Beading Basics-Stringing Thread

Terri Gable: Hi! I am Terri Gable, owner of Studio Baboo, a Big Little Bead Store. Today we are talking about basic beading. In this clip, you will learn how to string using silk thread. The things you will need for this are, of course, beads, thread; we are going to use silk thread today; scissors, pliers, our beading cement and again, findings. These are clamp shells and a clasp.

The first thing you would need to do is choose the size and color of your thread. You can see the thread comes in a variety of colors and also in sizes. You want to choose a color that coordinates with your beads and also a size that suits the size of the hole in your beads. So we would use, perhaps, the size 2 for a pearl which typically has a very small hole. A size 4 thread would be suitable for bead of this size. I have chosen to use a gray beading thread, so that you can actually see a little bit better in this video. The first thing you will need to do is take a little needle, un-trap that. So here you can see the needle is already attached to the thread. It's very, very handy and you will just unroll this and unwind the thread. You will unwind that all the way.

First thing we are going to want to do is tie a knot at the end of the thread and wrap it over your fingers. It is called an overhand knot and the tail is going to go through the loop one time. I like to take it through a second time, it makes a larger knot. Let's pull that knot nice and tight and secure, and try to leave an inch to 2 inches of tail.

Now we need to string on one of our clamp shells. Your needle is going to go into the cup of the clamp shell, come out that little hole in the bottom and you are going to slide that clamp shell all the way down your thread, until the knot sits in the cup of the clamp shell, just like that. Now you are ready to string some beads. Nice needle on the end here and you just string your beads. You slide those down to the clamp shell as you go.

Once you finish stringing your pattern, you have to put on the second clamp shell. This time you are going up through the bottom of the clamp shell. This time you have to remember, we are going up into the hole in the bottom of the clamp shell but we are coming up into it. So your needle comes out of that little cup and you will slide that all the way down to the beads. An easy way to remember which way that should point is that it should be pointing outward on the end of your piece of jewelery. Now I am simply going to cut off the excess thread.

Now we need to adjust the drape of your piece of jewelery and tie a second knot. The easiest way to do that is to take advantage of this being actually two threads. We are going to untwist them and you will just untwist all the way down. Once you have untwisted the thread, so that you are sure that it's untwisted down on to the clamp shell and right at the top of the beads, we can tie our finishing knot. This time it's like tying a square knot but again, I am going around the loop. This time three times to make sure that my knot is large enough, so it won't fall through the hole and the bottom of the clamp shell. You pull that knot right down under the clamp shell. Adjust how tight your piece of jewelery is strung and then a tie a second knot.

Next, we need to glue the knot. So we are going to use our -- its called Hypo Cement. It's commonly called crystal cement or beading glue. It has a nice fine tip, so we can place the glue precisely. It's not a super glue, so you don't have to worry about gluing yourself to your jewelery. We are simply going to put a nice dot of glue on each of the knots that we tied.

Once the glue has dried, we need to trim the threads. You want to trim the thread short enough, so that they hide inside the clamp shell. Of course, you don't want them so long that they stick out. You just use the edge of your clamp shell as the guide, give that a little snip and the other one a little snip. Using our chain nose pliers, I am going to put the pliers on either side of the clamp shell and just press it closed. Do that to both sides. A little hook on the end of the clamp shell will attach the clasp. Again, we have just a simple lobster claw clasp. There are two parts to the clasp. We are going start with the clasp itself. I like to let the beads and the clamp shell lay on my finger. You will take the attaching ring on the clasp and slide it on to the hook of the clamp shell. With the tip of your chain nose pliers, just grab the edge of the hook and gently turn it down and in. Sometimes, I will chasten and use my thumbnail and just pop it right in there, and our clasp is attached.

Now the ring part of the clasp. Again, you are going to drop it down to the hook. I will take our chain nose pliers and draw that hook down and in, so it touches at the top of the clamp shell. Again, you can always chasten, press them with your thumbnail. That's how you string beads using thread and get a nice professional finish. Now it's time to learn how to knot between beads.