I suppose there are many people who would look at this article's title, "Learning How to Bead," and write them back as silly. In fact, there's not much more to the mechanics of beading than there is to stringing popcorn to put 'round the Xmas Tree, right? That, and a free beading project to work on, and you're all set. How much more is there to talk about? What else is there to speak about?

The truth, however, is that there is a fair bit more to learning how to bead than just stringing popcorn, and this article will have a closer look at what else you need to know.

Learning how to bead required learning in four basic aspects. They may appear innocuous enough at first glance, but upon closer examination, the inescapable conclusion is that there's much more to learning how to bead than first you would think.

The four basic "disciplines" you should master to truly learn how to bead are as follows:

Mechanics

Patterning

Color Selection

Medium Selection/Mixing

We'll read through the particulars of these one at a time as a means of putting you on the route to learning how to bead.

The first step in your "learn how to bead" training is mechanics. If you don't have the mechanics down, then the rest is irrelevant. Fortunately, from a mechanics standpoint, it really is about as easy as stringing popcorn. If you can do that, then you've already gotten this aspect of knowing how to bead down, but even here, there is some subtlety. Were you aware, for example, that when stringing pearls, you want to tie a knot on either side of the stone to prevent potential damage caused by the stones rubbing against one another? Or that there are times when you only want to tie a loose knot as a "bead brake" at the end of the line you're not working?

Thus even where the basic mechanics are concerned, there's a lot more to learning how to bead than you might first think. Certainly, however, this is the easiest of the four disciplines to get good at.

The next discipline you should wrap your brain around in learning how to bead is the notion of patterning. Whole books can (and have) been published on this topic, and once you really get into it and start studying it, you'll quickly find that of all the fields, this one is the most intricate and involved. Definitely the one you'll spend the most time on when learning how to bead.

Color selection is one part art and another part science. Art students learn about complimentary and contrasting colors as a first course, therefore are a leg up in this department, however there are plenty of resources both online and off that will guide you through this field on your quest to learn how to bead. Don't skimp here. Proper color selection can make or break your patterns!

Finally, the last main discipline to master in learning how to bead is medium selection and the proper mixing of mediums. This is mostly a practical, common sense discipline (ie., don't mix cheap plastic material with your semi-precious stones!) but even here there is some subtlety to be found.

Learning how to bead isn't too tricky, and finding a free beading project to practice with is dead easy. Anyone can do it, and with practice, do it nicely. Just bear in mind that there's a bit more to it than stringing popcorn!

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