Ask the Experts Glass Beads Q&A

I am making a suncatcher to go outside, hanging on a tree.  It will have seed beads (#11 the smallest) as well as large glass beads.  What is the strongest wire to use that will go through these beads twice, and will not rust?  Do I really need to run the wire through twice?

We suggest using a heavier gauge wire as your structure and a thinner wire for the seed bead portion. For many glass beads, you’ll be able to use 20- to 18-gauge wire-wrapping wire. Click on each bead you are thinking of using and look at the listed hole size. You just need holes larger than 1mm for 18-gauge wire and larger than 0.8mm for 20-gauge wire.

As for size 11 seed beads, you need 22-gauge or finer wire-wrapping wire. If using appropriate gauges, you should only need your wire to thread through each bead once.