Make Beaded Jewelry
- Materials and Tools
- Making a Necklace
- Patterns & Project Ideas
- Learning More
Materials and Tools
| Tigertail and Soft-flex wire are strong, flexible, nylon-covered wires which are used for stringing necklaces. Tigertail is stiff so it does not require a needle and it holds its shape. Use with heavier beads and finish with crimp beads. Tigertail has a tendency to kink, which the new, more expensive Soft-flex wire has solved somewhat. Soft-flex incorporates more strands into it's construction, and is therefore more flexible and less prone to kinking. |  |
Crimp beads are soft metal beads that are flattened onto tigertail or soft-flex wire to finish strands or keep a bead in place. String a crimp bead onto tigertail and flatten it with pliers. Crimp beads often have a corrugated look.  Crimping Pliers Specialized pliers for squishing crimp beads. I would recommend getting some if you plan to use crimp beads often, as they make the crimp bead look like less of a squished mess. They operate in the following manner: you squish the bead once into a U-shape, and then you squish it again so the U becomes a little ball. This looks much neater than using regular pliers.You may also want to get a bead board to lay out your designs and wire cutters to snip the tigertail. |
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