Does Size Matter?

My passion is working with seed beads. Seeds beads are a generic term for any small glass bead. Seed beads are usually donut or cylinder-shaped beads ranging in size from under a millimeter to several millimeters. The key to understanding seed bead sizing that that the smaller the number, the larger the bead. For example, 8/0 seed bead is larger in size than a 15/0 seed bead. The 0 used in measurement is pronounced “aught” , and can be denoted by a slash followed by a zero or a degree mark.

The sizing number is historically based on the idea that manufacturers would refer to their standard size beads in the largest quantities as size 0 or null. Smaller size beads such as 10/0 were therefore beads that were 10 times smaller than the size of the size 0 or null bead.

Size measurement also correlates to the number of beads that will fit into a given inch when the beads are lined up side by side (with the holes parallel to each other) as in bead crochet. For instance, size 8/0 would equal eight beads to one inch, 11/0 would equal eleven beads to one inch and so forth. Now. this is just a general rule of thumb as there can be variances in this measurement based on the manufacturer, type of glass used and the beads finish.