Stringing

My next topic of discussion would inevitably be on the issue of stringing material. Stringing material will affect how your design will turn out to be especially if you are doing bead stitches. I will not be touching on wires as I'll leave that for a discussion under wirework.

There are many types of stringing materials out there, which honestly, even I myself are clueless. From the reading and research that I've made, my guess is I think overseas beaders are more spoilt for choices.

As far as local beaders are concerned, the ones commonly used are fishing line, tiger tail, those elastic beading thread, leather and cotton cords. Or maybe there are some alternatives such as Nymo or silk thread which I'm not aware of but I suspect not commonly used by novice beaders due to higher cost.

So, basically the main discussion here will be on the more common stringing materials.

Fishing line
This is the cheapest stringing material available. I think it's similer to Monofilament, Fireline, Power Pro or Tegusu to the Japanese but to me, it's still the same 'ol fishing line. :P What I really like about fishing line is that they are very durable, even the thin ones. I can't imagine thread that were initially made to bear the weight of a fish would not be durable enough for beadwork, provided you buy those good quality ones, of course.

Another brownie point for fishing line is the flexibility to do away with needles. Other beading threads such as Nymo, as I understands it are like threads which require you to use a needle to do your stitches. Now, fishing line are by themselves sturdy and sharp enough to also double up as a needle for stringing.

Also, if you are using Swarovski crystals or those bugle or hex-cut beads, Nymo may not work well in such circumstances. These beads have sharp edges which will cut your thread. So, if you are using fishing line, you don't have to worry about your beads cutting your thread. Imagine only a 25% away from completing your work, only to have your thread finally gave way. Well, depending on your design, you may or may not add on thread but still, it is definately not one pleasant beading experience. You can trust me on this. So, think and choose your stringing material carefully before you embark on a project!

There is however one thing that I do not like about fishing line is their tendency to curl or slip when you tie a knot. That's why I prefer running the thread through my work several times either to end my work or to add on thread rather than tying knots. Some people may be skeptical on this but trust me, it is very secure PROVIDED you run through many many times. It's time consuming but I think it's more secure than a knot. If you must knot it, I trick I was told was to slightly melt the knot with a lighter. The knot then kinda balls up and clump together but even then you have to be very CAREFUL. We don't want to get neither you nor your work burnt, now do we? I personally tried this trick once. My thoughts? Uhhmm, not a very good idea. As for the tendency to curl part, I've read somewhere that using a hairdryer might do the trick.[raised eyebrow] I know, I haven't gotten around that trick either. *shrugs* So, I still don't know the trick to reduce the tendency to curl but for to handle your work with much care. Tell me ya, if you know!

Next, on the sizes of these fishing lines. These fishing lines comes in a wide array of sizes. I'm not going to suggest on any brands because I've yet to really find a difference in them. I've tried fishing lines imported from USA, Japan and even locally. So far, all worked pretty well for me.

What I do find a great difference in is in the size of the thread, which affects the end results of your work significantly. I think, in general 0.25mm works the best for most weaves. Anything more than that, your work will just pucker up and anything less, your work will just be floppy. However, if you're doing one of those 3D motifs, you might want to use thread around 0.20 or less because chances are, motif stitching might require you to run your thread through the same bead several times. If you still find your work not so sturdy in the end, the trick is just to run through it several times more. It's better to use a thinner thread and run through your work several times to stabilize it rather than a thicker thread and going through less. The finishing is just different.

All the discussion in fishing line above holds true only if you are doing bead stitching. If however, you are only stringing beads, fishing line won't do the trick, especially if you use larger beads, such as 8mm and above.

Tiger tail
This is where tiger tail comes in. Tiger tail works best for your 'straightforward strands of beads' pieces. Fishing line would be a bit too flimsy for this kind of work. Tiger tail is stiffer and gives more shape to it. It also works very nicely with crimp beads to make those 'illusion' design pieces. Those designs where the beads are seemingly floating in the air.

You can't use tiger tail for bead stitching. Tigertail is a series of wires covered with a coloured nylon coating. This creates a strong but flexible beading wire which is ideal for heavier or sharp edged beads.The diameter will vary depending on the number of wires used to make the Tigertail and the nylon coating comes in a range of colours to match your beadwork. Bear in mind however any designs using tiger tail has to be finished off using crimps, largely due to the fact that it is nylon coated wires. Tying a knot is a no-no. Well, you can't really tie a knot with tiger tail to begin with anyway.

