II.A. PlayORIENTATION“Knowing what to know”

There were always beaders. There were always jewelry makers. There were always Rogue Elephants. Sometimes their paths crossed. Othertimes they did not. But if you wanted to get any kind of inkling about the possibilities of such crossed-pathways, if you wanted to gain an understanding of the beads and jewelry findings and stringing materials and tools, their qualities, and what happens to them when they age, you would need to start with a little bit of the history of beads and jewelry making. And then progress into some more in-depth information about these materials, how you choose which ones to use, and what happens to all this stuff over time.

Only in this way, would you be able to prepare yourself for the judgments and trade-offs and choices you will need to make as a jewelry designer. Choices about How? And When? And What? to use and not to use, given your particular project, your design goals, …(and if you’re selling your pieces, your marketing goals, as well). Moreover, how do you know how to assemble and link everything up into a finished piece?

You need to prepare yourself for the multi-faceted world of beading and jewelry. It’s all about choices. You need an Orientation to what you need to know, and to the kinds of choices you will need to make. The world of beads can often be a jungle, dense with colors, shapes, and styles, intermingled irrationally, spilled relentlessly, collapsing around you with dumps and crashes and screeches and rings. Your eyes become useless in this heart of darkness. The presence of so many beads and so many strangely shaped and curiously articulated metal pieces may make the idea of creating jewelry and beadwork utterly meaningless. At least for the moment.

But you can sense something more. It’s tactile. It’s visual. It has some kind of taste and smell which steers you. It’s orienting. It seems full of significance. And in this

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dark silence – so noisy with details, so hushed with confusion – you realize why it’s important that both you and your Rogue Elephant need to know a lot of things.

- You need to know how to step around quality differences among glass beads made in the Czech Republic, in Japan, in China and in India. How long will these beads last? Will they break? If they chip, what color will they be on the inside? Is the patterning in the glass a coating, a decal or some artistic placement of shards and stringers of glass? How sharp are the holes? How consistent are the beads from bead to bead on the strand?

- You need to know when to demand 14KT gold fused to brass (gold-filled), or 14KT gold plate over silver (vermeil), or Hamilton Gold Plate over brass. How long does the shine and color last? Do these beads and pieces break or crumble or bend or dent?

- You need to know how what came before you will be an important influence on you today. How have the Ogalala Sioux, the Pope, Zulu tribes, the French, Italian, Czech, Dutch, African, the shoe and upholstery industries, and North American Indians affected beads and jewelry today?

Most people don’t orient themselves when they get started. They either don’t see the need, or don’t think they have the time, or think there’s not that much to learn about. Anyone can put some beads on a string and make themselves a bracelet, they assume. They take any class that they can find, often taking more advanced classes, before having taken beginner classes. All they want to do is make a pretty piece to wear. The learning to design is secondary – or non-existent. They buy any book, try to reproduce any pattern, try to copy any picture they see in a magazine, and try to figure things out by themselves without any outside feedback, evaluation and validation. They overly-rely on the advice of the first people they talk with, and don’t question it.

What happens is often very sad, indeed. You end up using inappropriate stringing materials and supplies. You end up finishing off your pieces incorrectly. You never learn how to best attach a clasp. You never learn how to control the tension of beads within your pieces. You mix pieces which are dysfunctional when used together. You end up taking the wrong classes, not questioning the advice of friends or instructors, and buying the wrong parts, given what you are trying to do. You end up making ill-informed choices.

You need an Orientation, and you need to be sure you get one.

In an Orientation, you’ll discover the order of things. There’s an arrangement to beading and jewelry design. Pieces have purposes and functions. They have a history of use and wear. They have an underlying vocabulary and grammar of construction – that is, they have rules for how things should get combined and assembled, and how they should not.

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An Orientation grounds you. It shows you the map, the pathways, the bi-ways, the highways along which you can travel in your development as a fine craftsperson, artist and jewelry designer. It gives you a sense of your surroundings, your context, and a lot of substance and meaning.

At first, when you get oriented, you marvel at the details and the possibilities – the myriad types of beads and findings and stringing materials, the wide variations in how they work and function, the multitude of choices which seem overwhelming. Pinks become fuchsias become reds become oxbloods become garnets. Peridots become mints become olivines, both green and brown, become green lusters become jades become dark kellys and smaragds. Metalized Plastics become nickels become brasses become pewters become sterlings and argentiums and fine silvers and platinums. Threads become bead cords become cable threads become cable wires become hard wires. Jewelry is clasped or clasp-less, strung or woven, wire-worked or wire-wrapped, singular or multiplexed, fixed or adjustable, singular- or multi-media.

But then, something else strikes you. You come to know that, while there’s always been a fundamental sense of design across time and cultures, this sense has often been understated. You find indifference, not indignation. You find an absence, a void, a vacuum of intellectual introspection about jewelry and its design. It’s all around you. That something missing. You feel the lacking. And when you begin to have this sense, you should feel a little superior, in that you are now on your way towards understanding design. You’ve got the hunger. You’ve got the passion. You want to know the place of design in jewelry, and your place in the design world with that jewelry you create. That jewelry you construct. That jewelry that you put forth into the world. That jewelry which reflects who you are as an artist, to your inner most thoughts. You’re on your way towards finding your Rogue Elephant. Perhaps, one day, you will bead him.

The fact is: Good jewelry design is often the After-Thought. Not the Before-Thought. People usually didn’t go looking for Rogue Elephants. They still don’t. They know it’s not safe. They know it’s risky. They know it’s uncomfortable. It takes a lot of work. It takes an Orientation. And without this orientation, you would wander down way too many stray paths. You might avoid a sense of design altogether. No one wants to come face to face (or face to fat-knee) with a mad Elephant. Though sometimes they do. In spite of themselves. Or the situation. And though sometimes they get run-over. And sometimes there’s nothing they can do to avoid the stampede, but let it happen.

Keeping The Elephants Away

There was an old man in France who used to get up every morning at five A.M. He would then go and sprinkle a white powder on the roads. He made sure this white powder was sprinkled at least 12.5cm (5”) wide, and that no gaps appeared

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in the line of powder, from one side of the road to the other. He repeated his task on the major North-South road, and again on the major East-West road. Every morning. At 5 A.M. He left a line of sprinkled white powder.

When asked what this powder was, he replied, “It’s elephant powder.”

The person then said, "But everybody knows there are no elephants in France!"

To which he returned, "I guess it must be working!"

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A Very Abbreviated, But Not Totally Fractured, History of Beads

How many people throughout time have heard the sound of a dropped bead on the floor? Or the sharp whoosh of air that comes from the cutting of a cord? Or the dull oomph you hear when you crush a metal clasp into place? Or the feel of the tug and pull of the thread as the needle is pulled through the cloth? Or the resistance of the tensile strength of the wire as it is bent into a shape? Did they see a sudden flash of light, a sudden recognition of artistic achievement? Probably not.

But it meant something to them. Subtle. Unconscious. The exercise of the hand in craft often taps into some sense of self-expression or –awareness. Creativity rewards you. It reaffirms who you are. Your worth, your value, your artistry. It is fulfilling, fun, happy, reassuring, exciting, introspective.

The exercise of your hand in craft, art and design often reconfirms that you are part of some larger group or culture, as well. You have a shared sense of what expression and awareness mean. You repeat the same steps in creation. You choose similar parts or design compatible patterns. People recognize your creative efforts when they see or wear your pieces.

Hand Craft. The feel on the fingertips and on the palm of your hand. The pattern of light that registers on your eye and then gets translated by your brain. The anticipated weight and movement of the piece as it’s worn. The shared implications of all this, and the full range of possibilities are understood by everyone. This mutual understanding helps you cement relationships with other groups or individuals. Relationships and meanings are extensions of your hand in craft.

Hand Crafts. Beads and Jewelry. Beads and Jewelry. Beads and Jewelry. Beads and Jewelry as Hand Crafts. Beads and Jewelry have been used all throughout time. They appear in every culture in the world. Although they are not always used in the same ways or for the same reasons.

SOMETIMES BEADS ARE USED INSTEAD OF MONEY

Sometimes beads are used instead of Money. When people look at beads, they have an intrinsic value that people seem to recognize and share. In many cultures, people place more confidence in using their beads as their Money, instead of their own coins and currency.

And in our own world, this is often true as well, as we go to bead swaps, or swap one piece of jewelry for something else of value. We barter with beads. We do this all the time. Beads and beaded jewelry have a monetary life all their own. “I’ll give you this______ , if I can have the beaded bracelet you are wearing.”

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And so many times, people will come in the shop and ask to work for beads. And we have plenty for them to do.

BEADS WERE USED IN TRADE

In a similar way, beads were used in Trade. This is more true historically than today, but a little bit today. When two groups want to trade with each other, it’s hard to come to terms. Because people, for whatever reasons, seem to be able to come to agreement on the value of beads, beads were used in various ways during the negotiation process.

About 300, and 400 and 500 years ago, explorers set out from various European countries, and visited far-away places like China and India and Africa, and North and South America. When they set off on their explorations, they brought with them what we call Trade Beads. These were glass beads that were made in Venice, Bohemia and the Netherlands. In Europe at this time, the folks looked down on glass beads. They used them in projects involving bead embroidery and mimicking tapestries where they could get a more 3-dimensional look with the beads than they could with the fibers.

But they shied away from glass beads in jewelry. Too cheap. Too low class. Glass was trash. For jewelry, they preferred the high test octane beads made from gemstones and precious metals. But those darn glassmakers in Venice and Bohemia and The Netherlands kept churning glass beads out. I think there were some technological improvements that occurred at this time, that made it easier/cheaper/ more efficient to make glass beads, but I don’t know this for a fact. Still, no one really wanted them.

The explorers took these glass beads with them, and at first gave them away as gifts. They assumed that people from other, “less sophisticated” cultures, would dismiss these glass beads as well. But alas and alack, these other “less worldly” men and women did not. They liked the glass beads. They liked them a lot. Some cultures even saw spiritual qualities in these glass beads. It wasn’t long before the explorers started trading these beads, instead of giving them away. Some of the trade beads made in Europe were very generic; others were more specialized designs, colorations or etchings specific to certain countries or regions, like Africa or Persia.

When these explorers came to North America, the Indians here, at first, wanted blue beads. You see, they couldn’t easily make a blue color with the natural materials they were using – stones, shells, antler and wood. The explorers were thrilled about this. Blue was the cheapest color to make. So, the explorers found this trade to be very profitable. It wasn’t too long, however, before the Indians met their needs for blue, and started asking for yellow and red. You see, it takes real gold to make the colors yellow and red. And the trading became nearer and dearer for the explorers.

