Bead Spotlight: Hex Cut Seed Beads

If you were to take someone who had never experienced beading before, and show them the amazing variety of colors and sizes in the realm of round seed beads, they would probably be pretty overwhelmed. And just when they’re recovering from the awe, you could throw them for a loop with seed bead shapes.

Just when they though that beading couldn’t get any more fun, out come these amazing little building blocks of color and glass. There are plenty of different shapes to choose from, and new ones are being created all the time. I, for one, can’t wait to try out the new Tila seed beads.

One of the most interesting members of the shaped seed family is the hex-cut. These beauties would make any bee homesick, with their perfect hexagonal shape, and they can certainly bring out the magpie in any beader.

Hex-cuts are great for flat stitches, and can help make learning peyote stitch easy because of the way they lock together with perfect symmetry. Because they have six sides for light to play off, their sparkle is tough to beat.

For today’s necklace design, I played a bit with hex-cuts to see how they worked without the help of round seed beads. After a little brainstorming, I came up with a fun design that uses mostly hexes. The only reason I needed round seed beads at all was to top of the St. Petersburg stitches, and I wanted smooth edges for that.

I’m usually not a fan of amulet bags, although there are some amazing graphic patterns out there for them. I do like how this necklace resembles that style, but still has the delicate qualities of a simple pendant. The combination of blue, aqua and white, with the shapes of the beads reminds me of a spa, or Roman bath.

How do you like to use hex-cuts?

Copyright 2010 Inspirational Beading