Making Jewelry by Stringing Beads on Bead Stringing Wire -- Page 3

Step 5:   Now we need to wrap the wire tail around the stem of the wire.  We do this by grasping the loop in our bend chain nose pliers and holding it firmly.  (This preserves the round shape of the loop.)  While holding the loop, wrap the shorter wire tail around the stem of the loop one or two times as shown at right.  Keep the wire tail perpendicular to the wire that you are wrapping it around.  This helps to keep the spacing of the wire as tight as possible with no gaps in the wrap. 

Step 6:  Using your flush cutter, cut the excess wire.  Keep the flat side of your flush cutter toward the finished piece so that you will have a flat or flush end on the wire.

Step 7:  After cutting the wire, you will have a very small piece of wire that sticks up where it was cut.  You will need to squeeze this wire so that it doesn't stick up.  This is best done by using one pair of chain nose or bent chain nose pliers to grasp the loop and a second pair of chain nose or bent chain nose pliers to squeeze and twist the cut end flat.  See the picture at left for how the wire component should appear.  Follow the above instructions to complete two segments of wire. 

Step 8:  Now you are ready to connect your bead stringing wire to the loop you just completed.  We recommend the Soft Touch product in size .019 as this is both the strongest and most supple bead stringing wire available.  We also recommend using 2x2mm crimp bead tubes as they are the best option for crimping.  The 2x2mm crimp bead tubes work with the standard size of bead crimping pliers.  To fix the end of your bead stringing wire to the loop you just made in your jewelry wire, you first slide a crimp bead on your bead stringing wire, then slide the bead stringing wire through the loop in your jewelry wire and finally slide the end of your bead stringing wire back through your crimp bead with about 1" of excess wire.  See the picture above-right.  Using your fingers, position the crimp bead as close to the loop in your jewelry wire as possible and pull all the slack out of your bead stringing wire, then using your crimping pliers, squeeze the crimp bead closed.  Please visit here to view detailed information on how to close a crimp bead.  Please also visit here for additional information. 

Step 9:  At this point you are ready to begin stringing beads. First, let's assemble our beads.  You will need 2x7mm bugle beads, round fire polished glass 4mm faceted beads, 6mm rondelle faceted fire polished beads, and 6x10mm dichroic tube beads.  You can choose the colors that best matches your needs.  We chose jet black bugle and fire polished beads to go with orange on black dichroic beads.  The black beads would go with almost any color of dichroic beads.