Have a great beading idea, technique or time-saving tip? View helpful tips from other beaders and submit your own to share with the worldwide jewelry-making community.
Beading Resources > Simple Tips
Fire Mountain Gems and Beads
Have a great beading idea, technique or time-saving tip? View helpful tips from other beaders and submit your own to share with the worldwide jewelry-making community.
Beading Resources > Simple Tips
Adding 5 to 6 drops of ammonia to liver of sulphur in water helps to dissolve the liver of sulphur evenly and give you a broader range of colors.
- Lorrie, LA
This is probably obvious, but I recently discovered this little tip. When you are using a crimping tool, make sure you keep your fingers well away from the jaws or you could end up crimping your fingertip instead. I didn't realize I knew words like that! And so many!
- Angela, Ontario, Canada
To store my beads, I use prescription bottles. They are available in different sizes and they are transparent. I line them up on a tray so that I can see them when I need the beads.
- Danielle, Quebec, Canada
I have just started beading, and was getting frustrated trying to get stringing material on the needle. By the time the thread went through the needle, the bead wouldn't slide on because the thread was too thick where it overlapped through the eye of the needle. I twisted the thread and applied some glue to the end so it acted like a self-needle when it dried and that solved the problem.
- Judy, OR
Wax or condition your thread to prevent the end from fraying.
When threading your needle, hold the thread in your non-dominant hand so that just a tiny portion -- about the size of the dot in this ''i'' - sticks up between your thumb and forefinger. Place the needle eye on the dot and slide the thread up through the hole.
Ensure your needle threads easily by using sharp scissors to make a clean cut.
To guarantee a lasting bond, when creating pendants with ice pick bails, use a permanent adhesive with a needle applicator, such as G-S Hypo cement, which is ideal for small bead holes.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Use a bead reamer to enlarge and smooth bead holes, if necessary when using ice pick bails.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
When creating pendants with ice pick bails before applying adhesive, place the prong into the bead hole to ensure a proper fit. Then apply adhesive.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Jewelry that is strung using crimps should have a small loop that allows the clasp a little bit of movement in order to keep the wire from breaking or fraying from use under tension. To keep the loops of your beading wire even and large enough, insert one side of your round-nosed pliers into the loop while pulling the wire tight and crimping it down.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Copper wire will patina, or darken and discolor, with age. If you prefer to keep your copper wire bright, coat it with a clear sealer or polish before stringing and let dry. Soaking copper in white vinegar will help to clean it.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Beading wire can scratch the wearer if it is sticking out or not clipped close enough to the crimp. A good technique to finish a necklace so that the wire is hidden is to make sure your last bead or two are large enough for the remainder of beading wire to be threaded back through and clipped.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
A bead board is a small investment that will pay huge dividends because it will help you design beaded jewelry and is an invaluable visual aid and time saver.
Bead boards come in a variety of designs from single to multi-channel styles that have many individual tray compartments to hold beading components while you work. The long channels are marked with ticks to help you measure the finished length of jewelry.
The multi-channel styles are very helpful in making graduated and multiple-strand necklaces and bracelets that will drape properly on your neck and wrist.
Once you string the beads you have placed on your bead board, it is a good idea to lay the finished strand back onto the board again to double check length and bead placement. Always be sure to take the clasp length into consideration for the finished length when completing jewelry designs.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Use liver of sulfur to create an aged look in metal jewelry. Soak the metal pieces in a liver sulfur bath and watch as the black tarnish darkens the surface and soaks deep into the coils and folds of the wire or metal. Then polish the black off the surface with a metal polishing cloth, leaving the aged color within the recesses.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Add visual interest to wire creations by flattening or hammering your wire:
- Use a metal rolling machine to flatten wire before or after the wire is coiled into a design.
- Add 3-D surface texture by hammering wire with a ball-peen hammer before or after it is coiled into a design.
*Note: Use gentle, even hammer strokes to create a uniform look. Using square wire is a good choice for hammering and flattening, because it doesn't roll.- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
When stringing long fringe or a continuous length of seed beads, make every 10th bead a slightly different color from the rest. This saves time since you can count the strung beads in a flash, and enhances the overall design.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
When setting up your work area, ''wallpaper'' your walls with elements that will help you get organized and provide design inspiration. Use bead sample cards, paint swatches and hand-painted pegboards in inspiring colors. And stencil wall borders in your favorite jewelry silhouettes and shapes for eye-catching interest.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Add personalized details to jewelry designs.
To create a one-of-a-kind gift add birthstone colors by using Swarvoski® crystal beads or gemstone beads, or offer words of inspiration using affirmation charms and alphabet beads.
Get creative with your jewelry-making -- the charm of a personalized gift long outlives a box of chocolates!
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip
Have you ever noticed how bracelets, even though they may all be the same length, will each fit a little bit differently? This is because the size of the beads affects the bracelet's inside diameter. An easy way to make sure the bracelet is the right length for the size of your beads -- and your wrist -- is to find the inside diameter of a bracelet that fits. Slide the bracelet over an upside-down paper cup and, using a permanent marker, draw a line on the cup around the bracelet. Use the cup as a guide for measuring your future bracelet projects.
- Fire Mountain Gems and Beads Tip