Beading Necklace

An advantage of using a slightly less flexible wire is stringing smaller beads more quickly.

Instead of picking up beads by hand to string them, try this:

Lay your beads on a cloth to prevent them from rolling around. Hold the wire a few centimeters away from the end and approach the hole of the bead.

Gently push down on the wire so that the bead tilts and starts sliding onto the wire.

Lift your hand up to let the bead slide down to your fingers.

Repeat!

Once there are a few to several beads on the wire, let them slide down beyond your fingers and repeat again.

Hopefully this tip will help you string beads more easily! C:

~ Ava Arie

Crimp beads are placed just before the clasp or in between beads, and are used to secure the ends of the wire, and sometimes to secure the placement of beads (aka “spacers”). They are usually made of metal because they are compressed in order to hold onto the wire.

Like beads, they also come in a variety of colours, shapes, lengths and hole sizes. They typically come in a round or tube shape. The round shape flattens to a circle which may look better, but I find the tube shape easier to handle. As for the size, you should pick the crimp bead with the smallest hole size that fits the wire.

There are specific pliers made for crimping different sizes of crimp beads that you can buy for over $15 each, but if you’re a poor university student like me, a small pair of standard pliers will just have to do!

Notice that most pliers have ridges at the tip and a flat area near the joint. I try to use the flat side so that the ridges don’t appear on the crimp bead.

Once you are done stringing the bead(s), crimp beads, and your clasp (optional), loop the wire back into the crimp bead(s) and a centimeter or two of the beads. This will give extra security and prevent any unpleasant scratching from the wire ends.

Push the beads up near the clasp/loop, but remember to leave a little room for the beads to move around on the string as well as room for the loop to move around the clasp! Take the pliers and flatten the crimp bead closest to the loop. Don’t be afraid to press hard! The tighter the crimp bead is on the wire, the less likely it will slip off after your piece has been worn for a while.

From this…

To this!

This is the tricky part: carefully use the flat part of the pliers to hold on half of the pressed crimp bead. Brace it against something flat and push so that the crimp bead forms a U-shape.

Use the flat part of the pliers to press the U-shape together, trim the extra wire…

… and you’re done!

If you want to give your beads extra security, you can crimp more than one bead at the end.

~ Ava Arie

Beading has a long history in the human culture. Archaeologists showed that people made and used beads as long as 5,000 years ago. Beadwork has been a personal adornment which express a variety of symbolic meanings. The first emperor of China was painted as wearing beaded curtains on his crown.

In the recent history, beading was rediscovered as a fun and creative pastime. Conveniently beadworks become wearable art. It’s a great way to decorate yourselves. In many occasion, the beaded jewelry you wear can help break ice and create talking points.

Beading has become a common craft activity that is fun for people of all ages. There are beading parties for teenagers. Amazingly, Royal Caribbean had a 4 night Beading Cruise completed with beading classes, contests, trivia, show and swap. If you want to meet & mingle with the like-minded, take the cruise. Since there’s nowhere else to go at the high sea, you’d develop your skills better.

How do you start a beading project?

Firstly you need to have some idea of what beading you want to do. You can browse and search for beading patterns. Necklace is the simplest and most practical beading pattern. The necklace you beaded is wearable in many occasions and you can tell your friends about it.

Secondly, locate a beading supply resource and purchase the tools and beads for the project. If you can find a local beading supply store, perfect. You’ll be able to see and feel the beads. After knowing your beads, online stores offer a larger variety of bead selections and much better pricing.

Thirdly, you need to set up your “beading space” – preferably an uncluttered, well-lit area, where you can drop the work whenever need to, leave the work undisturbed and pick it up quickly later on.

After getting the three steps in place, you’ll be able to enjoy the joy of beading and creativity for the years to come.