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ANOTHER WAY PEOPLE USE BEADS IS FOR POWER

Another way people use beads is for reasons of Power. People with the more beads have the more power. When you get into beading, you learn this very quickly. Who has the most beads? The most Reds? The most Purples? The most delicas? Beads, in this sense, define social relationships, who’s more important than whom, and pathways of success.

About 400 years ago, among the Ogalala Sioux Indians in the Dakotas, there was a big women’s movement. The women of this tribe wanted greater say and control over tribal matters, they saw an opportunity to assert themselves, which they did, and they won. This whole incident was oriented around beads.

So what happened four hundred years ago? You had French traders traveling through Canada, and coming down into the Dakotas. They brought with them these glass Trade Beads, and traded them for pelts. One of the major roles of women in Indian tribes was to make beads. They would spend all day, every day, making beads out of stones and wood and antlers and shells. When these French traders came with these pre-made beads, it freed up a lot of time. And in this one tribal group, the women took advantage of this free time, asserted themselves, and won.

One of the things the women did to mark their success was to change the costuming of the men. Before the movement, men wore beaded embroidery strips tacked down linearly along their sleeves. After the movement, the women tacked down only part of the embroidery strips – the rest allowed to flow out like ribbons. So when the men went off hunting or fighting or whatever they did, they wore the mark of the women – their ribbons would flow.

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The OGALALA SIOUX BUTTERFLY BRACELET

I suspect that the Ogalala Sioux Butterfly bracelet might have had a similar origin. Instead of flat, loomed-like bracelets, this bracelet had ruffles – another mark of the women. But a lot of the origins of things have been lost to history.

The Ogalala Butterfly bracelet from Horace Goodhue’s - thank God he wrote this book – Indian Bead-Weaving Patterns:

STEP 1: Cut a length of thread. Tie on one bead, then add more beads to the desired length of your bracelet. Tie off in a large circle.

STEP 2: Go on around the circle again, this time going through each 3rd bead. Add 3 new beads each time.

STEP 3: Go around the circle again. Go through the middle beads of the previous “3’s” while adding 5 new beads each time.

STEP 4: Go around the circle again. (Last time, promise). Go through the middle beads of the “5’s”. Here you would add 7 new beads each time.

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These French Traders continued their explorations down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. They discovered the freshwater pearl cultures of the Mississippi Indians in the area around Tennessee, and traded beads for these pearls which they sent back to Europe. These freshwater pearls soon earned the name “Royal Pearls”, and were restricted for use and wear by the royalty across Europe. Even today, royal families continue to import Tennessee freshwater pearls. They have these sewn into their undergarments. After all, it’s widely believed that wearing a pearl against your skin ensures your future wealth. And who knows, it might protect you against stampeding Rogue Elephants, as well. Or at least help you better manage situations like this.

And, I always wondered if you could speculate why the Indians sided with the French in the French and Indian Wars, against the British. Could it have been that the French supplied them with beads, and the British did not?

SOMETIMES BEADS ARE USED FOR SPIRITUAL AND RELIGIOUS REASONS

Sometimes, beads are used for Spiritual and Religious Reasons. You can picture a rosary in the Catholic Church. By touching and moving your hand along this bead chain, it helps you feel closer to God. It helps you feel more spiritual. It helps you remember the rituals. In Buddhism, they use something like a rosary. In Confucianism in China they use something like a rosary called Immortal Beads.

During the Middle Ages in Europe, only priests were allowed to wear rosaries and have beaded adornments. Priests had their parishioners make them rosaries and beaded this and beaded that. After awhile, the priests with the more rosaries and the more elaborate rosaries, gained higher status. So they kept accumulating, and accumulating, and accumulating, until, at one point, one of the Popes felt very threatened. Many priests were becoming as adorned as he was. So the Pope issued an edict that said everyone could wear rosaries and have beaded adornments. The fact that you can wear beaded jewelry today, instead of making them for your priest or minister or rabbi or imam or whatever, goes back to the insecurity of one of those Popes.

BEADS – JUST TO MAKE YOURSELF LOOK MORE BEAUTIFUL

Another reason people use beads is for reasons of Adornment – just to make yourself look more beautiful. Among the Ndebele Tribe in South Africa – (you may know these women as those that use metal rings to stretch their necks) – the women developed a very elaborate and beautiful stitch called the Ndebele Stitch – (some may know this as the Herringbone Stitch). Their only reason was to make themselves look more beautiful.

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An Ndebele Tube

This is one of my favorite variations on the Ndebele Stitch that can easily be adapted for a bracelet or a necklace. This is based on an excellent bracelet pattern called “Foursquare Bracelet” by www.ThatBeadLady.com.

Here I merely focus on the Ndebele netting pattern with the stitch. The stitch is tubular, and you end up with a flat tube – a thick rectangular structure. I prefer to use FireLine (a cable thread), size D as the stringing material. FireLine works wonderfully with the Ndeble Stitch, in that this stitch tends to be very loose, and the FireLine, for some reason, let’s you more easily keep a tighter tension on the beads, as you are working through the pattern.

Materials:3mm or 4mm Japanese Miyuki cube beadsSize 11/0 Miyuki seed beadsFireLine Size DSize #10 English Beading NeedlesWork surface

Step 1: o o [ ] o o [ ]1 2 3 4 5 6

With your needle, pick up 2 seed beads, 1 cube bead, 2 seed beads and 1 cube bead.Make a loop by returning through seed bead #1 then through the rest of the beads and out cube bead #6.

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You end up like this:oo[][]oo

Your needle/thread is exiting bead 6, which is a cube bead.

Step 2: Pick up 2 more seed beads and 1 cube bead. Make a back-return loop by going through seed bead #4, #5 and cube #6, then up through your 2 new seed beads and 1 new cube.

Steps 3 and onward. Repeat this pattern until you’ve achieved the length you want. Add 2 seed beads and 1 cube, make a back-return loop, coming up and out through your 3 new beads. And again.

o o [ ]

[ ] o o

o o [ ]

[ ] o o

Step 4: Add 3 more rows of beads, fold in half, and stitch together to form a flat tube. So, you would end your first row, so that the thread is exiting a cube. Add 2 seed beads and 1 cube, bring the thread all the way down through the first row, and loop all the way back up so your thread is exiting the next cube on the first row. Add 2 seed beads and 1 cube, and so forth.

o o [ ] o o Add 2 seed beads (A, B) and 1 cube (C) A B

[ ] o o [ ] Flip cube down, and Loop thread back through first row C coming out the cube on the left.

o o [ ] Bring thread back up through 2 seed beads and cube. Add 2 seed beads and 1 cube

[ ] o o

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o o [ ]

[ ] o o

So, you’ll end up with something like this pattern:

oo[]oo[]oo[][]oo[]oo[]oooo[]oo[]oo[][]oo[]oo[]oooo[]oo[]oo[][]oo[]oo[]oooo[]oo[]oo[][]oo[]oo[]oo

LAST, BEADS ARE USED FOR PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION

Last, beads are sometimes used for Communication. They are used symbolically. Different colors have different meanings. Different patterns have different meanings. Different shapes have different meanings.

Among the Zulu Tribes in South Africa during Apartheid, you had some Zulu tribes who adopted Christianity and identified with the colonialists. And you had other tribes that did not. Among the tribes that did not, they developed a very elaborate communication system using beads. Besides what colors were next to each other, they used a lot of triangles in their patterns. It was important if the triangle faced down, or up, and again what the colors were.

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SPEAKING WITH BEADS. Zulu Arts from Southern Africa. by J. (photographs), E. Whyte. Morris New York , 1994 

These folks might bead a necklace, or a loin-cloth. They might do a beaded doll, or a hat, or a blanket or tapestry. Something beaded. They would come out during the day, and flash the results of their secrecy, plotting and chicanery. They might say something very general with their beadwork, like “I’m mad at the world today”. Or they might get very specific, such as “I’d like to get together with you tomorrow night at 8:00, but not before I’ve met with your brother.”

These Zulu tribes kept up this communication system for about 70-80 years – all during Colonialism and Apartheid. When Apartheid ended, no one carried on the tradition. Not a complete surprise. Today Zulu beadwork is very fashionable, particularly in Europe. But no one knows what they are saying. They are just doing pretty patterns.

Beading in the United States TodayA Social Movement Dating Back to the 1960s

Today, beading in the United States has been part of an ever-growing social movement that began in the 1960s, and, whether you know it or not, you are caught up in it, even unto today. In the early 1960s, two new stringing materials were developed and introduced to beading. The first – NYMO Thread – was a nylon thread created by the shoe industry to attach the bottom of the shoe to the top of the shoe. This is widely used in upholstery. The second was called Tiger Tail. This was a flexible, nylon-coated cable wire. Cable wires are wires that are braided together and encased in nylon.

Before the 1960s, there really wasn't a durable stringing material. People mostly used either cotton or silk thread, or nylon fishing line. Cotton and silk thread naturally

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deteriorate in about 3-5 years, so anything done on these has to be re-done every 3-5 years. Fishing line dries out and cracks when exposed to ultraviolet light and heat.

Because there was not a durable stringing material, beading, for the most part historically, was viewed as just a home craft. It did not attract artists. It did not attract fine craftspersons. It did not attract academics. It did not encourage people to experiment and push the envelop with the craft. And it made it much more difficult to even consider and contemplate and suggest a strategy for beading Rogue Elephants.

While occasionally in history, if you look back, you do see elaborate bead work, such as Russian bead embroidery during the 1800s and French beaded purses in the 1920's, -- this intricate beadwork was most often done by people who were slaves, or serfs or indentured servants. When they were freed, their beadwork stopped or diminished. So, when the Czar was deposed at the turn of the century, there began a major decline in Russian bead embroidery. Or when France passed labor laws in the 1930’s, there were no more beaded purses. A rational person doesn't want to spend all that money on beads, and all that time making something, if it is going to fall apart.

With the introduction of Nymo and Tiger Tail in the 1960s -- materials that do not break down easily -- beading began to attract academics and artists and fine craftspersons. This movement began in Southern California, and gradually spread across the country. The first bead society was founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s. Today there are over 200 bead societies across the United States. The explosion in the availability of bead magazines didn’t begin until the latter part of the 1990s. The fact that you can get very excited about beads today, even thinking about selling jewelry made with them – 40 years ago, you wouldn’t have had those thoughts.

Beading has a very different energy and dynamic than a lot of other crafts, because it is only very recently begun to be thought of as an art form.

Not All Beads Are Alike

Beads are made in many countries around the world, but few are made in the United States. Making beads is a difficult task. Bead-making is often done by workers who are exploited in some way, and this is a reality of the craft.

Not all beads are useful for all projects. Beads come in all levels of quality and sophistication. Knowing which beads to select for your project, -- whether you want to bead a Rogue Elephant, or not -- given your design and/or marketing goals, is a key skill every beader needs to learn.

