Bead Shapes

Do-It-Yourself Decorating

Beads of Every Color

There are countless varieties of shapes, sizes, and colors to choose from in the bead selection. Above are some of the more unusual ones. Multi-colored beads like the one on the right side are a great place to find the color scheme of your bracelet or necklace. Choose them first, and then find smaller beads matching some or all of the colors. All of these beads make good "focal beads" for jewelry. The white seed beads behind them are some of the smallest you can get, about 2 mm, so you can see how large the colored ones really are.

Filler Beads

Small filler beads come in many different shapes. The round ones at the top make good accent beads, spaced at regular intervals in between your largest, fanciest beads. The blue oval beads and maroon seed-shaped beads are nice to use as fillers in between the large beads. They are more nondescript and add length when you need it. A good rule is to use your dominant colors for the larger beads, and keep the filler beads lighter and in the background. Finally, the red tear-drop beads add an interesting shape and almost dangle off the bracelet.