Those little bitty beads at Wally's, usually called Seed Beads, work pretty well for little flies, say size 16 or less. I really like them for midges, as they don't weight the fly much, so the fly stays up in the water. You can also put a few of them along the shank of the hook, then dub over them for interesting effects. Stack a lot of red ones along a long shank hook for a blood midge. I like the metal beads for nymphs. Gqualls, a member here, sells both the metal ones and tungston ones...
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/s...ighlight=beads
and he has good deals on larger lots.

You can take those seed beads, ooze some hot melt glue over them, to make the dark spot in an egg pattern (MOE egg).

Larger beads work pretty well, but the holes get proportionally larger as well.

MAO