Let's learn about crimps, crimp covers and wire guardians!
If you're looking to thread your beads on beading wire, but not sure how to finish it at the ends, let us explain how! Crimps are essential, and using crimp covers and wire guardians will give your beaded piece a sleek professional finish
What are crimps?
Crimps are small, malleable metal rounds that are absolutely essential if you are using beading wire to string your beads. Essentially this tiny little bead is the item that is going to allow you to add clasps, finishings or even create illusion style jewellery pieces. Our crimps are the most common size at 2mm though we do also stock crimp tubes which have a larger hole at 3mm and are perfect for multi-strand strung pieces.
What are crimp covers?
Crimp covers are exactly what they say on the tin, covers for your crimps, these little clam shells close over your crimps and create a lovely round bead shape that can be part of your design.
What are wire guardians?
Wire guardians were designed to protect wire from the wear and tear of a clasp rubbing at bare wire. Essentially a solid version of French wire, these little horseshoe shapes can really elevate your made piece.
Just using crimps
The first thing you need to do is the most fun part, the designing! Lay your chosen beads out to get an idea of how you will string your beads. I normally lay my larger beads out on a bead mat first, then move down in bead size to make sure I have a well-balanced piece. Remember that odd numbers are more visually appealing and help to balance the piece well. I generally string using both ends and start in the middle and work out on both sides. This helps to make sure I don’t miss a bead sequence. Once your beautiful new piece has been strung it’s time to finish off with findings.
Just using crimps
Flat Squash
Thread a crimp onto your wire followed by one half of your clasp, loop your wire around and pass back through the crimp. You need to pass through a few of your beads, pull the end of the wire until you have a nice sized loop. Using a pair of chain nosed pliers, squash the crimp flat. A good tip is to make sure that the wire is a nice U shape and not crossing over each other. Thread a crimp and the other half of the clasp onto your wire, loop the wire round, through your crimp and a few beads. You need to pull this loop really tight, ensuring you have no gaps in your beads. Trim the wire then very gently ease the second half of the clasp back until the loop is a matching size. Squash the crimp. And you’re done!