Other similar ones are like Beadalon, Soft Flex, Soft Touch etc.

One reminder when using the tiger tail though. Be careful not to kink it. Once you kinked it, that's pretty much it. The kink cannot be undone and you totally spoil the shape of your work.

Elastic beading string
They come in the floss type or those clear ones and come in a wide range of sizes. Okay, frankly speaking, I'm not fond of them but they are very popular. For one, ease of wearing for the wearer and also eliminate the problem with sizing for the maker.

However, the floss type one tends to fray over time and the clear ones loses its elasticity which requires constant re-stringing. Very troublesome in my view. Plus, it's stifling in terms of creativity because there's nothing much that you can do with it apart from stringing.

Leather and cotton cord
I haven't really got the opportunity to use any of these yet. The closest I got was in using faux suede lace. Very nice finishing but susceptible to fraying. Well, maybe because it's faux. Wonder if the real thing would fray as much.

While I think cotton cord would be more cost-effective, leather cord might give a nicer finishing. But that might cost you quite a bit. Either way, I think leather and cotton cord primary design will have to fall on the different knots that you are going to tie it with.


Well, yeah, that's pretty much my two cents on stringing materials in a nutshell but at the end of the day, I still believe it is a matter of preference. And as you most probably can see, my preference is fishing line. That's what I've got the most to say. Why not? It's cost effective and durable! ;)
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Postscripts:
Visit Japanese beader, Beading Bees for some simple and easy, free and nifty projects. She has also included an explanation on some of the more commonly used weaves in Japanese beading. The site comes in two languages mode. So, you may want to put what you've learn in Japanese lessons into good use or just stick to plain 'ol English like me. Either way, you won't have problem navigating her site.
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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! :)
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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!
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Tools

Taken from pages of one of the special issue of Bead & Button magazine,
a. Roundnose pliers
b. Chainnose pliers
c. Wire cutters
d. Crimping pliers
e. Awl
f. Twisted wire beading needle

They say you need the right kinda people to do the right kinda job and the principle applies the same when it comes to jewellery making. The tools are the people helping you to do the job. So, before you even embark on the journey, you would first and foremost need the necessary tools to do the job.

I know how some people emphasize on good quality tools but in my view, as long as it is the right tools, it should do a reasonable good job. As far as the quality of the tools is concern, it only affects the quality of your workmanship and also a matter of durability. Say if you are only picking up jewellery making as a fad hobby now, I don't think it's necessary for you to spend so much on it. But however if you do intend to do this for a long term, then yes, it would be a better idea for you to get a set of good quality tools, not only in terms of cost-efficiency (good quality ones last much longer) and also in fine tuning and perfecting your craftsmanship. It's a matter of practicality.

The three most basic tools that you will need would be; chain nose plier, round nose plier and side cutters. As for the last one, some call it flush cutters and some call it nipper tools but it's all the same. I'm not sure exactly where you can get them from retail but I believe you should be able to get them from any bead shop. I got mine from Ebay Malaysia.

I will not delve on the above mentioned tools because those are rather common information that you could easily sourced from anywhere. What I would like to highlight to you about tools is the crimping pliers. This is a specialty tools used specifically to crimp beads. I noticed it's not a very common tool used in Malaysia because I haven't seen any sold around and when I mention it to some jewellery maker, some haven't even heard of it before.

For one, it's very expensive. I asked my aunt to get it for me from the UK and it costs 10 pounds! I had to buy from UK because someone other than living in Malaysia I got was living in UK, so that was my only choice. :P UK is not the only place selling them. But still, it won't be cheap. So I guess that's why not many people bothered with it. Many are quite contented with crimping it flat with a chain nose plier. But there's something about the plain 'flat' appearance that I don't like. While some may find that it's so small that it's hardly even noticeable but to me it still lacks the 'polished' element in that piece of work.

Here's a close-up of the crimping pliers and how much neater it crimps.















As you can see from the picture here, there is two 'bumps' on the jaw. Crimping with a crimping plier is a two-step process. You first position your crimp within the inner depression to form a crescent (picture on the left below) and then 'close' the crescent with the outer depression so the crimp becomes a tube form as shown in the picture below.





It's not as troublesome as it sounds really, although you do need some practicing before getting a hang of it, well, for me at least. :) But don't you think it does a much better crimping job?
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Postscripts:
The pictures above are not taken by me by the way, I got them from All Info About Jewelry Making. This is one site suitable for beginners to intermediate where they housed all the information you need to know on the basics of jewelrymaking. Plus, they've even got a page with all the free projects sorted out alphabetically and it tells you at the beginning of each project, the skill level and time required to complete it. How neat is that!
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It started with a ...