The easiest ways to know a lot about the quality of a bead (or other jewelry part or finding) is to know what country it has been made in.

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[NOTE: Increased Globalization these days tends to blur geographical boundaries. What’s labeled “Made in Germany” might actually be manufactured in Pakistan. Austrian Crystal and Murano Glass might originate in China. Bali Silver might begin its creation in India or Turkey. Yet we still associate our understanding of “quality” by the country label stamped on the beads packaging, where we assume, that the primary “country” on the label of the product maintains its sense of quality standards, no matter where the product has actually been produced. So crystal labeled “Austrian” that was actually manufactured in China would have the higher qualities associated with Austria; whereas, crystal labeled “Chinese” and manufactured in China would have the lower qualities associated with China.

The journal of a glass bead might transverse 5 or 6 countries before it ended up on the retail shelf. One country might make a core bead. It may go to another country to do some shaping. Still another country to do some finishing. Yet another country for some coloration. And yet one more country to apply a special coloration effect. And, yes, still yet another country to get packaged up as retail-ready.]

I'm going to focus on glass beads, and try to give you a sense of what “quality” means. My descriptions are broad generalizations, but will give you a good grounding in quality issues and considerations.

Picture in your mind a strand of 8mm round glass beads. We will call these “large” beads, as opposed to the “small” seed beads we’ll cover later in this segment. For our purposes here, it does not matter what color or finish these beads are, only that they are glass, are round, and that we’re looking at several of them that are supposed to be the same bead, typically on a strand.

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CZECH GLASS: If these 8mm round glass beads had been made in The Czech Republic, we'd give them a grade of "B". We would consider the price to be above average, by a good typical benchmark for quality jewelry.

NOTE: The “grade” and “price” refers to beads (and other components) for jewelry making purposes. The quality of the pieces you would use in making jewelry have to be of a much higher quality than those you would use in something stationery, like a beaded Christmas ornament. All jewelry moves. This puts a tremendous amount of pressure and force on each component. So they have to be a higher quality. My reference in our discussions in on jewelry.

These 8mm round Czech glass beads would be considered "generally perfectly round." They are not perfectly round, but close.

The beads on a strand from bead to bead are pretty much the same size and shape. They are not really the exact size and shape, just close.

The manufacturer produces thousands of beads, basically one at a time. At the point they are ready to get strung up as strands, they are piled in up into a huge pyramid on a table. Someone, usually a woman, sits there all day and eyeballs them and sorts them by quality. She separates the A-quality from the B-quality. B-quality beads may have some flat sides, the color may not fill the entire bead, the holes may have chips or other problems, the shape might be somewhat distorted. For the A-quality, she chooses which

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ones are similar enough to be included on the same strand. This process of selection is less important for the B-quality beads.

The Czech beads have a good size hole. The holes from bead to bead on a strand are pretty much the same size.

These holes would be called "generally smooth". This is a marketing term. The hole of a bead is not very smooth. Instead it looks like a broken soda bottle. If I took a soda bottle and smashed it on the edge of a table, this jagged rim would be what the hole looked like -- rough, jagged edges, potential to cut your stringing material. Because you cannot see this roughness with your naked eye, marketers can get away with calling these holes "generally smooth". However, you always have to worry about the holes of your beads cutting your stringing materials.

One last point. The Czechs use colored glass, so if the bead scratched or chipped, it would be the same color on the inside.

JAPANESE GLASS: If these 8mm round beads had been made in Japan, we'd give them a grade of "A". The Japanese beads would cost about 3-5 times that of the Czech beads.

These beads would be "generally perfectly round". They would not be perfectly round, but would be rounder than the Czech beads.

The beads on a strand would be very similar in size and shape, though not exactly the same size and shape.

These would have good hole sizes, and the hole sizes would be consistent from bead to bead on the strand.

These holes would be called “smooth”, and you would primarily be paying for a smoother hole.

The Japanese also use colored glass, so if your bead scratched or chipped, it would be the same color on the inside.

CHINESE GLASS: These round 8mm glass beads could also have been made in China. We would give these beads a "D" or an "F". They would be 1/2 or less in cost than the Czech beads.

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These beads would be "generally perfectly round".

The hole sizes would be a good size hole and consistent along the strand from bead to bead.

We would call these holes "generally smooth", meaning they look like a broken coke bottle. The holes would be a little rougher than the Czech beads.

The problem with the Chinese beads is that they tend to use clear beads and colored coatings. The coatings will chip off, and your beads will all-too-quickly look like chipped nail polish.

[Since 2005, the Czechs have gotten very much into coatings, as well. Their finishes seem more reliable, but will still have the issues of chipping off the core bead. But the coating technology keeps improving. For the Czechs, this has opened up great possibilities in color combinations and effects. The Czechs use their coated beads to supplement and complement their regular line of beads. ]

[NOTE: The best gemstone beads come from China. China gets A+ for gemstones. Their higher quality gemstone beads tend to be higher priced than gemstone beads from other countries. While India is catching up in quality and selection, they still have a ways to go. What I tend to like about the Chinese gemstone beads is that they are more careful in how they drill the holes. They know how to avoid the fracture lines in the stone, so that when finished jewelry is subjected to all the forces of movement and wear, they hold up well, and don’t break. Chinese beads have clean holes, and rarely have any cracks or wear at the hole. Chinese beads, when treated with dyes, heat, radiation, polishes and the like, seem more durable, and less affected by sunlight, water, detergents and general wear. I usually try to avoid the beads from India, particularly the treated ones, but they are a lot less expensive. ]

INDIA GLASS: As a last example, we can picture these same 8mm round beads beads as if they were made in India. Here, we would give these beads an "F minus minus minus minus". These beads would be a fraction of the cost of the Czech beads.

These beads would not be perfectly round.

Some holes would be OK, some too small, some too large.

These holes would be called "rough". They can’t get away with marketing because your eye can see how rough these are.

While the Indians are beginning to adapt some of the Chinese production techniques, such as colored coatings and decals, for the most part today, you can assume that they

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have used colored glass, so if their beads scratched or chipped, they would be the same color on the inside.

So Many Beads, So Little Time, Which Ones Do I Choose?

This doesn't mean you can allow your Rogue Elephant, should you bead her, to be too picky and snooty about which beads you use. Nor does it mean that you never use beads from India and China and only use beads from the Czech Republic or Japan. You always relate your choice of bead to what you’re trying to do – that is, your design goals, (and if you are selling things, to your marketing goals, as well).

For example, if you are making Fashion Jewelry, the Indian beads might be your best choice. This type of jewelry is often worn only once or twice and thrown away. Not only would the Indian beads be your best choice because they are cheap; their irregularly gives them a funky look, and this works hand in hand with Fashion jewelry. The Chinese beads would be OK because they are cheap, but there’s nothing funky about them. They look very machine made.

If you were making an heirloom bracelet, and the person you made it for was going to wear it a lot, put it away, give it to their granddaughter or niece, and that person was not going to wear it, then the Czech beads might be your best choice. If the granddaughter or niece was, in fact, going to wear this heirloom bracelet, then, from a design stand-point, the Japanese beads might be your best choice.

From a marketing stand-point, however, if you were selling this piece, you might have to back down to the Czech beads. Say you presented your customer with a choice between a Czech-based heirloom bracelet and one Japanese-based bracelet, and the former might sell for $100 and the latter for $400. Four hundred dollars is a hard sell. To your customer, both bracelets would look exactly the same. The things that are different are either things they can’t see, or things that may not happen for 30 or 40 years.

So, in beading, nothing is perfect. Your Rogue Elephant should know this. At least should accept these facts: There is no perfect bead for every situation. No perfect clasp. No perfect stringing material. Everything involves making choices and trade-offs and judgment calls. The more you understand the quality of the pieces you are using, and the clearer you are about your design goals (and if you’re selling your stuff, your marketing goals as well), the more prepared you’ll be to make these kinds of choices. Yes, better prepared to make choices. That’s why you need an Orientation.

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ELEPHANT HERDS FOUND ON ISOLATED SUDANESE ISLANDMay, 2007, Newswire

International wildlife experts spotted hundreds of wild elephants on a treeless island in the swamps of southern Sudan. Experts speculate that these elephants fled war-torn areas of Sudan. The wars have been going on for over 20 years.

Environmentalists are keeping the location of this island secret.

The presence of elephants in southern Sudan is virtually unheard of. It’s not a good habitat for them.

Making Beads

Pressed Glass. There are many ways to make glass beads. The major way of making glass beads by machine is called “Pressed Glass” – basically molding them.

To oversimplify things, to make a round bead in pressed glass, you would fill two half cups with molten glass and then press them together. At the point they’ve been pressed together, this sometimes leaves a ridge, and sometimes a color change. While they are supposed to tumble the beads to smooth out the ridge, sometimes this ridge can be very pronounced. With the color change, sometimes this looks like a natural part of the bead; othertimes, it’s hideous.

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Whenever you buy a strand of beads, you need to examine all the beads on the strand, to make sure you can live with what you’re buying. You especially want to look at the equator or belly to be sure there are no ridges or hideous discolorations. You want to be sure there are no flat spots where none should be. That the shape of the bead is perfect and consistent from bead to bead on the strand. That the coloration is full and complete within each bead. And that the holes are drilled cleanly – that is, no chips around the holes of the beads, and that the holes have been drilled as a straight channel.

The actual process of pressing glass into beads: The bead presser sits in front of a fiery kiln, with many rods of colored glass next to him. The tips of these rods are resting in the kiln, to make them soft. A die press (like two cookie cutters vertically hurling towards each other, then suddenly away again) is operating in front of the kiln, between the kiln and the bead presser. The bead presser grabs a rod, and moves the tip into the die press. The press stamps out the shape of a bead. Rods in the die press molds simultaneously create the hole. The presser continues to move the rod into the die press. Only a few beads can be pressed before the rod must be heated again. So the presser lays this rod next to him, with the tip in the kiln, and grabs another rod with a hot tip. The pressed glass cool as they slide into a holding container. The beads at this point are still connected to each other by the excess glass around the molded shape. The beads then get tumbled to break the beads apart from the rod. And they get tumbled again to smooth off the ridges. The quality of the beads relies mostly on the skill level of the master bead presser. These bead pressers vary widely in their craftsmanship.

Lampworking. The major way of making glass beads by hand is called “Lampworking.” It’s not the only way to make beads by hand, but it’s the major way. It’s called “Lampworking” because these beads were originally made over lamp flames. Another name for this is called “wound glass”, because you are winding glass around a steel rod, using the flame to soften the glass.

