The Craft

There is a particular kind of satisfaction in holding something that took hours to make. Not hours on an assembly line, but hours in the hands of one person; one needle, one thread, one bead at a time. This is what you own when you buy a Studio SLAY piece.

Made by one pair of hands

Every Studio SLAY piece is made by the founder herself. Not delegated to hired artisans, not outsourced to a production facility offshore, but made here, in Singapore, by the same person who designed it. When you buy from Studio SLAY, you are buying directly from the maker.

This matters because it means that every piece carries a standard that cannot be maintained at scale, because it has been created using techniques practiced and perfected over decades.

The techniques

Beadweaving is not a single skill. It is a family of techniques, some more demanding and time consuming than others, each with its own structure, logic, and process. Studio SLAY pieces are woven using peyote stitch, brick stitch, herringbone stitch, loom weaving, and other advanced weaving methods, each chosen by what each specific design requires. The structure of the weave, how the piece will drape, how light moves across it, how it connects to the hardware, how it feels against the skin - each of these informs the technique used.

Unlike many beading techniques such as traditional Nyonya beadwork rooted in Peranakan culture, Aari embroidery practiced over centuries in India or the popular Tambour technique used in modern French couture, the techniques we use don’t rely on a base material like fabric or felt. Here, every bead is connected only to the beads around it. The structure is entirely self-supporting, held together by thread tension and the precision of each stitch.

The materials

The beads used across the Studio SLAY range are primarily Japanese Miyuki beads, widely regarded as the finest precision beads available worldwide. Two types are used across the range: Miyuki Delica, the beads of choice, chosen for their cylindrical shape, size uniformity and flush fit, and round Miyuki Rocailles, used selectively where a design calls for a different form or quality of light.

The beads used are made of glass and are exceptionally tiny, ranging in size from 1mm to 1.6mm. To put that in perspective: each bead can be smaller than a pinhead. Working with them requires not just steady hands but years of developed muscle memory, calibrated tension, and an eye trained to capture every detail.

Beads are carefully selected for colour and finish, with different finishes used together to give each design more depth and dimension.

The construction

Studio SLAY pieces are woven one bead at a time on very thin and highly durable nylon thread chosen for its strength, resistance to fraying, and ability to maintain tension across hundreds or thousands of individual stitches without compromising the integrity of the weave.

There are no knots. With beads being exceptionally small and fragile, knots can be visible, push beads out of place, or put pressure on the delicate structure of the piece. The construction of every piece is entirely knot-free; thread is woven back through the existing beadwork to secure the ends, a technique that produces a cleaner finish and eliminates the weak points that knots can introduce over time.

Knot-free construction is not the easiest or quickest path. It is a mark of advanced technique and the kind of detail that separates elevated craft from casual making.

The time

A simple piece takes around an hour to make. A more complex one with intricate pattern work, a larger surface area, or a technique that demands more deliberate stitching, can take several hours to complete.

This time is not incidental; it is the cost of creating quality. Each row is created with consistent tension; each bead is placed where it needs to be. There is no way to speed this up without it showing in the finished piece, and that is not a compromise that we are willing to make.

Small batch, by design

Because each piece is made by hand, production is limited by design. Studio SLAY pieces are made in small batches, enough to meet demand thoughtfully, never enough to lose sight of the work.

Small batches mean restocks take time because the work takes time. They mean that when a piece sells out, it is because people recognised something worth having, and that the next batch will be made with the same care as the first. Good things take time, and that is exactly the point.

Find a piece that speaks to you. Shop the Origins collection here.