Picking Out Hemp Beads

Picking Out Hemp Beads

It can be difficult to find beads that work with hemp, but over the years I have a few surefire sources for badass looking beads to go on the various thicknesses of hemp. This guide is divided up into sections so you can easily choose the thickness you’re working with – if you aren’t sure what width of hemp you’re dealing with, most likely a standard hemp size is 20lb.

Bead Selections by Hemp Size

10lb Hemp Twine

This is a relatively uncommon type of hemp twine that I actually just started working with once Globalhemp.com started carrying it. It’s very thin, and this opens up a whole realm of possibilities that you simply cannot get from the thicker hemps. This is a .5 mm wide hemp which means you can use much smaller gemstones, and the more important part is that you can put both bead stringing strands through slightly larger stones. I found myself having to only use one central strand for some larger beads with holes that aren’t quite large enough to fit both strands through.

With 10lb hemp twine, you can look at 5-6 mm gemstone beads, as well as any czech glass bead bigger than 4mm, and seed beads starting at 10. Swarvoski would be around 5mm – 6mm. You probably aren’t going to be able to use typical large hole beads on this width, as it will mostly just roll around and not generally be secured enough. If you’re looking to put your small beads into use, however, the sky is the limit with this one.

20lb Hemp Twine

20 lb hemp is your standard hemp length, and is generally .75mm to 1 mm in width. This is troublesome when you’re looking at gemstone beads, as the bigger you go the more expensive the stones are. As someone that just LOVES working with gemstones, you can see my dilemma. If you’re willing to go with a single middle strand, you can start with 7-8mm gemstones, 7mm czech glass, and 7 mm swarvoski. If you like the stability of doubling up, then you’re going to need to look at 10mm gemstones at least, 8 mm swarvoski, and 9mm czech glass.

48lb Hemp Twine

48lb hemp you are going to end up getting very limited with your bead selection, as 1.5mm to 2mm width is the norm. Mood beads are great for this size, as they have a very large hole and can take two strands of the 48lb. Fiber beads are also perfect for this, although these are a specialty bead that is made by only one person, the wonderful Eleanore Brown. Wooden beads are good for this as well, as you can find much larger holes on those. Lampwork beads on a 3/32 mandrel are also approrirate and will fit both strands through fine. You aren’t going to see any standard gemstone sizes that will fit this – if you can find a crow bead cut of gemstone bead (large middle hole) then it’ll be good, but most gemstones can’t handle a structure like that. In general, you need a 3mm hole for these.

100 and 170lb Hemp Twine

Larger thicknesses of hemp such as 100lb and 170lb give you wooden beads and fiber beads. There might be a few types of large hole lampwork beads but these are specialty styles that aren’t as common, so you might find yourself limited in styles. You’re going to need to look for beads with holes larger than 5mm for these.

Types of Big Hole Beads

While I only mention a few specific types of beads, if you follow the size guidelines you can use all sorts. Handmade polymer beads are often made with larger holes in the middle, as the polymer structure can handle that kind of shape. There are also many lampworkers that have big hole beads on their lists. Finally Eleanore’s fiber beads work with nearly all hemp widths except for a double 170.

Hole Considerations
Just because a hole says that it’s a certain mm doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work for you. Manufactured beads are safe from this, but gemstone beads can be riddled with uneven holes. The main cause of this is a rushed drill job, where they fully drill out one side of the hole, but the other just gets the tip of the drill. This leads to situations where you think the beads are great, but it ends up being completely impossible to do anything with them. If you run into this with polymer you can recover by using a bead reamer, but it’s much more expensive (you need a dremel) to do this with gemstones, and it’s highly likely that you’re going to end up breaking the bead instead of widening it.

In conclusion, it might seem like it’s hard to find big hole or large hole beads at first, but with just a bit of snooping around you’ll find the perfect beads for you.