In lampworking, the bead artist sits at a workbench. A torch is centered in front of him, with a flame shooting out away from him. [Not towards him.] He takes a steel rod called a “mandrel”, and turns the mandrel between the thumb and forefinger of each hand, each hand on either end of the mandrel. The flame is shooting out over the

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middle of this steel rod. The thickness of this rod becomes the thickness of the hole of the bead.

Around the artist are many glass rods, each a different color. He usually starts with a clear rod. He puts the tip of the clear rod in the flame, and melts the glass onto the mandrel. Now if he takes the mandrel too far from the flame, or stops turning the mandrel, the glass at this point is like water, and it would drop to the table. So he basically has to keep turning. It takes about 40 minutes to do a ¾’ to 1” bead with some decoration on it. [So now you feel his pain and feel sorry for him.]

He keeps on layering the glass on the mandrel while turning it between his thumbs and forefingers on either end. He’ll stop for a few seconds. Then he might take a blue rod, and melt a dot of blue onto the glass. And then keep turning. Briefly he’ll stop again. He will take what looks like a dental tool, and pull at the blue dot, then keep turning. This is called raking. Then he’ll stop a few more seconds, and rake some more. This is how you begin to do a pattern or a picture.

Then, when the bead is built up the way the artist wants, he takes the mandrel with the hot bead on it, and puts this all into a hot kiln, and lets it cool, usually overnight. It’s critical in lampworking that the outside of the bead, and the inside of the bead, cool down at the same rate. If it doesn’t cool down at the same rate, the bead will fracture. If the bead fractures, it means the bead will break. It may break in the kiln. It may break when you take it out. It may take a week. It may take a month. It may take a year before it will break, but it will break.

In our shop, we carry lampwork beads from many countries, including India, China, Indonesia, Venice, the Czech Republic and the United States. In lampworking price-wise, you can get low-end (inexpensive) or high-end (expensive), but no in-between. Either the bead has been annealed (cooled down) correctly and will not break, or it hasn’t and it will. As a designer, this creates some hard choices for you. In India, they don’t worry about the cooling down process, and there are a few other craftsmanship issues, so all their beads will eventually break. Most of the India lampwork glass are copies of famous Venetian lampwork beads. Venice is top of the line for lampworking.

One raised flower rose bead with aventurine detail, and about 1”, might be $2.00 retail for the India “imitation” bead, and $20.00 retail for the Venetian original. If a person wants a necklace with a hand-made look, and is only going to wear that piece occasionally over the next year or two, then the India bead will be fine. If someone wants a more investment quality piece, then most people can’t afford a whole necklace of quality lampwork beads. You would be looking at a $600-800.00 necklace. So, often, with top quality lampwork beads, you might use just one, or say three beads, and either have a lot of cord showing, or use a lot of spacer beads.

One of our students had lived in Venice for a long time. She said that a lot of what you see in the souvenir stores there that is labeled “Venetian” is actually from India. There’s a real easy test. If I took the bead from India and dropped it on the floor, it would break.

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If I took the bead from Venice and dropped it on the floor, it may or may not chip. Great test!

One more point here, then I’ll continue on. Also on the low-end are lampwork beads from Indonesia, China and Taiwan. What I like about these lampwork beads is that they copy more American styles, rather than the old-world Venetian styles of the India glass. But remember, lampworking in these countries also have similar craftsmanship issues of cooling down and the like. These beads also chip and break easily.

[NOTE: In the 2010’s, India started producing these American-style lampwork beads, as well.]

GLASS or PLASTIC?If you want to determine if a bead is glass or plastic, click it on your front teeth.

If it’s glass, the click sound will be sharp.

If it’s plastic, the click sound will be dull, more thud-like.

GLASS or GEMSTONE?Gemstones are cold to the touch. Glass takes on the temperature of the room around it.

A lot of synthetic gemstones (usually, glass), will not be cold to the touch.

REAL or FAUX PEARL?Rub the bead on your front teeth. Faux pearls will be smooth. However, you’ll feel some bumps with real pearls, because the surface is not perfectly smooth.

Also, look at the hole. On many faux pearls, the coating is chipped or pulling back a little at the hole. Real pearls don’t have this problem.

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Druks and Fire Polish Beads

I wanted to give you, at this point in our safari pathway, a couple of terms for beads. The first is “Druk”. Druk means plain, smooth, roundish. Not necessarily just round. Roundish. You can have a round Druk, a Druk rondelle, an egg-shaped Druk. If you’re looking for a plain jane kind of glass bead, usually the word Druk will get you the furthest.

The opposite of Druk is called “Fire Polish”. Fire Polish beads have at least one slice or facet on it. Fire Polish beads start as smooth round beads and facets are grinded into them in a faceting machine. The faceted surfaces and edges can be splintery and sharp. So before these glass beads can be used, these surfaces and edges need to be smoothed out. One way this is done is to run the bead back and forth in a flame or a very hot oven so the surfaces melt, thus “fire-polishing”. So you can have a round Fire Polish bead. A teadrop Fire Polish bead. A 5-sided Fire Polish bead. An 8-sided Fire Polish bead. A Fire Polish rondelle. If you’re looking for a faceted, dressier look, then usually the words “Fire Polish” will get you the furthest.

Now on some beads, there is a special coloration finish called an “Effect”. The most common is an AB effect. AB stands for Aurora Borealis. The AB effect looks like a rainbow or oil slick. This effect appears on just one side of the bead – it doesn’t go all the way around.

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There are many ways to make this effect on the glass, and the technology is always changing and evolving – mostly to keep the costs down. Typically on glass beads, a chemical is applied to one side of the bead, and then the bead is subjected to some source of heat and pressure. The chemical explodes on the glass, adheres to the glass, and creates a certain coloration. The effect is typically “fired” on the bead; it is not typically a coating. The fired finish is more durable. There are about 40 different coloration effects – such as celsian, azuro, zairit, valentinit, clarit, vega, ½ silver, ½ gold, ½ copper, among others -- , and new ones invented frequently. But most often, all you see is the AB effect.

Now, they do create this where it goes all the way around the glass. To go all the way around the glass, they have to repeat the production process twice. When the effect goes all the way around the glass, the color is called AB AB or FULL AB. If we are talking about color names, the color name for black is “jet.” With no effect the color would be called “jet.” With the effect on one side, “jet AB.” With the effect all the way around, “jet AB AB.” [On crystal beads, the shortform color name would be “jet 2X.”]

Over time, this AB effect will begin to scratch and eventually wear off. On most quality beads, this usually takes a long time. Occasionally this happens more quickly than you would like. If this is critical to you and your piece, you’ll want to experiment with your beads before you use them. Take one bead and see how easy it is to scratch off with your fingernail. On some Chinese beads, I think they spray it on, because I can flick it off with my fingernails.

Sometimes the word “Rainbow” is used to denote the AB effect. Sometimes this word is used to denote a similar but different effect called “iris”.

Druks and Fire Polish beads are measured in “millimeters”. Typically, these are available in 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, and 12mm. Less common are 5mm, 7mm, 9mm and sizes larger than 12mm.

Rulers are marked in inches on one side and millimeters on the other. There are 25mm in an inch. Thus 6mm would be approximately 1/4 inches.

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The Martha Stewart Wreath

In 1999, Martha Stewart, on her TV show, demonstrated how to make a Christmas Wreath, using round druk beads. And she started an avalanche of orders. Her powers to send millions of women to their bead stores is enormous. So big, in fact, that it is difficult to visualize. With this project, there were not enough red druk beads in the entire world to fill the demand.

This first year saw over 2800 orders. We were able to fill about 1700 of them before the beads started running out. In both 1999 and 2000, (and now the instructions also had been published in a Martha Stewart Christmas Projects book), our suppliers ran out of the 10mm size druks around October, and we were unable to fill orders past the first few days of December.  The 10mm beads started coming back in stock in February or March.    The 12mm size ran out soon after, but wasn’t available again until much later.

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Traditionally, there has never been a large supply of larger beads -- 10mm and 12mm -- in any color, because the main purpose of beads is to be used in jewelry, and these larger sizes tend to be heavy, and usually not in style. When a particular bead in size and color runs out, it usually takes 3 or more months before it is back in stock. This is because these beads come from the Czech Republic and must be imported, and also because every color, type and size of bead is not always in production all the time. Beads are usually produced from lightest to darkest. That is, they try to make clear and light colors first in the kiln, and gradually over the course of a few months make darker and darker beads. In this way, they can use the kiln for the longest period of time before having to clean it out.

Martha Stewart provided one set of directions in 1999, and a new set of directions in 2000.   In both, we believe she underestimated the number of beads needed, so with some interpretation, your two design choices are:

a.  300 each of 6mm, 8mm and 10mm for a 10-inch wreath (the original 1999 version)

b.  200 each of 6mm, 8mm, 10mm and 12mm for an 8-inch wreath (the new 2000 version)

We have a personal preference for choice "a".

Colors:   Ruby (also called Siam) is the color of choice.    For a contrast, either Red Opal or Garnet will work.

Red is one of the most expensive colors to make, so there are few color choices in this area for the druk line of round beads. Many of the reds that exist are very close in color in this particular bead, so do not provide much if any contrast. We offer ruby (also called siam), and suggest either garnet (very dark, almost black), and/or red opal (a translucent red), as workable contrasting or complimentary colors. There is a cherry red, but this doesn't have the same effect as the transparent and translucent colors. We used to offer light siam as well, but there is no discernable difference in color between this and the regular siam in the druk line of beads. There is also a dark ruby (or dark siam, sometimes called light garnet) which we do not offer. Again, there is some, but not much color variation between the dark ruby and the regular ruby in the druk line of beads.

Using 4mm beads, such as in a 4-6-8mm configuration, doesn't work very well. It doesn't look realistic enough.

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NOTE:  It is also important to get your styrofoam wreath form.   Stores run out of these as well.    Try these types of places:   Wal-Mart, K-Mart, craft stores, floral shops and floral supply places.     We prefer the 10-inch wreath that is a half dome in shape.   On this wreath, you only cover the domed part, not the back of the wreath.   You can also use a completely round (tube) wreath, which you would cover entirely with beads.  

Crystal Beads

Crystal is glass with lead in it. The more lead you put into the glass, the brighter the glass is. Lead causes health effects. If you looked at glass under a microscope, it would look like a sponge. Basically anything you put into glass, like lead or a dye, will leach out when the glass gets wet, such as when washing or sweating.

The negative health effects of lead result from an accumulation of lead in your body. It doesn’t really leave your body once there. The major way lead gets into your body is ingestion – through the mouth – but it can be absorbed through the skin. So, for jewelry, there is some concern with the older leaded crystal when it touches the skin, or when your hands touch the jewelry and you touch them to your mouth, or you put the jewelry in your mouth. The U.S. has done an incredible job of reducing lead exposure to the general population, but we still have some concerns with the older crystal beads.

