beads, giving three threads in the strung, straight line sections, using the beaded beads to make the turns. This had the added benefit of allowing an extra pass on the bugle beaded bead to stabilize the two seed beads on the ends.
Please let me know if you also use inline beaded beads, and if you have a favourite method? Or else if this has inspired you to give it a try!
Bonne perler!
