Anyone know of a beading needle...

[Donna's crochet Designs]

I recently discovered a large eye beading needle in the the jewelry department at my local craft store and thought I have found the answer to my prayers.
The needle is long and thin with the eye in the center and in bendable wire so that you can put just about any thickness of thread or yarn in it.
It worked great at threading size E beads and even the smaller seed beads onto my size 10 crochet thread, but I found it difficult to work with.
Because of the wire center the needle kept bending. I found that both ends seemed to have a point and kept stabbing my finger over and over. To make matters worse, when I tried to sew a stitch or two into my crochet motif (I was making a belt: beads, motif, beads...) to hold the beads in place, the needle wouldn't go through the crochet so I ended up weaving the needle over and under the stitches and then knoting .
Is there anyone out there that knows of a better type or brand of needle that will allow me to thread the crochet thread into it's eye and still allow smaller sized beads to be threaded?
Thanks!

[blong2001]

Anytime I am just using #10 thread and E beads I just put nail polish or super glue on the end of the thread to make it stiff. I had thought about getting a needle to work on some projects for next Christmas-with the trouble you are having I will stick with my glue!
Good luck!

[Donna's crochet Designs]

Thanks for the idea. I had never thought of that, seems so obvious now that you mentioned it. Thank you so much!

[SuzyM]

Hi Donna, I can't pronounce or spell the name of these needles :think but they are the best needles I have ever used. I can double my silk thread and still get the needle and the thread through the smallest pearl. It is thin but strong. I have used it to go through material as well. In fact I used it to sew 3 mm Swarovski crystals onto my daughters wedding dress and veil. Here is the link to Fire Mountain Gems. They are the only ones who I know that sell these needles.

http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H151711BS

I buy them 10 at a time. Heck they don't go bad and this way I get the best price ;)

These needles are strong and will not break easily. I have only had one break, and it was my fault, in the last three years :) I need a new one only when I lose or miss place the one I'm using ;)

[Mom2PBJ]

I don't recall what size my beading needles are but I do know they broke fairly easy. And I did have a heck of a time beading; I thought it would be so much easier once I got the needles, but I guess since the beads are little and it went on elastic thread (bracelet) it just took longer than I thought it would, but not nearly as long as without because it took me 30 minutes to string 2 beads before I gave up and went to get the needles in the middle of the night.

[Paralee]

I use something called a floss threader. It looks like it's made of a piece of monofilament, with a split at one end for the eye. You can buy them in WalMart or Target where they sell dental floss.