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Seed Bead Sizes

Since it keeps coming up over and over, I did a little research, both hands on and book type.

The chart at

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has the number ofbeads per inch for seed beads. Size 6/0 is about 10 beads per inch, size8/0 is about 12, size 11/0 is about 18. I've verified those measurementsusing Miyuki seed beads for those three sizes. I assume the figure she givesfor 15/0's is correct as well, but since I can't see those well enough tocount, I'm taking it on faith. Kinda blows the "beads per inch" theory outof the water. I've heard and read two different explanations for seed bead size descriptions. The one that seems to occur most often, and is the one Carol Wilcox Wells offers, is roughly as follows: there used to be a standard bead size, which was called the null bead. Larger size beads were 1's, 2,'s, etc. When they started making smaller sizes they added zeros as they got smaller -- a 00 bead, a 000 bead, a 0000 bead, a 00000 bead, etc. Rather than write out all those zeros, they used the shorthand of 1/0 for a 0 bead, a 6/0 for a 000000 bead, and so forth.

Elise

Reply to
EL
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None, so far as I know. "Rocailles" is a French word which means "small stones". The term is used interchangeably with seed beads. Since I can never remember how to spell it, I rarely use it :-) And I'm not sure if it is used to refer to non-round seed beads, like two cuts and three cuts and hex and triangle beads.

Elise

Reply to
EL

vj found this in rec.crafts.beads, from Kathy N-V :

]Not much. Rocailles are a kind of seed bead that is made in the Czech ]Republic. I've seen it used pretty much interchangably.

isn't "Rocaille" used for the "sparkley" ones?

----------- @vicki [SnuggleWench] (Books)

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's not what you take, when you leave this world behind you;it's what you leave behind you when you go. -- Randy Travis

Reply to
vj

I read on a site somewhere that rocailles have square inside holes.

  • TL *
Reply to
Tante Lina

Elise is correct that "rocailles" is a French word for beads (seed beads). But in a lot of places in the U.S. at least, the word rocaille has come to mean a metal lined seed bead that has a squarish hole. When I first started beading they were the bright, glittery Czech beads, silverlined under usually rich transparent colors, but in the past few years the Japanese have been making them too in beautiful matte colors. And also, there are silver and gilt lined beads that don't have the squarish holes.

Gawd look at these beautiful colors!

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noticed that Shipwreck seems to call their European seed beads"rocailles", but here's a description from importer York beads:
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The main diff. to me between what I call rocailles and regular seed beads is that the squarish holes and the size/length of the rocailles make them work up a little differently in seed bead stitches when you combine them with other seed beads. But they sparkle a lot because the hole has four sides...

HTH, Mary T. 8-)

Aunt Molly's Bead Street

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and JustBeads: seriousbeader

Reply to
Mary Tafoya

I haven't really seen seed beads in catalogues over here. The ones that I have are silverlined and rich transparent colours like you said. I like those more than the others because they kind of sparkle and the look "deeper" than the others. I haven't been able to find solid colour ones that don't look like plastic yet, but I shall keep trying. I think once I've sold a few pieces I will have to start importing from the US. I found one site yesterday that had over 100 colours of seed beads! Wow! Anyway, I'm rambling.

Charlie.

Reply to
Charlie

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