I'm a self taught bead artist. I call myself a bead artist because what I do or intend to do will not only be limited to jewellery making, although that discipline seems to be where I predominantly use the beads for. But we all know that beads are much more versatile and diverse than that. An artist because my endeavour has always been and will be to create one-of-a-kind pieces, distinguishable from the masses. Something distinctly Wendy Sue, so to speak. ;)

I specifically created this blog to talk about beads because I think I've got some things to say about it. Exactly what, I don't know but basically to share what I've learn throughout the past year through my own reading and research I made over the internet, books and magazines. The primary focus of this blog would mostly be on jewellery making since that was how it all started for me, though my love for beads go way back when I was just a little girl.

I did not attend any jewellery making classes mainly because I was not able to. A ruptured blood vessel in the brain (aneurysm) more than 3 years ago left me partially disabled and was mostly home bound. A segment in a women's magazine introduced a website on jewellery making and that was how it all started. So, I learn most of my stuffs through the internet and got most of my materials online, mostly from Ebay Malaysia.

Jewellery making started off as a hobby, and as something to take my mind off the emotional turmoil that I was going through. It also helps to serve as an occupational therapy of some sort, for me to work on my fingers to get back the motor function on my weakened left hand but I ended up loving it so much that it's now part of my life. Life will just not be the same without jewellery making.

Personally, I think jewellery making are just skills that you can pick up by yourself (probably with a bit of research work) and perfected over time with practice. What I'll be writing in here will be informative rather than instructive. Collective knowledge with regards to beads and jewellery making that I've accumulated over the years either through experience or reading. Although I would also include links with free tutorials for you to try out some jewellery making projects.

I'm not a pro(yet!) but I guess there's something for everyone who loves jewelry making here. It will be just as much as a learning journey for me as it might be for you.
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Updates:
I decided to add a Postscripts section at the end of each post on the interesting beading sites that I've come across.
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Update :  01/01/2011 

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Okay, I sure thought the introduction piece above of myself is rather obsolete now and in need of an update, don't you think? I mean, I started this blog more than two years ago, when jewelry making and I were still at its infancy and I was still pretty much house-bound.

But to really think about it, more than two years is a neither here nor there kinda duration. It's not exactly very long ago but yet neither does it 'feels like it just happened yesterday' kinda situation, which is why  to me, it feels like neither here nor there. 

This much has happened since I written that first entry in this blog.

Let'a begin with the blog. There's no longer the Postscripts simply because I've begun writing my own tutorials and instructions and hence no longer sees how Postscripts serves its purpose already.

Mobility wise, I have since been able to move around more by myself although I still need some assistance in certain circumstances but I'm much more independant than I was before.

Apart from still teaching myself on jewelry making, I've also took lessons to in other media of jewelry making.

 Took a weekend course on beginners' lampworking.

 Took a weekend course in Art Clay.

Also did a weekend course in Beginners' Silversmithing.

Well, not only did I learnt, I've also taught jewelry making.

 I've also started a 9 to 5 job but in my case, it's actually an 8:30 to after 5 :P, which leaves me with much less time on making jewelry.

Yes, that's how messy my desk gets when it gets busy.

But then, if you were to look way back to 2005 which is when I had the ruptured blood vessel in my brain, then yes, I've indeed come a very long way. A lot more has happened. From a totally immobile person to the person that I am now; who although still have an issue with the gait but still able to lead a normal life.

I'm driving again, both manual and auto transmission.

Witnessing my good friends getting married.

Flown out of the country twice to three different foreign countries.

England

Arcklow, Ireland

Singapore

That probably does not seem like a lot being done in 5 years? 6 years? But for someone who was once labeled a disabled and still with an issue with the gait, hmmmm, not too shabby, I'ld say.

Aaah, yes!

Brother got married too, and I'm a soon-to-be aunt! Heheh! :)

I've spend most of my life making plans only to learn it the hard way that life does not necessarily go the way you have planned it to be but I still have my fingers crossed. I don't know how high I can fly  but I do want to keep on flying.

Honestly, I do not know what the future holds. I know I'll still want to be making jewelry. I know I'll still want to write in this blog. I don't know who will still be sticking around but I'll be very happy to have you joining me in my journey. :)

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