Ballpoints Are Not Pens! Beading Help Web's Guide to Beading Needles

Needles are generally used in seed beading, stitching, and some stringing projects. Most types of needles come in three thickness, from "fine" (or "thin") to heavy (sometimes called "heavy duty"), with a midrange size, simply called "medium."

Types of Needles

Ball Point needles have blunt tips and are good for sewing beaded embellishments onto stretchy fabrics such as knitted or crocheted items.

Beading needles are made of slim wire and are as long as 3 inches. Common sizes are #10, #12, #13, #15, and #16. #10 is the largest needle; #16 the smallest. Longer beading needles work best for loom work while shorter versions work great for various seed bead stitching techniques.

Big Eye (A.K.A. "Wide Eye") needles are the easiest to thread. They have points on both ends so you have to be a bit more careful when working with them, but the advantage is that they're soldered together only near the ends, so approximately 85 - 95% of the needle is nothing but eye. They can be used for almost any type of beading or bead stitching. The most common sizes are 2 ¼" long or 5" long.

Embroidery needles have elongated eyes that are relatively easy to thread, but they are somewhat thick, so they can't be used with seed beads. They are good for stringing larger beads with smaller holes.

English Beading needles are very long, thin needles used primarily when working with seed beads.

Flossing needles are made of flexible plastic and have huge eyes that most people are able to thread easily. The best part is that these are often available at drug stores so you can pick up a pack when you need to make that mad dash into the store for a bottle of soda or a quick snack.

Glover's needles have three-sided points and are used mostly for sewing onto leather. They are available in sizes #1 through #9, with #9 being the smallest.

Pearl needles are solid steel, similar to needles used for sewing, but are very fine and most often used for stringing small pearls. They are not very flexible so it's not recommended to use them for any other type of beading.

Sharps are fine, strong needles and, as the name indicates, extremely sharp. Because of their length, they're great for peyote stitching and other tightly woven beadwork. Sharps are available in sizes #10, #11, and #12 with #10 being the heaviest.

Twisted Wire needles are the most versatile. They come in 4 different thicknesses instead of the common 3, and therefore can be used for anything from seed beading to stringing furnace glass. They are made from twisted wire, have blunt tips, and the eyes are large and collapse to fit through almost any bead imaginable.

--K. Jenkins