Triangle Beads Product Review

You may have heard that triangle seed beads look better on canvas because they sit flatly against the mesh. Recently I tested them on this SharonG canvas. I liked them but I found both good and bad points.

On the plus side:
they do sit flat on the canvas They nestled in nicely to the surrounding stitching and looked very consistent even though I did nothing to ensure this.

they have big holes The holes are bigger than you would find in most seed beads of similar size, except possibly Delicas. This meant I could use thicker thread to attach them and it was very easy to pick up a single bead on my needle. I always struggle with these things with regular seed beads.

the angles catch the light differently If you like the rounded look of seed beads, you may not like this aspect. Because the beads are triangular, there will be an angle at the top of each bead. This creates two faces, each catching the light slightly differently.

You can see the beads in use close-up in the photo above.

Depending on how you plan to use your beads, the defects might be significant to you or not:
they are larger than seed beads While seed beads vary in size, these beads are slightly larger than the equivalent size in seed beads. This will make them more attention-grabbing on canvas. Regular seed beads have 11 beads/inch. Triangle beads have 10 beads/inch.

they come in fewer colors My beads came from The Collection. Currently this company has 35 colors available. There are a few other companies distributing these beads but the selection is less than for rounded beads.

they may not work well for some techniques Although they are fine singly, as here, or in isolated lines, they will not work as well in applications such as messy beading. The beauty of this technique is the random way the beads come together. Because of the faces, the structure of the beas will make them group in regular ways.

if you group these beads, use 13 or larger canva Because these beads are bigger, they will not fit on mesh sizes smaller than 13-mesh. They will fit best on 12 or 13 mesh. If you use smaller mesh sizes of canvas, use these beads singly as I did.

As long as you use these in a way consistent with their size and shape, triangle beads are a magnificent addition to your needlepoint.