Basic Jewelry Making Questions
February 22, 2007
Had a couple of good questions in my inbox today that I wanted to share.
From Holly:
My crimp bead will be fine for a day or two, but after wearing my bracelet for a
couple of days the crimp bead keeps breaking and the wires it is holding come
free. This has happened on several of my bracelets. Do you have any ideas for me
on what I am doing wrong or anything I can do differently to make this work?
My suggestion to Holly was to be sure first of all that she’s using sterling
silver, not base metal crimps. I’ve used both, and found that the base metal
crimps don’t hold, don’t take a nice crimp, and frequently break. My advice
is to spend a few cents more and buy sterling crimps – well worth the
investment!
If the crimps she’s using are sterling, I also suggested that she try a larger size. I’ve also found that smaller crimps don’t work with heavier wire – it can wear and eventually break.
From Malissa:
I am new at beading. What is the metal thing called on top of the bead. I sent
pictures so you could see what I was looking for.
Malissa’s “metal thing” is a bead cap – used to “frame” beads on pendants, drops, or even within a bracelet. they can be used on one end, like the one in her photo, or smaller caps can be used on both ends of a bead.
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