The Twist Formula

A preliminary to jewellery making would be recognizing the components of which jewelleries are made up of. The components of which we use to construct jewelleries are what we call jewellery findings. The basic idea is simple. You should know what they are called so that you can at the very least tell the salesperson what it is that you want to buy. And also, by knowing and understanding the basic premise of which they are used for is the starting point for you to create endless possibilities. Although each of these findings has its specific usage, you would however, not be reprimanded should you choose to think out of the box. ;)

To create designs which are somewhat unique in the market, Eni Oken; a Los Angeles based Brazilian jewellery artist, recommends The Twist Formula.

Every handcrafted product is created using at least 4 criteria:

*Technique

*Design

*Materials

*Application

In order to create something unique, one of the criterias above needs to be changed radically, creating a "twist".

So, whichever the twist will be, the choice is entirely yours to make.

Some of the more common findings are shown above, taken out from one of the pages of the special issue of Bead & Button magzine.


a. Head pins - keep the beads from sliding off.
b. Eye pins - to connect joints
c. Jump ring - can be twist open and closed, can be used to connect findings
d. Split ring - same function but more secured than jump ring, hardly used by Malaysian beaders.
e. Crimp beads - secure beads on flexible beading wire.
f. Bead tips/Calottes - to link a strand of beads to a clasp.
g. Clasps - come in an extensive shapes and sizes.
h. Earrings - also come in many shapes, sizes and style.
i. Cones - to conceal the knotted ends of a tassel or multi-strand necklace.

The list of findings here are by no means exhaustive. You will learn more about the findings as you go along making jewelleries! :)
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................,.........

Postscripts:
Go visit Eni Oken's website. She's one of my favourite jewellery artist. Her work, however, is mainly on wirework. I love love love her work! There are also tutorials on sale categorized by different level of skills and prices start from as low as $5! These tutorials, however are in PDF format. So, you might need Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download for free from the internet. Go check them out!
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................,.........