Welcome to the Beading Beat! Every Friday (except for Tutorial Friday's) I'll discuss various beady topics like tips and tricks, some of my favorite beading products, and more. Some weeks it will be a quick discussion, some weeks it will be longer. But every week it will be fun and full of beady goodness.

This article includes affiliate links. That just means that I get a little fee if you click on the link or purchase something and no additional cost to you. That little fee helps me keep writing these articles. All my opinions are my own. I am featuring these products because I love them.

This week we're going to talk about a hot topic. What do I do with my thread when I get to the end? Should I knot it? Should I weave it in? Should I do something else? What do I dooooooo?

When I first started beading, I hated ending/starting thread. I just wanted to accomplish the whole project with one thread and be done with it. I would either stick to small projects that I knew would only take a small amount of thread or I would just an indecent amount of thread. And that thread would always get tangled or break or both. And I would loose my mind.

I quickly learned I was going to have to get over my fear of ending/starting thread. 

So I started with knots. And boy would I knot a lot.

I have the fear (I fell like a lot of beaders feel this way) that my beadwork will fall apart. I needed to bead as many times as I could. Maybe 5+ times. That would keep everything in order.

My first knots were always on the edge of the beadwork. You could see them and it was knot pretty (hehe, word pun). Then I started knotting in the beadwork and trying to hide the knot. This worked sometimes, and sometimes it didn't.

So I went on a quest to find a better way. How could I finish my thread off without knotting it or at least learn to do it in a better way? I asked friends that beaded and researched on the internet and I found an amazing thing.

That's when I learned about weaving the ends in. Seriously, I had no idea you could just weave the end in to secure it. Where was this my whole life? How did I not know this earlier?

It's great. Weaving the ends in strengthens the piece. Unlike knotting, which can possibly weaken the thread at the knot point. And it's way less of a headache then knotting. It is my preferred way to end a piece.

So how do we do it? How does this magical weaving work?

So this is how you are "supposed" to do it. Make a figure 8 with your thread. I was always told that you should start in the middle of a row to hide the threads better. Buuuuut to be honest, I almost always end/start at the end. I just weave my thread in a little farther and then do all the fun turns.

And to be honest, mine looks a little bit more like this.......

Okay, maybe it's not quite that much, but I do a few extra turns just to make sure me thread is secure. Because like I said earlier, I have a fear my beadwork will fall apart.

Welcome to the first ever Beading Beat. Every Friday I'll discuss various beady topics like tips and tricks, some of my favorite beading products, and more. Some weeks it will be a quick discussion, some weeks it will be longer. But every week it will be fun and full of beady goodness.

This article includes affiliate links. That just means that I get a little fee if you click on the link or purchase something and no additional cost to you. That little fee helps me keep writing these articles. All my opinions are my own. I am featuring these products because I love them.

This week I'm going to be talking about one of my favorite things. An item that has truly changed my life when it comes to bead work. What am I talking about?

My magnification lamp.

I have been beading for well over 20 years and it's only been the last year or so that I started using one of these. If you use one already, I'm sure your shaking your head in disappointment. I own a wide variety of beading lights, but I've never actually used a magnifying lamp.

This thing has changed my life. It makes beading so much easier. I love it and I can't imagine beading without it now.

To be honest I bought it to help my husband sort Lego bricks. He buys big lots of used Lego and then we need to figure out what they are. So I need a bright light and a magnifying glass to do that. But after I got it, I thought, why not use this bad boy for beads.

I did have a little bit of learning curve to get use to beading with it. I wasn't use to see my beads to big, but I think I had it down the first time I used it. It took me maybe 30 minute to get use to it. Now I can't imagine trying to look at those tiny beads without it.

I have the TomShine Magnifying Glass Lamp. I got it from Amazon an I think it was under $30. On of my favorite things about it is that it plugs in using a USB cord, so I can plug it into the wall or I can use these battery packs to power it. Having it run on batteries is great because I can use it anywhere. And the battery packs are inexpensive and can be recharged (no wasteful batteries). I think I got both of these at Target for around $10 (the one can also be charged using solar energy).

My only complaints with this exact model is the lid won't stay open when you are using it. It just falls down. I've gotten around this by just taking the cover off when in use and putting it back on when I'm done. The other annoying thing is it did not come in with the USB power adapter, but not much comes with one now a days, so I guess I should have expected that. The only other thing I can see being a problem is the clip on it is VERY strong. Which is good because you know it won't fall down, but it could be difficult for some to use it.

Other than those few things, I love it. I recommend anyone that does beadwork get some sort of magnifying lamp and reduce that strain on your eyes. And get your self one of these portable ones so you can take it with you where ever you go.

Do you use a magnifying lamp? Which one do you use? Do you like it? Leave a comment below and let me know what you use to bead.

Looking for beady tutorials?
​Even Count Flat Peyote Stitch - Click Here
Ladder Stitch - Click Here
Brick Stitch - Click Here
How to Read a Peyote Stitch Word Chart - Click Here
Square Stitch - Coming Soon
Two Drop Even Count Flat Peyote Stitch - Coming Soon
Odd Count Flat Peyote Stitch - Coming Soon
And many more!

Other Helpful Goodies

​Want to know how I keep track of where I am in a pattern? Click here to read about my method for staying on track.

What are my favorite beads to use for peyote? I love me some Delica cylinder beads. There are a number of awesome choices HERE.

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