Darice Beading Hand Needles-Size 15 4/Pkg...

I can't do beading needles and these are for my money the best.

I bought these needles intending to apply freshwater pearls to a headpiece I was making. While the needles were fine enough to pass through the pearls, I didn't have any thread that was fine enough to pass through the eyes of the needles! And the needles themselves are so very fine, and therefore flexible, I probably couldn't have used them on the heavy weight fabric I was using. But - wow! impressive quality.

These needles are perfect for very small beads, they are delicate though but work very well.

Flimsy not worth buying. Two broke while threading, one was broken in the package. Ive been beading for 40 years, never had such issues

Let me say first that I typically have had a wonderful experience with John James beading needles. The size 13 ones are some of my favorites, and the 10s are great, too. I am less enthused about these size 15 ones. First off, despite the chart in the Fire Mountain catalog, you don't actually need a size 15 beading needle to go through size 15 seed beads. I have been doing some right angle weave patterns with multiple passes (S-lon size AA thread) and doing all right with a size 13 needle. So if you are thinking of a pattern with 3-4 passes of size AA or similar thread (I think it is equivalent to Nymo size 0 or so) through a size 15 seed bead, you can get good results with a size 13 needle and save yourself the hassle of dealing with the size 15. Because these are thin. And hard to thread. Don't even bother trying to use a needle threader; I was able to get one IN to the eye of the needle, but when I tried to pull it back out, I broke the eye of the needle (as well as breaking the threader). In another attempt, I guess I was using thread that was too thick (the aforementioned size AA) and I bent the eye of another needle. I was able to thread one of these with a spool of Nymo I had, which I am guessing is size 00, but it wasn't marked so I can't be certain. (For all of these attempts, I was working under a lighted desk magnifier. I cannot emphasize enough how small these are.) Once threaded, these worked fine. But you will probably break a few getting to the point where you can use them, so it's not really worth the hassle since other sizes of needle will work with the same beads. I hear there are some antique/vintage seed beads even smaller than 15s, and you may need this type of needle for those, but I have never actually encountered any beads that small, and I have been beading since the late 1990s.