The international community started regulating the amount of lead in glass crystal around 1970. They didn’t take it all out, or a big amount all at once. They’ve gradually reduced the amount of lead in crystal. Supposedly, the amount of lead in crystal today is an acceptable risk. They can’t take it all out because then there would be no crystal, and the world would fall apart.

It turns out, as you go back in time, there is more and more lead in crystal. The barrier to putting lead in crystal before regulation was the price of the lead, and lead always went up in price. So there’s more lead in the 1950’s than the 1960’s; more in the 1940’s than the 1950’s; more in the 1930’s than the 1940’s; and so forth. The crystal beads today

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seem very bright and attractive, but if you held them up next to beads from the 1930’s and 1920’s, the newer ones would look dull and uninteresting like plastic. If you are re-working old jewelry or working with old beads, ideally, you would want to either make things so they are worn over cloth, or put non-crystal beads on either side of your crystal ones, so they are raised above the skin.

Crystal beads are very, very popular. People really value that brightness. They are more expensive than regular glass, but not that much more expensive. These beads are always in high demand. They are always in short supply. The market for distributing and selling these beads is a bit screwy.

And this is the kind of bead that businesses actively try to scam their customers on. I want to give you a sense of what those scams are, and what questions to ask.

SCAM #1: Selling You New Stuff, But Labeling It As Old

The older crystal has much more lead in it, so is considerably brighter and more attractive. Way back when there were some very interesting colors, coloration effects and faceting effects, that only recently have been duplicated or equaled. But they can’t duplicate the brightness. The brightness results from the lead content, not the faceting. Almost all the old stuff has been collected up, so people are not used to seeing it, and seeing any comparisons between old and new. The new stuff looks bright and appealing. People are generally trusting, so it’s easy to get away with.

So you can go into jewelry stores, bead stores, antique stores, estate sales, flea markets, on-line, and see a lot of new stuff getting labeled as old. The old stuff is much more valuable and collectible. If you held the new stuff up next to the old stuff, it would tend to look like plastic.

You won’t be carrying around with you a color chart that shows you color brightness by year of manufacture. But there’s a pretty easy test. If someone says something is old – an old piece of jewelry, or a bag of old beads, hold out your hand straight ahead of you and into the air, and tell them to put it into your hand. If it’s old, your hand will drop. Even if it’s from 1970, your hand will drop. You’re just not used to how heavy things were, when they had a lot of lead in them. When you get back to the 1920’s, each bead is like a lead pellet. One bead will make your hand drop.

If you hand doesn’t drop, then maybe it’s not as old as they are saying, or maybe it’s new.

SCAM #2: Selling You Stuff From A Country Other-Than-Austria, But Telling You It’s Austrian

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Just like the Druks and Fire Polish beads, crystal beads are made in many, many countries. Beads from different countries vary in quality, and again knowing what country they come from tells you about the quality and value. The scam here is selling you something from a lower quality country, and telling you it’s Austrian (the highest valued country). They either say they are going to give you a discount on the Austrian, or they pocket the difference.

Swarovski is a company based in Austria that makes the highest quality crystal, and the most expensive. They were the first company to make these, they have the best equipment, and are viewed as top of the line. While Swarovski has offices all over the world, they make these in Austria, (though we know today a lot of production is in China). There are other companies in Austria that either distribute these beads, or turn them into other kinds of jewelry components, but do not make these beads.

Another major source of crystal beads is The Czech Republic. A major Czech crystal manufacturer is Precosia. Czech crystal usually runs about 10-15% less in cost than the Austrian. Some similarities and differences: Both the Czechs and the Austrians use the highest amount of lead allowed at any one time, so their beads are equally as bright.

The Austrians have a cultural preference for very sharp facets. The facets on these beads are so sharp that jewelry made with them can scratch the skin. The Czechs have a cultural preference for smoother facets. To the Austrians, the sharper facets make the beads look more like real diamonds. To the Czechs, smoother facets do. Americans seem to prefer the sharper facets. Remember, it’s primarily the lead that gives these pieces their brightness, not the faceting. The Czechs have been moving to sharper facets to compete with the Austrians.

The Austrians start with a more intense color palette, and reinforce that intensity through slight modifications in the shape of the bead. You can see this best in the bi-cone, which they make a little less symmetrical and a little more saucer like. This affects how the light refracts through the glass, thus increasing the color intensity.

The Czechs use what I call crayon colors. What’s nice here is that if you are looking for basic colors, like a red-red, or a green-green, you are more likely and more easily to find this color in the Czech line – even though Swarovski offers hundreds of color choices. For example, to get a red-red in the Swarovski line, you would get a red-orange.

The Austrian crystal beads tend to be slightly different in size, because of this shape difference, than advertised. So, if you were purchasing a 4mm bicone, the Austrian crystal is actually 3x4mm; the Czech crystal (and crystal from any other country other than Austria) is 4x4mm. Austrian bicones are smaller than the size you see on their label.

The size differences in the round shape are more difficult to spot. Swarovski also altered its round shapes slightly in the early 2000’s. An 8mm round crystal from any other

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country would be 8mm x 8mm. From Austria, the older ones are 8mm x 7.5mm. The newer ones are 8mm x 8.5mm. Again, the slightly altered shape changes the way the light refracts through the beads, and enhances the color’s intensity.

In the image below, both 4mm ruby AB bicones would be labeled the same size and color. Both have the same lead content, so they are equally as bright. The Czech color is less intense than the Austrian. The Czech bead is slightly larger and more symmetrical than the Austrian.

If you went into a store to buy 4mm Austrian crystal bicones, you won’t have a chart with you that shows you color intensity by country of manufacture. However, all you would have to do is pull off a strand of 4mm round druks off the wall, or ask to see some 4mm round sterling silver beads. If the 4mm crystal beads you are looking at are the same size as anything else that is 4mm, then the crystal beads are NOT from Austria. In the bicones, the Austrian will always be a different size than the label.

One woman who took one of my classes told the story where she had gone into a bead store she hadn’t been in before, to buy 5mm Austrian crystal bicones. The beads were smaller than 5mm, so she thought she was getting ripped off. She said she threw a temper tantrum, cursing out the store owner, and storming out. You see, it was the company she had been buying them from originally that was ripping her off. Theirs were 5mm.

One problem that people often have when they buy crystal beads from different sources is that many sources will label their crystal beads “Austrian”, but one might send you true Austrian, and another might send you Czech. There’s nothing wrong with Czech crystal. You are getting an equivalent product. The problem that arises is that the actual colors will be different, as will be the sizes and shapes. So, you can order 4mm ruby AB bicones from two sources, and if one sends you Austrian and the other sends you Czech, these will be so different from each other in color, size and shape, that they won’t mix in the same piece.

Another major source of crystal beads is China. While China is working on coming out with a line of crystal equivalent to Swarovski, most Chinese crystal you’ll find on the US market uses considerably less lead, thus is a lot less bright, and more unattractive. This

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Chinese crystal runs about 1/3 the price of the Austrian crystal. If you held this Chinese crystal up next to Austrian crystal, you would immediately notice that it is cloudier and less bright than the Austrian.

However, when people sell Chinese crystal, they don’t hold it up next to Austrian crystal. They hold it up next to glass. It’s much prettier than glass. Plus, they are in the business of marketing and displaying Chinese crystal so it looks great at the point of sale. If asked, I usually tell people not to buy this. At the point of sale, it’s cheap and it’s attractive. But when you take it home, you usually have nothing to mix it with. It’s too dull to mix with Austrian crystal; it’s too bright to mix with glass.

Suppose you are very familiar with the realities of the crystal market. Say you are in the business of selling eyeglass leashes, and that you had been using Austrian crystals in your leash, and having to sell them for $20.00. You have a brainstorm. If you substitute Chinese crystals for Austrian crystals, you’ll be able to sell your eyeglass leashes for $10.00, and become a millionaire.

With this particular type of bead, this relationship based on cost doesn’t really play out. People really value that brightness, and are willing to pay for it. Say I had an eyeglass leash done with Chinese crystals at $10.00 side by side with one done with Austrian crystals at $20.00. I’d sell more at $20.00. Say I had my Chinese one alone. I wouldn’t sell that many more at $10.00, based on a cost projection, because people come to the situation with an expectation about brightness. People shop around. People go to Macy’s and look at tennis bracelets, and they go to Wal-Mart and look at tennis bracelets. They see and know the difference, and they bring this understanding with them to any purchasing situation.

With Chinese crystal, you are definitely getting an inferior product. But how do you know what you’re buying? I’ve been in many bead stores, bead shows, on-line, and seen many people selling Other-Than-Austrian crystal, but having this labeled as Austrian.

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SCAM #3: Selling You Grade “B” as Grade “A”

Crystal in the market can be sorted into two groupings, though they are rarely labeled as such. Grade “A” is perfect. Grade “B” may or may not have scratches and chips. This works like clothing and “irregulars.” Grade “B” comes from many sources. Stores that have these loose in a tray may be selling them out, and they’ve gotten bumped up and bruised in the trays. Some people cannibalize old jewelry. Distributors and manufacturers sell off cartons that have gotten roughed up somehow, through dropping cases, moving and the like.

These beads are so bright that it is difficult to examine them for scratches and chips over a long time without hurting your eyes. The only yellow flag that I can suggest is that, if you see these crystal beads getting sold on strands, I’d be more suspicious. When crystal beads come to a store, they come loose in an envelop. If you see them on strands, that means that someone had to pay someone to strand them.

A good reason to put them on strands is that they sell better on strands. But you can only do so many strands in an hour, so the price of these would reflect that extra effort.

Usually when I’ve seen grade B sold as grade A, they’ve been on strands. So I’d suggest examining the beads a little more closely, if you buy them on strands.

The reason so many businesses actively try to scam their customers on crystal beads, is that it’s easy to get away with. Customers are often in a frenzy to get beads which are always in short supply. There can be a lot of wheeling and dealing when distributors sell crystal beads, so often there is not a clear and strong relationship between the price and the cost of these beads. A small retail store may have an incredibly great price, and a national distributor might have an average price. Not all the distributors carry all the colors and all the sizes and all the shapes. Often, people, while on vacation, will see some color or shape at a local bead store, and assume they can find the same thing when they get back home. There are often notorious and seemingly unexplainable shortages of certain colors or shapes.

And Swarovski, in the 2000’s, began rebranding their crystal products as “Crystallized”, which only muddied the water more. You can’t trademark an adjective. What began happening is that many crystal producers and distributors around the world began re-naming themselves “Crystallized”-something. One Chinese company became “Chwarovski.” In January, 2010, Swarovski returned to “Swarovski”, dropping “crystallized.”

