Beading and Making Jewelry Tips

Beading Examples

If you are a beginning or expert jewelry maker, you probably appreciate tips to help you do better.  I know I do.  The thing  I wonder about most is how many beads per inch does it take to make a necklace or bracelet without knotting. Even if you plan to knot between beads or pearls, you need to buy close to the same number of beads per inch as the final knot size will depend on the thickness of the beading cord.  Beading needles and cords are also different materials and sizes depending on the width of the hole inside the bead and the best cord material for type of bead.  Since seed beads (also called Czech beads or glass beads) come in a factory size rather than mm size, you need to either use a different reference or check seed bead packing for mm conversion and hole circumference.  (See video on how to knot.)

If not knotting, you can consider wire instead of cord for stringing beads to produce a necklace that may not have to be restrung later (cording eventually frays and breaks).  Using different sizes of wire for bead types will require purchasing crimp beads to use near clasp to keep wire from coming loose and provide a finished look.  Do not just pick a pretty clasp or toggle for your project, instead choose the best clasp and crimp for each jewelry project.

For more jewelry making tips, see my posts on Jewelry Creation and Repair Tips and Images plus how to videos in How to Repair a Broken Link in Chain of Necklace and How to Repair or Make a Stretch Bracelet.

For bead and tool shopping tips and warnings, consider my posts Beads and beading are the IN things to do, Gem Shows or Bead Stringing Heaven and Gem and Jewelry Show Two.