Tips for picking your next beaded fish that actually saved me time

I've done maybe a dozen fish charms myself and the graph paper tip is the one thing I'd second. I skipped it on my first betta and the flowing fins turned into a mushy blue smear that even my sister couldn't identify. Now I draw everythign first, even the simple ones.

For what it's worth, my results with size 15 beads in the fins were rough. My hands cramp up and I kept splitting the thread, so I stayed with 11s throughout and just made the fins one bead wide. They still read fine at charm size, honestly. Thread choice mattered more for me there, I use Fireline 6lb and it never frays on the tight decreases.

On species, I'd add guppies to the easy list. The big tail gives you room to play with a gradient, and I did one going from teal into orange that got the most compliments of anything I've made. Betta fish are the same idea but harder since the fins need shaping.

I tried the angelfish after reading about it somewhere and got stuck twice on the double decreases, put it in a drawer for a month, then went back and finished it in one sitting. Something about stepping away reset my brain. Next on my list is a lionfish, those spiky fins are either going to be great or a total disaster.

The eye placement is the thing I'd add. I messed around with a flat mandarin fish last year and it looked like a psychedelic puddle til I put the eye on with a single larger bead. Suddenly it was a fish. One 8mm bead centered a row or two back from the nose does most of the work, honestly. Also curious how you'd handle the lionfish spikes in brick stitch. My instinct woud be thread a couple of 15s out past the body and skip back through them, but I've never tested it. Report back if it works.

The flatfish idea might be worth a try after all the striped ones. I did a flounder last winter and the whole thing was about shifting the body sideways, more oval than fish-shaped, and the asymmetry almost did my head in. What saved me was switching to a short size 12 needle, the long one kept flexing on the tight turns and I was bending thread passes around every row. Never went back to the long ones for anything with angles. Curious how the pufferfish belly bump holds up over time, does it stay rounded or does it flatten out once it's been knocking around in a charm bag a while?

On those lionfish spikes, don't try to build them into the main shape. I did a rockfish with dorsal spines years back and the only thing that worked was stitching each spike as its own little two-bead column, anchoring the base into the body row, then moving to the next one. Otherwise you're increasing and decreasing on every edge at once and it turns into spaghetti.

Funny thing is, back before anybody had charting software we copied patterns off cross-stitch leaflets square by square onto graph paper. Same skill, diferent century.

And fair warning about that drawer trick, it works until it doesn't. I've got a half-finished sturgeon that's been hibernating since 2019.