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When People Get Started…

A woman from New York once came into our Nashville store to buy beads. She was curious about what classes we offer, and I told her we have our students start with our Orientation. She very pointedly told me that she was a “Designer from New York. We already know these things.” I tried to explain what we cover in this class, but could not get a word in edgewise. So when I checked her out, I rang up her $50-75 strands of gemstone beads, her $45.00 of assorted metalized plastic and plated aluminum beads, her 3 rolls of .012” thick Tiger Tail cable wire, a package of silver plated bead tips, and silver-plated pot metal lobster claws. She made some comments to her friend about how she always uses sterling silver components and the best stringing wire. My lips remained closed. Obviously, she was clue-less about the qualities of the items she purchased. I took her credit card, charged off her purchase, and out the door she went. To New York. One of New York’s finest jewelry designers. I’m sure.

I tried to talk this other woman out of using Tiger Tail cable wire, and moving up to Flex wire. Tiger Tail – the original flexible, nylon coated cable wire, and now the low-end product, is what she had learned with in her first and only class she had taken at Michael’s Craft Store. She was purchasing Austrian Crystals, and both their price and hole sharpness, I felt, were not compatible with the Tiger Tail wire. She literally was too afraid to switch from what she had learned.

Another woman tried to register for my Jewelry Design I class, without having taken any of the 3 prerequisite classes to this one, including our Orientation. I had asked her if she had taken any other more theoretical classes elsewhere. She didn’t appreciate my asking. She felt she was an accomplished jewelry designer at this point in time. She listed many classes taken at other bead shops, but all of them were project-based. No theory, and here she wanted to step into an advanced theory class. I thought she would be wasting her money, because many of the concepts would be unfamiliar, and she would not have any previous learning to anchor them to.

I suggested she begin with our Orientation. This only made her more incensed. She was personally insulted. A week later, she came in with $100.00 of beads and findings that she had previously purchased here. She wanted her money back. If I wasn’t willing to let her take the Jewelry Design I class, she wasn’t going to patronize our store. Moreover, she felt I had insulted all the teachers she had ever taken beading and jewelry making classes from. I tried to explain the differences, but to no avail. So I counted out the metalized plastic beads, and gold-plated head pins and eye pins, the gold filled beads, the gold-plated lobster claw clasps, the Tiger Tail cable wire and the Austrian crystals, and refunded her money back.

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I can tell that people need an Orientation, when their choice of parts, or strategies of assembly, are Clueless. Clueless. What goes with what how? People who bead and make jewelry need a little bit of motivation to want to learn how to answer this question.

But, for now, let’s continue getting Oriented….

Seed Beads and Delicas

There are big bead people and little bead people. Some bead stringers like to say, “The older the person, the bigger the beads,” but I’m sure bead weavers would beg to disagree. For little bead people, there are thousands of colors and hundreds of shapes and sizes of what we call Seed Beads. These little bead people bead-weave, bead-string, and wire-work for all kinds of folks, situations, and yes, elephants.

The basic shape of seed bead is what we call “roundish” or “squared round”. They are round in the middle and squared on the ends.

There are many other shapes in this family of seed beads. For each shape listed below, they also come in different sizes. These shapes include:

Cuts or Hex Cuts (seed beads that are cut from a six-sided hexagonal tube, rather than from a smooth cylinder)

Charlottes or True Cuts (single faceted roundish seed beads)NOTE: Charlottes are made this way. True Cuts are accidents at the factory where the

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regular squared roundish seed beads haven’t cooled appropriately, and get flat on the size they were resting on.

Tri-Cuts (3 and more facets on roundish seed beads)

Bugles (tube shape, available in several lengths and diameters)Twist Bugles and Twists (very short tubes with a twist in them)

Nibblettes (1-hole bead) or Tila Beads (2-hole bead) (flat rectangles)

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Cubes or Squares

TrianglesNOTE: In bead weavings, you can get a neat texture with the triangle – point / flat-surface / point / flat-surface/ point /flat-surface / etc.

Mini Fringe Drops or Raindrops (teardrops that are roundish, with a centered hole through the top)

Magatamas (teadrops that are more squarish, with an off-centered hole through the top)

Cylinder Beads (sometimes called by the major brand name which is Delica)

…among others…

Just like the Druks and Fire Polish beads, and the crystal beads, seed beads are made in different countries, and knowing what country they come from, tells you a lot about their quality and usefulness. While elephants don’t play and roam or rule the fields and savannahs of every country on earth – seed beads do.

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CZECH SEED BEADS: The Czech Republic is one of the major sources for glass seed beads. The Czech Seed Bead is your minimal quality seed bead for jewelry making purposes. Anything lower in quality is useless for jewelry. All jewelry moves when worn, and this movement subjects each component to tremendous forces. Lower quality seed beads can not hold up in the face of these forces. With lower quality seed beads, the holes are too sharp, the beads break easily under pressure, the finishes bleed into fabrics.

Thus, you need higher quality beads and other compoents for jewelry, than you would use for something stationery, like a beaded Christmas ornament.

So, I will give the Czech Seed Bead a grade of a “C”, and say that this is the lowest price you will pay, if you are using these for jewelry.

Most Czech seed beads come on hanks, and you usually buy these by the hank. You buy the whole hank. Hanks are usually 10-12 apprx 16”-strands tied off together; however, there is a lot of variation on what ends up getting tied together and labeled as a hank.

While most Czech seed beads on a hank are the same size, a sizeable number are not. If you are doing a pattern or a picture, you will either have to keep adding and subtracting beads as you go through the pattern, or you will have to cull all your beads up front so you are starting with the same sizes.

The hole size in these beads varies widely from bead to bead. The holes are too small to notice ahead of time. Many seed bead projects require that you go through the same bead with your needle and thread 5, 6, 7 or 8 or more times. If you can’t get that needle through one more time, often you are stuck. Sometimes you can compensate, but othertimes you just have to start over again.

These holes would be called “generally smooth”, but I think they are really pushing the marketing here. These holes are very rough.

You can have a high degree of trust on the finishes of these beads, but there are a sizeable number of colors that fade, bleed out or rub off.

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Seed bead systems are like paint by number systems. There are many, many colors. Some colors of beads are made through the manipulation and coloration of glass alone, But you can’t make every color in these paint-by-number type systems using glass alone. Some processes for creating a color, such as galvanized, coated, lined, some metallics or dyed, are not always stable. When working with seed beads, you end up learning what these unstable colors are. Sometimes, the problems result when the beads rub onto something else; othertimes, the finishes react with chemicals like oils, or ammonia or sulfides on the skin or in sweat; still othertimes, sunlight lightens or fades them. Many pinks, reds and purples, as well as unusually bright colors are problematic.

If working with unstable colors, what you do is you spray your finished project with a clear fixative called Krylon. You buy this in an art or craft store. If it’s a baked on finish, the Krylon hardens the shell. If a dyed finish – remember glass looks like a sponge – using the Krylon is like putting a plug in each of the holes to keep the dye from leaching out.

Another thing you can do is dip your finished piece in Future clear acrylic floor wax, and then air dry it. This will stiffen your piece a bit, but also protect the finishes on your beads.

You can use a sealant. You purchase this in the paint section, usually near the metallic paints, of an art or craft store. Sealants may alter the colors a bit, and leave your project glossier.

JAPANESE SEED BEADS: I would give the Japanese seed beads a grade of an “A”. You buy these “loose” rather than on “hanks”. We usually get a big bag of beads and we re-tube these in the shop. The Japanese seed beads run about 1/3 more in price than the Czech ones.

Most of the beads in the tube are the same size.

They have a good size hole. The hole from bead to bead is the same size.

These holes are called “generally smooth”, meaning they look like a broken coke bottle, but no where’s near as rough as the Czech ones.

You can have the same trust on the finishes of the Japanese as you do with the Czech. It’s pretty much those same colors that fade, bleed out or rub off. [Again, you would use a clear Krylon fixative spray.]

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The “DON’T-USE-THESE-SEED-BEADS-FROM-THESE-COUNTRIES” Beads: For jewelry you will definitely want to avoid using seed beads made in India, China, or Taiwan. These break easily, the finishes are very unreliable, hole sizes vary widely, holes are very sharp. These do not hold up well under the forces that jewelry is subjected to. They more easily discolor or bleed into fabrics.

Getting Started With Seed Beads: When starting with seed beads, we suggest that people try both the Czech and the Japanese, and see which ones they like best. The Japanese are more expensive than the Czech, but not that much more expensive. The Japanese ones are definitely easier to use.

However, one problem with the Japanese seed beads is that they are too perfect. Sometimes when your seed beads are too perfect, your outcome comes out like a paint-by-number Elvis on velvet. Because of the little irregularities from bead to bead in the Czech line, your outcome looks more organic, more artistic. If you were creating an ethnic looking piece, Japanese seed beads would make it look machine-made; Czech seed beads would make it look hand-made.

Buy all your seed beads upfront. Seed Bead colors vary from batch to batch. The color of the bead is affected by the barometric pressure outside the factory where and when they are made, and this is something the factory cannot control. Most seed bead projects take 40-60 hours to complete. That means, you need to buy all your beads, or even a little bit more, right up front. You might come back to the store 2 weeks later, and your 11/0-404 will be a different shade than that 11/0-404 now in the shop. So, find out about your store’s exchange policy. At our shop, we don’t give cash back. We do an even exchange or a store credit.

Above is an image of the same color from two different color batches.

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Seed Beads Sizes – An Unusual Numbering System

Most of the seed bead styles use an unusual labeling system to denote sizes. For example, you have 18/0’s and 16/0’s and 15/0’s and 14/0’s and 13/0’s and 12/0’s and 11/0’s and 10/0’s and 8/0’s and 6/0’ and 5/0’s, and you get the picture. What these numbers mean – and had more meaning hundreds of years ago – is how many beads per inch. They don’t really work out as beads per inch, but for the main sizes between 18/0 and 6/0, they come close enough. But if you had to visualize whether an 8/0 is bigger or smaller than a 6/0, visualize beads per inch.

The most-used size for more art- and design-oriented projects is the 11/0. The most-used size for more craft-oriented projects is the 10/0. You would most likely find 11/0’s in a bead store, and most likely find 10/0’s in a craft store. Basically, the smaller the bead, the less gaps of light between each bead, and thus a stronger, more intense, and sharper result.

Native Americans like to use sizes 18/0 and 16/0, but you won’t find these in too many places outside areas catering to Native Americans. I remember once visiting a bead store in Gallop, New Mexico, and they had a wall full of hundreds of colors of 18/0 and 16/0 seed beads --- they took up as big an area as our 11/0’s take up in our shop. And we have a lot of 11/0s!

