A Bead Loom Makes a Great Christmas Gift for Jewelry and Craft Lovers

If you are stuck for what to get for Christmas for a someone who loves both jewelry and crafts, a bead loom is an inexpensive and much appreciated gift.

A bead loom is a relatively small simply-made device for making flat patterned necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and larger panels, out of exquisite glass seed beads. Once made, larger tapestry-like panels can be sewn together to make beaded purses, (such as the flapper purses of the 1920s), necklaces and bracelets (along the lines of the wide flat patterned bead necklaces produced by Native American and African Tribes) and even pillows and hanging bead tapestries.

Seed beads are those teeny tiny glass beads which can be purchased in small tubes and packets at the large standard crafts stores such as Michael's Crafts and Jo-ann's Fabrics as well as in bulk from bead suppliers as Firemountain Gems or from numerous other bead houses which can be found online.

Seed beads have been produced and traded all over the world for many centuries. The art of loom beading, or making a woven cloth out of these tiny glass seed beads and thread, has spread from culture to culture and has been used by artisans around the world:

The use of looms for beads centered in the Americas, for the most part. Tribes of the Amazon used looms and beads together, as did Native Americans of the central and eastern United States. When European colonizers appeared on the scene, the art of loom beading was slowly absorbed into their culture, and through them flowed back to Europe. The article, Loom Beading provides an excellent historical overview of the movement of beads from the eastern to western hemisphere.

How does a bead loom work? There are various varieties and sizes of bead looms. Some are small enough to be held in one hand and are good for small jewelry items. Others are large enough to create large tapestry panels. But regardless of size, bead looms are constructed to hold in place, under adequate tension, a group of evenly spaced vertical threads. The loom is threaded and tightened. After the beader has prepared a pattern, rows are seed beads are then arranged on a thread which is held horizontally across the loom and each bead is pressed between the vertical (warp) threads. With the use of a thin wire needle, the beads are sewn through and held in place. Each row of new seed beads builds and adds to the panel. Some bead looms then have crank which allow one to roll up the finished end of the piece making more threads available to bead.

The process of beading on a loom is both visually gratifying and as relaxing as knitting and other needlework projects. The results can be quite stunning.

Anyone who loves beads and beading but has never encountered a bead loom will be thrilled to receive this simple gift. Bead looms can be found in kits which often include beading needles and nylon thread.