New NLM Glassarts.com Shopping Cart Coming!

Thank you for your patience as Paypal suddenly discontinued the shopping cart we used without notice. We are looking actively for a new shopping cart solution but in the meantime you can still email us if you want to order product.

Canadain Bead Oasis Show on Kickstarter!

Canadian Bead Oasis Shows is starting a revival of its shows and needs your help.  www.oasisshows.com links to the Kickstarter campaign for a limited time only.  Let's support CBOS in building a show to see many vendors' beads including ours, in person!

TILA Beads and Long Magatamas!

New thingies!!

TILA Beads are really a new concept for seed beads - 5mm square flat tiles that are double-drilled, and come in a range of the usual luscious Miyuki colours and coatings. These little guys are stretching everyone's creativity in the rush for new designs. Think Right-Angle-Weave through two-holed beads! Think freeform Peyote! Even simple ladder stitch makes a gorgeous band! Or use them as splitters for creating fringe on a necklace. And of course, the normal two-strand bracelet or necklace. The holes are similar in size to a 6mm bugle hole and are suitable for beading thread, fine Fireline(R), Soft-Touch(TM) or fine Soft-Flex(TM), and size D silk.

Long Magatamas are very cool and easier to use in existing designs as they are closer to conventional shapes. Magatamas are like Drops (teardrop-shaped beads with cross-drilled holes at the narrow end) that were flattened in 1 dimension (2 opposing sides) so they fit closer on a string with less spiraling than Drops. Long Magatamas are about twice as long as regular Magatamas, but are also pointy rather than rounded at the non-hole end. Like a slice of a jelly-roll that was squashed a bit to be oval in cross-section, then sliced diagonally! Think tubular Peyote or tubular crochet - looking rather like a spiky hedgehog in gorgeous colours! Also from Miyuki.

They're available now at www.NLMGlassArts.com !!

Biggie Delicas®! 10/0 and 8/0

Now for the biggies of the Delicas® world! 10/0 Delicas® are about twice the size of 11/0, which makes these cylinder beads about the width (perpendicular to the hole) of an 11/0 round. Of course like all Delicas® these are not round beads but cylinders with smooth sides and bigger holes than regular beads. 10/0 Delicas® can upsize an 11/0 Delicas® pattern to make a bigger piece, but now that there are 10/0 patterns out there, these bigger Delicas® have carved their own niche. Big enough to make their unique look known in rings, bracelets and earrings. With holes big enough for stringing materials (beading wire and Fireline®) and not just thread.

Then there are the real biggies in the Delicas® world - 8/0! These are cylinder beads that are more like a 6/0 round in size but taller along the hole. Remember, Delicas® are not square but usually are somewhat taller parallel to the hole. In 8/0 that difference becomes very noticeable, as does the bigger hole! These are substantial beads that move into the world of stringing with wire, Fireline® and bead cord. Useful also for bead crochet, bead knitting and macrame.

Like their smaller cousins, 10/0 and 8/0 Delicas® share those gorgeous Delicas® colors and coatings! 8/0 Delicas® also come in Hex Cut (6-sided cylinders rather than smooth sided). 8/0 Hex Cut Delicas® differ from 8/0 regular Hex Cut beads in several ways; 8/0 Hex Cut Delicas® have bigger holes, are slightly larger overall in size, come in special colors / coatings and are typically more expensive than 8/0 regular Hex Cut beads.

BTW, a note on compatibility of Toho Treasures® with Delicas: 1.8mm Treasures® are not quite the same size and shape as 11/0 Delicas®, which means that in loom / off-loom work or bead crochet where size / shape matters, they don't work that well together. 3.3mm Treasures® are more similar to 8/0 Delicas® but again, they are somewhat more square. You should always do a test when considering combining different manufacturers products when exact shape and size are important.

15/0 Delicas® - Use Them With Your 11/0 Patterns!

15/0 Delicas® by Miyuki are stunning little cylinders in gorgeous colours, that you can use with your favorite 11/0 Delicas® patterns to create smaller replicas for earrings and more!

15/0 Delicas® are similar in shape and proportion to the more familiar 11/0 Delicas®, but are about half the size. As long as you work the whole piece in the same size of Delicas® the same pattern can be used. The result will be proportionately smaller. Use them to :

• create earring-sized replicas of a favorite pendant!
• shrink a necklace pattern to bracelet or even ring size!
• shrink a belt pattern to a necklace or bracelet band!
• make a pendant from a gorgeous favorite purse pattern!

And they are available in many of the great 11/0 Delicas® colours! And they come in hexagonal styles too! NLM Glass Arts carries virtually all of the 15/0 Delicas® colours - check them out on the website www.nlmglassarts.com now!

Hint: 15/0 Delicas® do have the larger hole, proportionately, that is common to all Delicas® when compared to the regular round seed beads. However, the smaller size of 15/0 Delicas® does impose some limits on the number of thread passes when compared to the 11/0 Delicas®, and the bead side walls are proportionately thinner, so you should consider that in picking a stitch. 15/0 Delicas® (in our experience) work well in techniques such as Peyote stitch, Brick stitch, Herringbone stitch and Loom work, even using size 12 needles and size D C-Lon thread. We don't recommend 15/0 Delicas® for stitches which put a lot of thread passes through the bead, such as Square stitch and Spiral rope stitch (although it may be possible to do so using very fine size 15 needles and size A thread or finer, we haven't tested that).