Dealing With Super Large Beading Holes and Alternative Beads

This African metal bead has 3/16 of an inch to varying towards ¼ inch in size because of its irregular outline. A double wire wrap would not work on this type of bead because of the shape of the beading hole. The beading hole and the wire would catch into the ridges if left left as is without the beading support and will start to undo itself.

Here is another example of a bead with an excess beading hole, this is similar to the silver ball bead and can be resolved the same way when finding a bead to fill the beading hole. Pay attention to the shape of its conical top and bottom. When looking for a bead as its filler consider not to go over pass the edges of the hole, try and find beads that match the direction of the bead. Conical beads has edges that goes outwards, having the edges smoother than its round ball counterpart where the structure of its opening closes inward having a direct contact with its threading.

This is another example of a bead that has an excess size in a beading hole. Many small beads will fall into the hole itself and usually if the bead did fit around to cover the circumference, creating a double wire wrap would still be a little bit short to support the beads in place.

One solution to this is finding beads that would go on top of each other to support the beads into place as well as making sure the integrity of the bead is not lost. Here even a single wire wrap would suffice because it contributes all its weight evenly throughout the bead.

Stone beads with small holes are very common, typically they will have beading holes that support single threading or two, this is due to the fact that stone beads are more delicate. When wire wrapping stone beads ensure that the bead has enough space for movement. And stone against stone cuts against each other, often resulting in chipping on the edges getting the wires or thread being affected. It is usually best to provide space through the use of wire wraps or placing a spacer bead in between to cushion the beads.

A character trait of some conical beads with a small hole is its hollow inside. Beading through wire becomes a challenge because the ends of the wire does not have a guide where it needs to go, beading often leads to searching in the dark feeling. Wires often bends within the bead resulting in numerous attempt in beading.

A solution in working with these is to work the wire with the height of the bead, this would lead to a directly with the distance between each side of the beading hole.

Certain beads have an excess circumference in beading hole. Many of these beads are medium sized and matching a bead to work with its size is often a design challenge. Placing the correct bead to fill in the space is essential to keep the integrity of the bead and making it easy to work with its structure.