A while ago I was browsing some online beading stores and certain beads called satin beads caught my eye. I had never seen anything like them before. At first they seemed like cubic beads, but actually they have a cylindrical shape.
Gorgeous, aren’t they?
I placed an order of 20 g to try them out. I was quite excited as I got them. However, very soon I found out that there’s much room for improvement. The beads are supposed to be cylindrical, but about a quarter of them are not, cut edges are not parallel. Also the size of the beads varies a bit too much. To get a neat result, the beads need to be uniformed and even-sized. It’s really irritating that the first phase of the project is to divide the beads to three groups: big ones, small ones and no good ones. The beads are manufactured by Matsuno, whose beads are not that even-sized in general. These beads need to be not only even-sized but also carefully cut in order to suit their purpose. I think Matsuno has taken more they can chew in this. Downsides don’t end here: sharp edges decay the beadstring. As you work on, the thread starts to look poor. (Read more about Matsuno beads in my seedbead test. You’ll find it here.)
There are far too many shapes and sizes.
Waxed beadstring is no longer smooth.
These beads keep me linguering between heaven and hell. I’m not sure I want to have another set of them. When I’m working with the beads, I think I’ll never ever want anything to do with satin beads ever again. They ruin me. But when I look at a finished piece, I tend to forget the anger for they are so exceptionally gorgeous. My friends admire them and so I find myself thinking if they should get a second chance. We’ll see what happens when I run out of this set of beads. The only thing I know for sure is that ordinary rounded beads are so much easier to work with.
