Beads are a popular decoration when working with wires, personally I like to keep them to a minimum because I prefer the bare look of the construction of the wires, but in the right color, shape and size they can do magic.
A large variety of beads can be used, small stone beads or sparkling crystals, they can be embedded into the wire crochet design in a few ways. the only requirement is that they have a hole to freely accommodated the 0.3mm wire we use, or in some cases 2 wires.
One of my favorites ways to implement it is by stringing all the required beads for the project prior to starting the work, and then caging them in between stitches as the work progresses.
The method ensures a fine clean result but requires planning ahead the finished decoration.
If the beads are smaller than the loops , they can also be caged inside the loop itself and not necessarily between 2 loops.
Beads can also be stitched to the wire work on a later stage by weaving them into the wire, think of your crocheted mesh as a canvas and use a wire in the same color you crocheted with to weave the beads, I afraid I have no samples to demonstrate this method (method no. 2).
Larger beads with 2mm holes can be added without prior planning by stringing them through both wires of the stitch, in other words pulling the whole stitch through the bead, as you can see this method creates a totally different result.
Crochet jewelry with beads method 3 :
below are a few crochet with beads jewelry made by my class participants and myself a while back.
if you are looking for step by step bead crochet instructions, check these patterns:
