How to Make Round Things on a Bead Loom
Although bead looms offer a range of creative possibilities for the ambitious beader, they also have limitations. Bead looms create designs in the form of long strips, the beads of which are confined to strict columns and rows. Because of this, loom work is much better suited to creating boxy and angular shapes rather than round, organic forms. Essentially, it suffers from pixelation similar to early 8 bit computers screens where blocky, colored pixels join together to form patterns. The solution to this problem is to create a pattern where round shapes are rendered with small "steps" around their edges.
Instructions
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1
Create a pattern for your bead loom by counting out the number of columns and rows you plan to work with on a piece of graph paper. Each square represents one bead. Draw a box around these columns and rows, creating an outline of your piece. This outline represents the dimensions of your finished piece.
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2
Place a stencil of your rounded shape on top of the area you just marked out on the graph paper. Lightly trace around the stencil with a pencil. Notice how your rounded shape cuts some of the squares in half.
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3
Fill in the circular shape using a colored marker. Fill in squares on the edge of the shape only if the traced outline cuts through more than half of the square.
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4
Color in the rest of the area using a different marker. You now have a pattern for your bead loom.
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5
String your loom so that there are a number of strands equal to the number of columns in your pattern, plus one. Prepare a needle on a thread.
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Thread a number of beads on the needle equal to the number of beads in the first column of your pattern. Make sure they are the same color as each bead in the column.
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Pass your needle and thread under the strings of the loom.
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8
Press the beads in between the strings of the loom. Only one bead should be between each strand.
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Pull the needle and thread over the top of the loom while holding the beads in place. Thread the needle and thread through each bead again while making sure that the needle is passing over the strings of the loom.
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10
Repeat this for every column on your pattern.
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11
Tie the beading thread to a loom string at either end of your piece when you are finished.
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