Step 4: beaded frame construction, or how each bead is held
The rule of good beaded frame construction is simple: no bead is ever just placed. Each one is either threaded on a wire that starts and ends in a hole drilled through the 6 mm core, or glued to a seat on the core face. There are nine ways a bead can be held, and every bead in a layout belongs to exactly one of them.
Held by: How it works
Face row: Brass wire through a pair of holes every 42 mm, so a long row cannot bow
Tacked bead: One short brass wire per bead, bent flat at the back
Stem: A brass pin through one hole at the foot
Pinned rosette or fan: Brass headpins through one centre hole, or three on an arc wire
Edge loop: Nylon-coated steel wire through two holes, one at each foot, crimped
Fringe strand: Coated steel wire through one hole, crimped; the bottom bead is the stop
Armature: Heavier brass wire tied down at three or four points, for bows and crowns
Hanging loop: Doubled coated wire through two holes behind the top edge
Glued cabochon: No wire: a flat-backed cabochon has no hole, so it sits on a glued seat
### Loops strung past the edge
A loop is strung on coated wire, and both feet are anchored through the core and crimped at the back. When neighbouring loop feet land within 5 mm of each other they share one hole, drilled once, so neighbouring loops can be crimped together. An anchor that would fall beyond the core is pulled straight in towards the centre, never squared off to the nearest edge, so a corner's loops fan out instead of piling onto one point.
### Glued seats and spacers
Cabochons, such as the toadstool caps, sit on glued seats marked on the plan. Between beads in a row, 4 mm spacers in pressed glass or brass keep the spacing even and stop beads crowding.
