Seed Beads 

This is a simple trick that I'm surprised I haven't seen mentioned more.  I got the idea once from seeing a photo of beads made in India, where about 5 fish-shaped beads were on one mandrel.  No mention of this was made in the text of the article, just a photo that happened to show several mandrels on the table with beads still on them.  

Getting the mandrel heated up can take as long as making the bead with these basic seeds, but by putting several on one mandrel, it is possible to match them pretty closely in size, practice the basic technique several times in a row, and make more bead with less space taken up in the annealing kiln.  

Nothing fancy. Just basic beads.  But looking at our old project with the Hon necklace replica has me thinking more about how nice a basic seed bead can be without anything else adorning it.  And that has me wanting to make more of the just plain and simple beads like these.