· Blog Home
· Profile
Older Articles
· Jewelry making #2
· Making jewelry #1
· Making jewelry
· Fall 2005 Haute Couture Reviews
· Favorite Looks for Fall 2005
· Turning Heads, Not Raising Eyebrows: An Introduct...
· Spotted, Dolce & Gabbana pumps...
· More jewelry ramblings
· Hmmm...
· Taking a work break...
Comments
Archives
TheBroadroom.Net's Fashion Blog (archive)
· April 2005
· May 2005
· June 2005
· July 2005
· August 2005
· September 2005
· October 2005
· November 2005
· December 2005
· January 2006
· February 2006
· March 2006
· April 2006
· May 2006
· June 2006
· July 2006
· August 2006
· September 2006
· October 2006
· November 2006
· December 2006
· January 2007
· February 2007
· March 2007
· April 2007
· May 2007
· June 2007
Posted by Colleen Shirazi, Tuesday, September 20, 2005 12:48 PM (Eastern)
So...I decided on 0.7 mm Stretch Magic elastic cord. The next thing to do was figure out the knots, since crimp beads don't work with this weight of cord.
I had to practice to get the knots right. Here's a tip: practice on necklaces first. That way, if you dork up a piece, the cord is still long enough to make a bracelet with. :D
It take some practice too to figure out how long to make the cord in the first place. I've been using a full 12" for bracelets and 18" for necklaces. If your fingers are more flexible than mine, you can probably reduce this initial length.
Conclusions: one knot of any kind doesn't work. (Mind you, I am no knot expert.) Two knots work. Three knots also. Technically, you don't need three knots, it just feels more secure that way.
The Stretch Magic cord stretches out the first time you wear the piece. So if you tie a nice knot the way you think it should be, then try on the piece, you get more slack than you want and no way to get rid of it.
So here is my technique: I go ahead and finish stringing the beads. I then tie the first part of a square knot. Do not complete the knot; just do the first part of it.
Holding the loose ends of the cord behind the first part of the square knot very tightly (keeping in mind the knot is not complete!), try on the piece, stretching the piece generously as you put it on.
Now take it off, all the while holding those ends tightly! You will likely notice that the cord has stretched out some. Re-tighten your first part of the square knot and repeat the process of trying on the piece.
After 2 or 3 times, you will have stretched out the cord about as much as it's going to stretch. You'll note that you don't need to re-tighten your first-part-of-square-knot that much anymore.
Now, go ahead and complete the square knot. Take your time. Lay the piece down; it's easier that way.
Hint: finishing your piece with 2 beads that are larger than seed-bead size, can make the piece easier to tie off. i.e., if you are trying to tie off a piece between seed beads, it can be a bit more difficult.
Tighten the square knot as much as you can. Now you will need to tie a knot after the square knot. The square knot by itself will not hold.
Here I like to use the "overhand knot." This is illustrated on the back of the Stretch Magic package.
Lay the piece down again and use both hands. Scoot the overhand knot up until it abuts the square knot, then tighten it as much as you can.
You can tie another overhand knot behind that knot if you want. Again, lay the piece down and scoot the knot up before tightening. Clip off the excess cord.
I haven't tried out, say, using two square knots. The square knot + overhand knot + overhand knot works so well I haven't bothered. But if you're after a truly invisible knot, you might want to play around with it some. Just keep in mind that one knot by itself slides out no matter what you do.
I've also picked up something called "wrapping." This consists of taking a bead and a headpin or eyepin. For this you need a fairly long headpin/eyepin, made out of metal that is soft enough to bend fairly easily.
You put the headpin/eyepin through the bead, and bend the top into a loop using round-nosed pliers. You start the loop a bit higher than you normally would.
You then hold the loop with one pair of pliers. You use another pair of pliers to grab the loose end of the headpin/eyepin. You wrap the loose end around and around the bottom of the loop. In short, you are covering the place between the loop and the bead, with a tight spiral of wire.
When you're about done wrapping, you can cut the excess wire with a pair of wire cutters (be very careful with this as the piece of wire can fly in any direction including into your eye). Using the second pair of pliers to mush the remaining wire around the loop so that it lies smoothly.
You can make charms this way. Just add a "split ring." I prefer these to regular jump rings. The split ring is like a tiny keychain ring, so you can add it on after you've finished the wrapping part.
Well that's about it for now. I've already made several pieces for my daughter and I've been impressed that it's still much cheaper...even going to a bead shop and choosing individual beads...than buying ready-made jewelry.
Recent blog posts:
Post a comment (NO SPAM)