Beads and tools

This entry will not be so impressive, but it might be helpful.
It is about beads tatted withing the lace and the tools you need. For the ones already familiar with the tatting with beads, sorry, no new territory. But, if you have some more hints, please share them with the newbies.
These would be beads you might consider to tat at the same time as the lace. Again, sky is the limit, it is just to get an idea.

No, no bead in the middle of a ring, no big bead tatted in Ankars. Except the ones used already as a joining element. But it is safer te work the elements separatelly and to join them while decorating the foundation than hanging a heavy bead. Ankars tatting is about beauty, perfection as it can be and resistance at the same time, the tatting skills stay more with the technique to create a perfect base for the beads than to incorporate the beads into the lace.
Recommendation: the smaller the beads the better. Preferably: even beads, especially when included on the core thread. This is changing the proportion little by little. For 3 rocailles 11.0 you will change the dimension of a ring by 3 mm. Funny. This brings us always some frustration while adapting an existing pattern.
Small bead = tiny hole. A truism which can really hurt. 11.0 Miuki has a hole of 0,8 mm, A 15.0 has a 0,7 mm hole. This is huge! And this can create problems to work with the beads, to string them on the thread. Not to speak about the choice of the thread.
Normally, I  use what you can see here. Forgot the place a paperclip. Important that one too.

Beading needles. Not only to sew the beads on the lace, but also to string the beads. And yes, a 10 size beading needle can be used with a thread similar to the Lizbeth 40. I did it. Never forget when choosing the beads and the thread: when you use a needle, a beating tool, a threader, you will always have a strand of 2 when you string your beads.
How to skip it: apply glue to harden the end of thread and try to use it. Not my favorite choice, though.

My "tool". Done from broken guitar string. My son knows already: I receive all his broken strings.
I prefer an open end to the ready-to-buy variant. A lot more versatile.
How to make it? Take some 10 cm of a tiny wire, (from electrical cable, from craft copper wire, the 0,3 is perfect, a fishing wire), fold it 2. Done.
For what it serves? To string the beads, to place the beads on the picots, to make difficult joins, to place beads/elements the fine crochet hook cannot place.

  

Crochet hook. We know it. The finer, the better.
Perfect tool to string individual beads, to place beads on the picots.
Why finer? Not only because the holes are under 1 mm but also because sometimes the joins can be done in between the beads:

In these cases I tend to use my tool. 

Limits: cases like this one: 

 So you turn to the cheap wire tool: place it on the thread, place the bead, fix the paper clip.

 

 

The smart ones will make very long (gauged) picots. Viable solution when you work with regular beads. What about the irregular beads?
See the last picture? it is what comes next int he blog: placing the seed beads and using them not only as decorative elements.