Beading Basics-Stringing Wire

Terri Gable: Hi! I am Terri Gable, owner of Studio Baboo, a Big Little Bead Store. Today we are learning basic beading. In this clip, we are going to learn how to string using beading wire. Beading wire is made of stainless steel, tiny little threads that are all cabled together with a nylon coating. That makes it very strong, very flexible, very drape-able. It is a wonderful product for stringing. It's especially suited for stringing, if you are using beads that are very heavy or that have very abrasive holes.

First you start by cutting off the appropriate length of wire. It really just depends on what you are making. For a necklace, of course, you would cut more; for a bracelet, less. We are going to use these metal parts here that are called findings. These are little crimps. We are going to use those to fix up the wires, so that it doesn't slip. A clasp, any type of clasp will do. We are using just a simple lobster claw clasp today.

The first thing we need to do is attach the clasp. We are going to take our little crimp and we are going to put it on the wire. We are going to take the clasp, put the wire through the attaching hole of the clasp. Now the wire needs to go around the clasp, don't go back through that hole and you are going to push about an inch of wire through the crimp bead. You are going to hold that inch of wire on your fingers and pull on the longer end of the wire to draw that loop down. You want your clasps to dangle and you want your loop to be small enough, so that it's not unsightly. You are going to take your chain nose pliers. You are going to put them over top of the clasp and you are going to squeeze very firmly. You will see that once you have done that, this is not going to slip.

Now it is really easy to string your beads. You are simply going to poke the wire through the hole on the beads. The wire is stiff enough, that we don't need any needles and you just string your beads on the wire. As you get a few beads strung, you are going to want to bury this tail into the first few beads. Once you have all of your beads on the wire, we have one more crimp. We are going to pick that crimp up and put that on the wire and the other half of the clasp. Again, the wire is going to go around the clasp. We need to put it back through the crimp and a few beads. I like to hold the wire tail next to the longer piece of wire and actually just push these beads up in on the wire, like this, till I have about an inch or so of tail buried. You will see you have got the tail sticking out here. You will just hold on to the clasp, pull on that wire to draw up your piece of jewelery. You want to make sure that there aren't any gaps of wire. You don't want the wire to show while you are wearing this. You also don't want this to be so stiff, that it won't curve into a circle. Of course, this is a bracelet and it has to go around your wrist, so you can wear it.

Then you are going to take the chain nose pliers. You are going to put them on that little crimp. This time you have to be careful not to catch the bead or the clasp under the pliers or you will damage them. Just squeeze that again nice and firmly. You will see that it's nice and tight. Last thing we have to do is trim off the excess wire. We are going to use our wire cutters for that. I like to think of wire cutters like a shovel. When you hold them closely, you have a flat side and a scoop side. When you are shoveling, what comes out of the scoop side is your trash and the same is true for your pliers. So in this case, the little tail is my trash. The tail will come out of the scoop part of the cutters. You will get a good firm pull on that and a quick snip and the tail will come right off.

That's the professional way to finish a piece of jewelery using beading wire. Now it is time to learn how to string using thread.