Looking for a source for glass beads in various colors and sizes. Particularly I am looking for size 15/0 in black for a pattern, but would like to stock up on a variety. Thanks.
Dave
Michaels and Joann Fabrics are a great source for beads both glass and plastic.
I picked up glass beads at JoAnn Fabrics. The ‘sed beads’ I got were 10/0 (I think) and that was as small as they had them. Pretty small too.
Allan
If the craft stores don’t have them, try any of the fly shops on the San Juan in NM. Float-N-Fish had a huge selection of itty bitty glass beads for midge tying, suspect the others do as well.
Smallest beads I found were 12/0 Pat Catans.
My wife makes bead jewelry, so I aksed her for some or the many sources she uses for beads. She said Fire Mountain, Art Beads, or Shipwreck are 3 sources. You can probably find them on the internet; I haven’t looked, but I do see a large catalog from Fire Mountain when it arrives in the mail here from time to time.
My wife said you’d want round seed beads, and probably not cylinder ones. Also, she said 15/0 is really small (which I presume you already know).
John
p.s. - I asked my wife to show me size 15/0 beads later in the evening. They look just about the right size for a size #32 hook!
Best prices and selection I’ve found:
Cool! Never tried to find smaller beads but I know the 12/0 i have is quite big on the 32’s.
Here is Mill Hill Beads
http://www.millhillbeads.com/index2.php
Their Seed beads are what I have used, petite (15/0) smallest to Seed (11/0)
http://donaldnicolson.webplus.net/page12.html
There are five pages of various flies, from Chironomids to Steelhead Wet Flies.
Thanks guys.
Wiz:
Check out those silver lined Czech seed Beads. My vaforite. Available at Michaels & Joanns among other places.
Tim
I will do that Tim thanks.
Dave
The [b]Bead[/b]Gallery
2050 Eggert Road,Buffalo, NY
(716) 836-6775 ()
[b]Bead[/b] Creative
[FONT=Arial]5401 Sheridan Drive[FONT=Arial]Williamsville Place
[/FONT]Buffalo, NY 14221-3609
(716) 626-4182
[/FONT]
I found 11/0 yesterday at Walmart, these would be good for size 14-18 flies. What I am actually looking to tie is a size 16 Winter Black Stone. I saw the video earlier in the week, thought it was an Aaron Jasper TPO video, but now I can’t find it. The 11/0’s are too big as they do not leave enough room on the hook for the other material. Supposed to use 5 beads on a size 16 and they represent the body segmentation. Will check the other sources.
Midge size “killer caddis beads” are tiny enough for anything.
I’ve been ordering from these guys for several years. They also have a great selection of colored wire and Free Shipping on all orders.
http://www.fusionbeads.com/shop/category/233/Size_15_Round_Japanese_Seed_Beads/
Wiz,
Shame you aren’t in Tucson…
We have a huge (4,000+ exhibiters) Gem and Mineral show that takes over the city the last week of Jan through the first week of Feb every year. Tons (literally) of beads. Some places were selling 17/0 glass beads (which you could maybe get 8/0 thread through) up to huge one inch beads or larger. They have all sizes and all colors of glass beads and they sell them in tubes or kilos…
Bead sources for the jewelry/weaving folks have by far the most variety of, and reasonable prices on, the glass beads we use for fly tying.
If you get into a JoAnnes or other craft type shop, spend the time to browse throughly. All the beads are not in the same place. The smaller sizes are often not in with the regular jewelers stuff…plus it’s lots of fun and you might find a lot of fly tying stuff in such a place.
Good Luck!
Buddy
Buddy had a great idea. I went up to their site and found their vendor list. You should find someone on it that has them:
http://www.tgms.org/2012Dealernamesboothnumber.pdf
iaflyfisher