Believe me, even the 15/0’s scare me and put me on edge, because they are so small. I can’t imagine working with 16/0’s and 18/0’s!

Cautions:

Japanese seed beads tend to be a little larger than their Czech counterparts. So, an 11/0 Japanese seed bead will be little larger than a Czech 11/0.

Japanese seed beads are more tubular shaped. Czech seed beads are more saucer shaped.

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The actual sizes of seed beads will vary by the finish on the bead. So, transparent amethyst will be smaller than transparent amethyst AB, which in turn is smaller than amethyst Ceylon.

There are three companies in Japan that make seed beads – Miyuki, Toho, and Matsuno. The shapes of the beads from each of these companies vary slightly. The consistency of seed beads within any batch and color is relatively high for Toho and Miyuki, but not so great with Matsuno. The stable/unstable finishes of colors is similar across brands. Most how-to books refer to Miyuki products. Toho has some very unusual colors.

E-Beads

In many pattern books, they tell you to use what’s called an E-Bead. Here they are referring to either a size 5/0 or size 6/0 seed bead. This vague label – E-Bead – was more useful pre-Internet. Today, since there is a size difference between 5’s and 6’s, pattern books can tell you exactly which size to get, and between stores and the internet, you can find exactly what you need. It seems, at times, that the only reason to preserve this vague naming convention is a snotty one – I know what this means and you don’t. Well, now you know what it means.

People started using this naming convention hundreds of years ago, but in a slightly different way. Hundreds of years ago, people were told they could substitute an E-bead – either a size 5/0 or 6/0 – for a 4mm round Druk. The 5’s and 6’s are close to 4mm. It’s very expensive and difficult to make a perfectly round bead. So a long time ago, people were telling other crafters that they could substitute a cheaper bead in projects where they would use a 4mm round Druk.

It’s also a bad naming convention in that all seed beads are E-Beads. E-Beads refers to how these were originally made. These beads all started as a long tube of glass. The tube was put through what looks like a bread slicer. The shape of the slicer was in the form of the letter E.

Cylinder Beads or Delicas

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The cylinder beads or delicas are the only bead in the store that we weigh, before we put them into tubes. So these are like cocaine. The same color in a delica might be 3-10 times the price of that color in the squared roundish seed bead lines.

Today, there are many brands of cylinder beads. One of the original brands was “Delica” by Miyuki. Sometimes “Delicas” is used as the generic name, like Kleenex is sometimes used as a generic name. In older pattern books, they tell you to use Delicas. In newer pattern books, they tell you to use Cylinder beads.

There is a bad naming convention around these cylinder beads. Some places label their cylinder or delicas size as 11/0; others as 12/0. In this case, they are referring to the same bead. They are called 12/0’s because they are the same size as a 12/0 seed bead. They are called 11/0’s because they are used interchangeably with the slightly larger 11/0 seed bead. They are used interchangeably with the slightly larger bead because of the shape difference. A seed bead is basically a ball; a cylinder bead is a brick. That shape difference makes them interchangeable with the slightly larger bead.

I want to give you an idea of what it means to interchange seed beads (the squared roundish basic shape) and delicas (cylinder beads). I know, when I started beading and jewelry making, I had originally shied away from delicas, because of their price. But I use them regularly now.

Let’s go back to the example of the eyeglass leash. If your eyeglass leash was all seed beads, and you were standing against the light, you would see the ridges along the sides of the beads. If you used delicas, they line up perfectly. You would see a solid line of color. When people view a solid line of color, they see the piece as higher end.

Say you were in the eyeglass leash business, and did a low-end $20.00 market and a higher end $60.00 market. If you used seed beads in your $60.00 market, your pieces wouldn’t sell because they would look cheap. If you used delicas in your $20.00 market, your pieces wouldn’t sell either. These make the pieces seem out of place, and people avoid them. You use so few beads in a project like an eyeglass leash, that the cost differences are just fractions of a penny. But there are huge perceptual differences.

If you’re an artist doing two types of markets – low and high ends – you don’t necessarily have to come up with different designs for both markets. You can trade out seed beads and delicas within the same overall design, and play with people’s perceptions.

Suppose you wanted to do an amulet bag, or some kind of bead-weaving that approximates a piece of cloth. If you used seed beads, there would be little gaps of light between each bead. If your piece were a solid color, it would look less intense. If it were a pattern or a picture, it would look less sharp. If you used delicas, these line up perfectly like a brick wall. If the piece were a solid color, it would look more intense. If a pattern or a picture, it would look sharper.

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With seed beads, they have little reidges on them, and when you try to move the piece, they catch on each other and the piece feels stiff. With cylinder beads, when you move the piece, it feels much more like a piece of cloth.

Now let’s say you wanted to do an amulet purse and went to the cash register with seed beads. These might ring up as $15.00. If you went to the register with delicas, these might right up as $150.00. There’s a lot of sticker shock at the register. But these kinds of projects take 40-60 hours to do. In this context, your biggest investment is your labor. The cost of the beads doesn’t seem quite so horrific. And in most situations, you get a better outcome with the delicas.

Cuts, Hex Cuts, Charlottes and True Cuts

People value brightness. They try all different kinds of strategies and manufacturing techniques to get their beads to be brighter and brighter and brighter. In crystal beads, they add lead. But lead is expensive. When they can’t afford lead, one technique is to facet the glass. A smooth, roundish glass surface absorbs most light that hits it, and reflects very little. A faceted glass surface absorbs less light and reflects more of it. That makes it seem, to the viewer, that it is brighter.

There are different types of faceted seed beads. The main type is called a Hex Cut, (often referred to simply as “cuts”). A hex cut seed bead has 6 faceted sides.

Another type of faceted seed bead is called a Charlotte or a True Cut. These beads have only one facet on each bead. So you see one flat surface and the rest is rounded.

Charlottes and True Cuts traditionally were mostly used in costuming. They are more and more used in jewelry. Picture the country music artist coming out on stage at the Ryman Auditorium – the mother church of country music. An area of her costume has been embroidered with Charlottes. Because of the 1-sided-facets of the charlottes, the faceted sides of these beads will face up randomly. As the spot lights hit the costume, the facets reflect the light back into the audience, but in a random, unpredictable way.

Suppose the costume had been embroidered with hex cuts. When the light hits the costume, all the facets are facing up in a very predictable way. These regularly positioned facets will reflect the light back into the audience in a predictable way.

The difference in effect is immediate. The unpredictable flashes of light into the audience, as reflected by the charlottes or true cuts, heightens the audiences’ experience with the performance. And this would be much moreso than had hex cuts been used instead. With hex cuts, the audience would soon be able to subconsciously predict the pattern of light bouncing off from the artist, and actually get a little bored from this.

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What Size Are They? Seed beads sizes are listed as "11/0" or "6/0" and the like. These very loosely refer to how many beads per inch it would take, if you lined a particular size up against a ruler. Thus, "11/0" means that there are 11 beads per inch. "6/0" means that there are six per the inch. Thus, the smaller the size-number, the larger the size of the bead.

6/0 seedbeads are apprx. 4mm8/0 delicas are approximately 3.3mm8/0 seedbeads are apprx. 3mm11/0 seedbeads are apprx. 2.2mm11/0 (same as 12/0) delicas are apprx. 1.8mm 15/0 seedbeads are apprx 1.5mm

Carol Wilcox Wells, in her book THE ART AND ELEGANCE OF BEADWEAVING, gives a well-researched answer to the question How Many Seed Beads? Using black opaque seed beads from one particular manufacturer, she came up with these numbers (again, there will be variation based on the finish of the bead, the country of origin of the bead, and the manufacturing company making the bead):

BEADS PER GRAM15/0 seed beads 290 beads/gram11/0 (same as 12/0) delicas 190 beads/gram11/0 seed beads 110 beads/gram8/0 seed beads 38 beads/gram6/0 seed beads 15 beads/gram

BEADS PER LINEAR MEASUREMENT15/0 seed beads 24 beads/inch 9 beads/centimeter11/0 (same as 12/0) delicas 20 beads/inch 7 beads/centimeter11/0 seed beads 18 beads/inch 7 beads/centimeter8/0 seed beads 13 beads/inch 5 beads/centimeter6/0 seed beads 10 beads/inch 4 beads/centimeter

BEADS PER SQUARE AREA15/0 seed beads 330 beads/sq. inch 54 beads/sq. centimeter11/0 (same as 12/0) delicas 285 beads/sq. inch 42 beads/sq. centimeter11/0 seed beads 216 beads/sq. inch 35 beads/sq. centimeter8/0 seed beads 108 beads/sq. inch 20 beads/sq. centimeter6/0 seed beads 70 beads/sq. inch 12 beads/sq. centimeter

An amulet purse that is 2" x 2 1/2" in size, would be 2*2 1/2*2 in area, or 10 square inches. (2 sides of 2x2.5 inches). 10 square inches would use, for example, 2850 delica beads (15 grams).

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NOTE: The sizes and weights for seed beads with different finishes and/or from different countries and/or from different manufacturers will vary considerably, so you should take these numbers as a guide, not an absolute.

JEWELERY FINDINGS AND METALS

Elephants are particularly attuned to the vibratory emulations of metals. They know their golds. They know their silvers. They know their nickels. They are this way, because they know their bodies are huge and that metals are pricey. It takes a lot of strands of beads to encircle the elephant. And elephants are very rough on their jewelry – the constant rocking back and forth, and back and forth, fording streams, and mud and rocky bi-ways. They usually like to hang around very humid climes, and don’t often use an umbrella or palm frond to protect themselves from inclement weather. Elephants don’t readily admit it…. But they sweat. And sweat and metals don’t always go well together. Except for the occasional party or circus or public demonstration, where the look is more important than the durability of the materials, elephants can be very picky about metals – understandably so.

As any elephant will tell you, when working with metals, it is important to know what the metal is, and what happens to it over time, and if it has some kind of coating, what that is, and what happens to that over time.

Metals give jewelry substance. Richness. Power. Weight and weightiness. They set the tone for perceptions of power and wealth. They frame the even-more-impressive precious and semi-precious stones and enhance their beauty, or make non-precious materials seem precious, even though they are not.

Metals, metals, metals. Jewelry design can be so much fun, but, sometimes, the metals don’t behave like they should or were originally intended. For instance, they don’t always keep their color. Sometimes the color fades, sometimes it wears off, sometimes it merely gets dirty. If it’s gotten dirty, it’s not always so obvious how to bring the color and shine back. Some metals dent and bend. Others crumble or break. And if you have too many metal pieces all lined up in a row, tightly kept in that row, and with little opportunity to shift and move within that row, all the pieces can break. When metal is too stiff, and bends back and forth, it breaks.

