Crimps

If you’d have asked me a couple of months ago how I felt about crimps, I could have spent a good 10 minutes telling you how much I hated them. But needing to use a strong thread for a bracelet I wanted to make with heavy beads with tiny holes, I couldn’t see an alternative, so I decided to give them another go. This time, something just clicked and now I love them! 

There’s a bit of a knack to them, you might already know, but I’m going to share what I found for anyone who doesn’t!

For my post today, I’m going to make a necklace and pendant.

To start, you will need some crimping pliers. They have a double tip with a curved crimp section and a section with a little spike in.

You will also need beads of your choice, wire, crimps and crimp covers. I found some beautiful rose gold plated covers. They are a great colour to match with copper and bronze.

Choose the components you want to add to the pendant. The stringing material I’ve used is Beadalon 7 strand wire. It’s 0.6mm and I’ve found it will fit most beads without any problems. 
I added jump rings to the glass drops and threaded them on to the wire, formed a loop and added a bead and crimp through both strands. I’ve found it’s better to leave loops and connections a little bit loose. It makes the design sit better and some of the gap will be filled when you add a crimp cover. 

For the first squish of the pliers, you need to use the section with the little spike in. Position the wires so that they sit side by side through the crimp.

Then squish it flat. You don’t need to do this very hard, and I found after destroying quite a few that you are better to crimp just hard enough to hold the wire in place. If you squeeze too hard, the crimp will break in the next step. I wasn’t sure if it would hold, but it does as the wire is plastic coated which helps to hold it in place. 

Next turn the wire as shown in the picture below and use the curved section of the pliers to fold the crimp in half. Trim leaving as small a tail as you can, this will be tucked away in the next step.

Next is the crimp cover. I disliked these as much as the crimps, they always squashed and ended up out of shape, but again, go in gently and they'll look great. Position it over the crimp, then with some long nosed pliers, carefully squeeze going around the crimp on opposite sides until the two edges meet.

Thread your beads on to the pendant. As my beads had large holes, the seed beads disappeared in to the holes, so I added enough so that they just sat above the beads. 

Next add a crimp, then more seed beads. Form a loop with the wire and pass it back through the crimp. 

Finish as before, trimming and adding a cover to complete the pendant.

To make the necklace, I added a button clasp on one side of a length of multi strand wire using crimps, added seed and Czech glass beads and the pendant, then finished with a loop of seed beads large enough to go over the button on the other side.

The finished design is strong and neatly finished.

I’ve always been nervous about the strength of thread I’ve used with seed beads, but using the wire, I feel happier that my designs will last. Crimps are my new best friend!

Caroline 

http://www.blueberribeads.co.uk