Jennifer's Little World blog - Parenting, craft and travel: Mini Hama bead crafts

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Mini Hama beads are tiny versions of the standard Hama beads which I use for many of my Hama bead crafting projects. They are about a third of the size of the standard beads. As a craft material, Mini Hama beads are much better suited to older children and adults as they can be quite fiddly to use, but once you've got the knack you can use them to create some really intricate designs and projects. In this blog post I'll give you some hints and tips for working with mini Hama beads, and share some of the projects that I've created.

Mini Hama bead equipment

Mini Hama beads can be bought both in bags of mixed colours and as individual bags of beads in particular colours. You just need to be careful when shopping that you are buying the Mini beads and not the Midi or Maxi beads which are also available. I find that the mini beads are generally cheaper to buy than the larger beads.

A good place to start is with a bag of Mini Hama beads in mixed colours (affiliate link) and a couple of mini Hama bead boards - for example a Square Mini Hama bead pegboard (affiliate link) and a Circular Mini Hama Bead Pegboard (affiliate link). There isn't the same range of shaped boards available for the mini Hama beads as there is for the larger beads, but there are still plenty of colours available.

You can find plenty of inspiration for projects online, or have a look through my mini Hama bead projects which are linked at the bottom of this post.

Related article - Mini Hama bead projects

Mini Hama bead kits

An excellent way to get started with mini Hama beads is to buy a kit. Some of my first mini Hama bead projects were made using a kit which contained the patterns for flowers and dragonflies. Kits are great because they contain the boards that you need for the project and plenty of beads, sometimes enough to make the designs a few times.

I also made some sweet Christmas ornaments using a Christmas mini Hama beads kit, and I have a Hama Mini Bead Owls kit (affiliate link) lined up ready to start.

Storing mini Hama beads

I like to sort out my Hama beads by colour. It does take a little bit of time, but it makes things so much easier when you can find the bead that you want and you can see how many of a particular colour you have. It's a task that is best done in daylight, as some of the mini Hama bead colours can look very similar. You can find a useful colour chart for Hama beads here to help!

I store my mini Hama beads in a container similar to these Weekly Pill Boxes (affiliate link). Each compartment fits many tiny beads, and you can open one lid at a time to remove the beads that you want to use.

Tips for working with mini Hama beads

Because the beads are so tiny it can be difficult to place them into place on the board. It's almost impossible to do using just fingers, so I prefer to use tweezers. I place the beads next to my board, then use the tweezers to flip a bead upright, then pick up and place on the board. You can see my technique in the video below!

It's important to have an undisturbed space if you won't be able to complete a project in one go, as it's very easy to knock the board and ruin all your hard work. Depending on your project, it's also a good idea to work in daylight so that you don't mix up similar looking colours.

Tips for ironing mini Hama beads

Mini Hama beads are very delicate when it comes to ironing. You place a piece of ironing paper over the beads and iron in the same way as the larger beads, but you need to use the iron on the lowest setting and carefully pass the iron over the beads for only a few seconds. Make sure that all the beads have fused before you remove the ironing paper so that you don't dislodge any beads that have not stuck together.

Related article - Tips for ironing Hama beads

In this short video I take you through the process of making some mini Hama bead hearts, from placing the beads on the pegboard through to ironing.