The vocabulary every guide assumes you know — drawn where drawing beats words, then defined so you don't have to pretend.
The stitch album
The shapes that make beadwork make sense. Schematic, not to scale — the point is the geometry.
Rows sit half a bead out of step. That lean is the whole stitch: pick up, skip one, pass through the next — the wall is offset like bricks in a running bond.
Beads stack in straight columns and rows like a brick wall viewed flat. Every new bead is stitched through two beads of the row below — sturdy, slow, square.
Rows stagger like a real brick wall and hang from the row above: needle under a thread, up over the bar, back down through the new bead. Shapes grow by adding and dropping.
Columns of paired beads tip over the ones below into little Vs. Flat, tubular, twisted — the fabric drapes because the lean is real.
Little diamonds of four beads join corner to corner at right angles. One thread, endless lace — the base of ropes, bands and bezels.
Eight bobbins, one move: top-right goes down-right, bottom-left goes up-left, turn the disk a quarter. The braid is rhythm, not knots.
Seed bead sizing family: bigger number = smaller bead. Historically "beads per inch strung"; in practice a family nickname. See Learn.
An iridescent oily sheen coating ("aurora borealis"). Beautiful; buy extra, it varies bead to bead.
Evenly woven fabric with visible block holes; bead cross-stitch is worked on it, usually 14-count.
The anchoring move of brick stitch: needle under one thread of the row above, up over the bar, back down through the new bead.
A stitched collar of beads that grips a stone — classically a crystal rivoli — so the glass wears a glass bracelet.
An inkle-weaving technique with pattern threads picked up row by row to build letters and figures in the band.
Cubic right-angle weave — right-angle weave with an extra level of depth. Stiff, architectural, addictive.
Miyuki's cylinder seed bead with straight walls and consistent size — the "brick shape" that makes charts pixel-perfect. Not affiliated, just admired.
A technique where each tablet holds two dark and two light threads, and turning sequences bring either face forward — the band pattern is the turning order.
Bonded fishing-line-style bead thread: stiff, nearly unbreakable. The beginner's training wheels.
A metallic coating finish on seed beads; looks like metal without the weight.
The other big fuse-bead brand (5 mm Midi, like Perler). Same pegboards, same iron, same joy.
Columns of paired beads that lean — flat, tubular, twisted. The drape-iest stitch on the bench.
The 8-strand round kumihimo braid — the "diamond" braid and the right first braid for anyone.
Chunky beaded cuffs worn at shows and traded with friends, traditionally on pony beads. Bead Bench charts kandi cuffs in peyote on their side.
Beads stitched side by side into a strip — the starting row for herringbone, and the trickiest-looking easiest stitch there is.
A soft, non-shiny surface; mutes sparkle and flatters organic designs.
The spiked plate fuse beads sit on before ironing. 29×29 is the classic square; interlocking edges join larger canvases.
The offset-column stitch, worked with an even number of beads per row: pick up, skip one, pass through, repeat. Beginner-friendly and pattern-friendly.
Same offset logic with an odd bead count, paying for centering with a slightly awkward turn every other row.
A mottled, speckled glass finish that gives an "antique" handmade look. Variation from bead to bead is the point.
A round, pointed-back crystal (Swarovski named the cut) — the classic stone for stitched bezels.
A net of four-bead units joined corner to corner; works with one thread, builds lace and bands and bezeled stones.
A clasp whose channel slides over the finished rows of a bracelet — beloved by loom and peyote work alike.
The direction a tablet's threads rotate as they run through the four holes; S and Z cards twist in mirror image and set the braid's lean.
A sacrificial bead parked on the thread to stop the work sliding off. Also the only bead you'll ever throw away on purpose.
The extra thread or cord length a project eats by existing. The app's supplies list includes it so your cord doesn't end 3 inches short.
The other great Japanese seed bead maker; rounds sized consistently, with their own color-number codes the app's bead browser knows.
The little stitched detour at the row's end that lets odd-count peyote change direction. Fiddly exactly twice; automatic thereafter.
Warp: the long, tensioned threads. Weft: the working thread that carries the beads and traps the warps between rows.