The short answer: for most projects you do not glue beads together at all, the iron fuses them into one piece. Glue is for attaching finished pieces to keychains, magnets, cards, or other surfaces. Hot glue works for most of those jobs.
People search for glue because a piece fell apart or because they want to attach beads to something. Both have better answers than glue alone.
When you actually need glue
- Attaching a keychain ring: a dot of hot glue on the back holds the ring tab in place.
- Mounting beads on a card or frame: E6000 gives a permanent bond that stays flexible.
- Fixing a broken edge: if one edge of a fused piece snapped, a thin line of hot glue along the crack holds it.
- Loose beads on an unfused project: if beads keep falling out of an ironed piece, the piece was under-melted. Re-iron it instead of gluing, glue makes it worse.
How to glue beads step by step
- Clean both surfaces with a dry cloth.
- Apply a small dot of glue to one surface only.
- Press the pieces together and hold for ten seconds.
- Leave flat to dry. E6000 needs 24 hours, hot glue dries in minutes.
If your pieces keep breaking instead of needing glue, the fix is usually more ironing time, not glue. Our beginner patterns are forgiving pieces that fuse well, and the pattern library marks difficulty so you know what to expect. For glue and other supplies, check our shop.