Metalic Seed Beads

When I was in Siesta Key last June I found a quaint little bead store named Donna's Beads. The owner started telling me about a fellow beader she knew who wrote books with wonderful patterns. The author was Nancy Zellers, who past away March 2013. The name of her book is Metallic Seed Bead Splendor. They had only one book in the shop and after flipping through a few pages I knew I had to have it because she was a fellow beader and her designs were one of a kind.

I just fell in love with Nancy's work with seed beads. I bought some metallic silver and gold seed beads along with the book because I saw a bracelet that I knew I would make. I was reluctant about the metallic beads because I had made a bracelet years ago with metallic seed beads and they peeled and then I never could wear it. These bead weaving bracelets are time consuming and I didn't want to risk making another and then have the zinc peel off, ruining the piece.

The owner of the shop told me that the zinc plating coats the surface of the bead to create a shiny metallic look. She also said that now the seed beads were galvanised (coating is permanent and often shinier) and that you paid a bit more for these. She said if you had some that were not galvanised you could put them in a plastic bag and spray a small amount of polyurethane on the inside and rub it in. As soon as I got home I found all of my metallic beads I had not used because of their failure to hold the coating. I sprayed the inside of a freezer plastic bag and zap I had galvanised my seed bead collection. Let me know if you try it.

Here are two of the bracelets I made from Nancy's book. I sold the silver one to a beautiful lady who is wearing it in her daughters wedding. The gold one is still available. L.