Illustrator :: Making Seamless Brushes - Uniform Patterns

I understand how to make the brushes, but is there any way to have greater control over how uniform the patterns appear?
 
For example: I'm trying to create a brush that is made up of tiny beads.  But I can't seem to make one perfectly, as the beads get distorted or chopped off when I attempt to create shapes with the line or pen tools.
 
And yes, I've tried all of the preferences in the brushes pane, but neither of them works well.
 
With this bead brush, I would like to write words.  So you can see where I'm going with this.  The letters of the words would be made up of tiny beads (there are fonts like this, except I'd like to colour the beads my own way).