How To Build Your Own Bead Loom
72I've been an avid beader for many years. I love making beaded strips for belts and hatbands etc, but often the small commercial size looms would frustrate me to no end, having to loosen screws and roll up my finished work. Being on a tight budget at the time, and having little money for crafty things, one day i decided to see if i could build a loom that i could make with materials i had laying around at home, and at the same time, provide an easy to manage way of beading long strips. Here is a step by step tutorial of my design that has lasted for me for over 10 years and is still going strong, and cost me nothing to build.
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ITEMS YOU WILL NEED
- 1x6 board of any kind at least 4 feet long
- wood glue
- 6 wood screws
- screwdriver
- toothpicks
- duct tape
Step By Step Tutorial
Take your 1x6 board and cut it in to three pieces. Cut one long piece about 3 or 4 feet. It depends on the length of the beaded pieces you want to make. I made mine 36 inches long. If you are only making hatbands you could build a much smaller loom. You need two pieces of 1x6 for the sides. Make them about 6 inches long.
Lay the long board flat and glue the two small pieces on so it looks like the picture below. Reinforce the boards by adding 2 wood screws at each end. This is because when you are winding nylon thread tightly across the loom, it causes alot of pressure on the end boards, and you will want to make sure those end boards have no chance of bending.
In the center of each small end piece. place a small wood screw in the center. Do not screw completely in. These screws will act as anchors for your thread.
Take your toothpicks and glue them on so that most of the toothpick is attached to the board and the remaining part sticks above the board. These will act as separators for your rows of thread. You could also attach a comb to the board instead of toothpicks, or a spring of some kind, anything that will separate your strings evenly and not too far apart. As an added reinforcement, i wrapped strong duct tape around the glued part of the toothpicks. Rugged and simple in design, but it works very well and lasts for years, giving you a chance to spend your money on beads and patterns instead.
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Comments
your very welcome :)
YOu might want to consider hammering some nails in, evenly spaced instead of the toothpicks. Like the macrame circle we all used to make from a spool of thread and some nails
Sorry, forgot to say the project looks good and sturdy. Thanks for the information, plan to build one! Appreciate your taking the time to do this for us beginners!
Beadgirl...thanks for the tip. At the time i didn't have any nails small enough to do that, but you are right thats a great idea. I know people who have used a spring of some sort also to keep warp threads separate. You could even secure a comb to the loom with the all the little bristles pointing up to create the same dividing effect.
Thanks for posting this. It is by far the simplest guide I have found so far and looks very functional. I'll make one today. Thanks again!
your very welcome! :)
I want to make a vertical beading loom. If you happen to have a tutorial on that let me know.
I used a comb which I glued to each end of the loom. That works quite well too.
using a small spring works better than toothpicks
I'm gonna make this! Beadgirl you mentioned a coil spring. I went looking at the beadloom in this months (Fed 2009) Bead & Button mag. and the $154.00 bead loom there uses a copper coil spring! If a coil spring is good enough to use on an expensive loom; it is good enough for mine!
Thank you for taking the time to share with those of us who love to bead, but are on a strict budget!
I'm only thirteen, and I lost the instructions to the bead loom that I bought. But whenever I look up on how to thread one, it says like warp and weft. I looked up the definition of those words and it didn't help at all. Do you have a page about threading a beading loom?
The previous comment was mine. I didn't think that I could post a comment unless I had an account. So I used her name.
Hey Sammy! Im also thriteen, and I have a bead loom set I got at cosco, i didnt want it at first but it seemed fun and now im addicted. its quite easy, i learned fast from the book but it has diagrams. ill try to explain using words, but first, do you want to make braclets and such using beads, or fabric?
I saw a handmade loom very similar to this which had many little shallow grooves cut into the tops if the boards with a very thin saw or file to separate the threads. It was sealed well with polyurethane which made it smooth, and not likely to catch on the threads.
borderline says:
2 years ago
I haven't made this project yet, but it seems to be quite straightforward & easy to make. Thank you for taking the tme to post this. Thalia