So many people think that metals are interchangeable, or do not have issues of durability, or are just too confusing to remember which is which. But jewelry artists need to understand their metals, if they are to be successful.

Let’s review several metals, and begin to understand their powers and weaknesses as jewelry design components. I’m going to start from the highest value to the lowest value. I’m going to start with 14KT gold.

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14KT GOLD: From a functional standpoint, 14KT Gold is a bad design choice. Gold is a soft metal. The beads tend to dent. And you always have to worry about the integrity of the clasp. What worrying about the “integrity” of the clasp means is that when you buy something or make something with a 14KT Gold clasp, the clasp feels fine. You have to watch what happens when someone wears the piece. Very often, 14KT Gold clasps do not hold up.

Over the years, many people have asked us to do custom 14KT Gold pieces for them. We usually try to talk them out of this, but they usually say, No, they want 14KT. So we feel that we at least need to explain the implications. We first try to talk them out of the clasp. We suggest either a 10KT Gold clasp or a Gold-Filled clasp, where you don’t have to worry about the integrity. They say No, they want 14KT.

Next, we deal with the beads. In a bracelet, regular 14KT beads are a total disaster. Even on a necklace, with simple movement, the beads tend to dent. If working with 14KT Gold beads, what you want to use are called “heavy-walled” 14KT Gold or “extra heavy-walled” 14KT Gold. The walls are thicker. There’s more gold. They are more expensive. But they are less likely to dent. Obviously, there’s still a problem with “heavy-walled”, or they wouldn’t make “extra heavy-walled”.

14KT Gold jewelry looks great on a mannequin. It has great investment value. It just doesn’t wear well.

Now, I make some high end pieces which sell between $2,000 and $4,000, and I use 14KT gold clasps in these pieces. There’s no way the customer for these expensive pieces would buy them without a 14KT gold clasp. Now, when I make these pieces, I usually have to manipulate the clasp a lot, and this makes me very nervous. And I tell myself, sometimes convincingly, this customer is probably only going to wear the piece once or twice, and then put it on display. But if I were making one of these pieces for myself, I’d use a gold-filled clasp. I usually can’t get the customer to compromise on the clasp. It’s 14KT period. But on other metal elements within my pieces, if any of these will need to absorb some stress, I use gold-filled, rather than 14KT, parts here.

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GOLD-FILLED: Quality Gold-Filled is an excellent design choice. Quality Gold-Filled will last for years and years. It can last for decades. It will keep its color. It will keep its shine. It will keep its shape.

14KT Gold Filled 12KT Gold FIlled

“Gold-Filled” means a Measurable layer of Real Gold Fused to Brass, sometimes copper. The key words here are Measurable, Real, Fused, and Brass. The gold is fused to the metal underneath it, it is not plated. Anything plated will come off easily in and of itself. The gold coloration, whether produced by real gold or merely a color chemical, will fade away over time when exposed to the air and elements. Fused means that the gold has become one with the metal underneath it. You have to wear it down, with friction and pressure, for the color to go away.

Well, I made a strong statement about Gold-Filled. Now, I have to give you some If’s, But’s, Therefores, Wherefores, Cautions, Whatevers…..

Sometimes when you buy Gold-Filled, there are some numbers before the words gold-filled. Either it might say “14/20 gold-filled” or “12/20 gold-filled”. If you go into a store to buy Gold-Filled, ask the person selling it to you “What’s the Difference?” If he says that 14/20 is more valuable than 12/20, if that is all that he says, go for the door.

Yes, 14/20 is more valuable than 12/20 – 14 parts of gold vs. 12 parts. But the pieces we work with are so small that you are talking about fractions of a penny. The numbers are there to tell you what COLOR the gold-filled is. 14/20 is duller, more golden, sometimes referred to as “red”. 12/20 is lighter, a little brassier, sometimes referred to as “yellow”.

Another reason that you go for the door is that there are no standards for how thick the gold has to be over the brass for the product to be called “Gold-Filled”. If you go to a flea market, you will see people selling “Gold-Overlay” jewelry. This is gold-filled. This is an extremely thin layer of real gold fused to brass. That gold wears off very quickly. Because the brass is the same color, people don’t realize that the gold has worn off. The same thing happens with beads and jewelry findings. If the person selling to you doesn’t know that these numbers mean COLORS, then he might be buying the

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cheapest gold-filled beads and findings on the market, and selling you this gold-overlay type of stuff. This isn’t any good. It’s actually crap.

So, you want your seller to be more aware of the gold-filled market. Now, let’s say you have two suppliers that you trust, and the gold-filled pieces at one supplier are half the cost of those of the other. In this case, that price is telling you how thick the layer of gold is. It might mean the difference between the gold lasting 10-15 years versus 30-50 years.

The one drawback to Gold-Filled is that it is pricey. This means, as an artist, you end up with a very small palette to play with – very few choices in styles of beads or clasps or other jewelry findings.

STERLING SILVER: Sterling Silver is a precious metal, but it is very affordable. If you make jewelry, it’s a very easy metal to work with. On finished pieces, or on the packaging of various jewelry parts, which are sterling silver, you will usually see a stamp or mark for “.925”, which means sterling silver. Sterling Silver is 92.5% silver, and the rest is something else, usually copper, maybe some nickel, and miscellaneous.

When you buy sterling silver findings, the pieces are so small, that most do not have a .925 stamped on them. On finished goods, sometimes the tag with the .925 stamp on it is sterling silver, but the rest of the piece is something else. In Cancun, Mexico, a lot of the sterling silver chains sold to tourists are really sterling silver tags with silver-plated steel chains that come from South Korea. On the parts, sometimes when sold in a bag, the label might say “sterling”, but if it doesn’t also say .925, it might be referring to a color, or a silver-plating, but not true sterling silver parts.

A couple more things about Sterling Silver.

First, Sterling Silver tarnishes and turns black. There’s a sizeable proportion of the population that thinks when the silver is black, it’s “dead”, and they throw it out. Especially if you’re selling your pieces, you have to educate people on how to buff up Sterling Silver.

Sterling Silver buffs up with a soft cloth. The best cloth to use is a piece of denim. Rub it on your pants.

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Some jewelry stores sell or give away what is called a Rouge Cloth. It works, but it’s a little bit gimmicky. What is taking the tarnish off is your rubbing with the cloth, not the rouge per se. Overall, I like denim better than the cloth in the rouge cloth. The denim has ridges, which get inside the links of chains or into the crevices of jewelry. The Rouge Cloth is smooth and primarily buffs surfaces. Thus, the rouge cloth is terrible with chains; however, for jewelry with crevices, if you want the crevices to stay black, a rouge cloth might be better in this case.

There’s something called a Sunshine cloth. Many jewelry stores and some bead stores sell this. This has a chemical in it that eats tarnish, but does not harm gemstones. That last piece of information is a key selling point for me. The cloth starts as yellow. You use it until it’s black. It’s useful to cut the big cloth that you buy into smaller strips.

You should either never use a dip, or only use a dip in an emergency. Dips ruin your silver jewelry. Dips work by pulling some silver out of your piece and creating a silver salt. This is typically white, sometimes black. If your jewelry has a lot of grooves in it, this salt gets stuck in the grooves. In chains, the salt gets stuck in the tops of the links. The salt is Very Hard to pick out of crevices and loops and links. If you have to use a dip, the way you use a dip, is that you take your jewelry, dip it in and out and then rinse. If not clean enough, dip it in and out again. Never leave your jewelry in the dip.

If you have some heavy duty tarnishing to deal with, then the easiest thing to do is to make a paste of baking soda and warm water, use a soft-bristle toothbrush, and scrub and rinse. You can use baking powder. You can use baking soda toothpaste. You can make a dip, instead of a paste – useful for cleaning sterling silver flatware and tea-sets. Even dry baking soda will take away the tarnish. Some people may say you also need a piece of tin foil. That’s not true. It’s a gimmick used by hucksters to get your to pay a lot of extra money for baking soda. I remember reading this blog where the person extolled the virtues of baking soda and tin foil, but told her readers that sometimes she had to add more baking soda to make things work. All she needed, really, was the baking soda.

A new form of Sterling Silver came on the market in the early 2000’s which is called Argentium Silver. Both have 92.5% silver content. It’s the alloy part that’s different. Argentium Silver is tarnish resistant. I’d say it’s almost tarnish-proof. You’ll see a lot more jewelry made out of Argentium Silver in the future. If you fabricate jewelry, you’ll find Argentium Silver to be a little more brittle than Sterling Silver.

The second concern with Sterling Silver, is that Sterling Silver softens at body temperature. If you have a clasp that is resting on the wrist or the neck, then you have to worry about the integrity of the clasp. Most clasps hold up fine, but enough lose their integrity, that you have to pre-test the clasps you are using in your jewelry.

Box clasps are notoriously bad here. A box clasp has a tongue that sticks into a decorative “box,” and there is a mechanism inside the box that holds the tongue in place. When this mechanism softens, it releases the tongue. Many box clasps that come out of

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Mexico have this problem. Now let’s say you had a clasp that was problematic, you could always put two very large beads on either side of the clasp, so that when your piece was worn, the clasp would be propped up above the skin, and you would not get this softening effect.

Traditionally, Sterling Silver beads have been heavy-walled enough, that you did not have to worry about denting. However, in the early 2000’s, the price of sterling silver sky-rocketed. It’s my impression that many manufacturers have preferred to hold their prices steady, which means a reduction in the quality. With Sterling Silver beads, this would mean making the walls thinner, thus increasing the problem with denting or crushing. In fact, in 2007, I started seeing distributors offer “light-weight” and “regular-weight” or “normal-weight” sterling silver beads. Just a Buyer Beware warning here. You don’t want your sterling silver beads to be crushed within your necklace or bracelet, because the walls were too thin.

Before 2003, if one place sold 4mm sterling silver beads for $0.22 each, and another at $0.30 each, $0.22 was a good deal. You were probably buying the same bead. Today, if one place is $0.22 and another is $0.30, the beads for $0.22 probably have thinner walls.

A few years ago, I wanted to add a particular sterling silver bead to our line – a Quad Bead. This is a spacer bead used a lot in Mother’s name bracelets. I had a choice between a less expensive one manufactured in China and a more expensive one manufactured in the US. I went with the more expensive one. The letter cube beads used in these bracelets are very heavy. I thought the one from China would get squished in these bracelets, so I went with the more expensive one. As we move forward into the future, you’re going to have to think this way with sterling silver beads.

VERMEIL: “vur-mil”, or “ver-mey” or “ver-meyl”, depending on where you live, is real gold electroplated to sterling silver. The gold is real, though the karat content (thus, the resulting color) may vary. You will see Vermeil from dull gold (14KT vermeil) to bright bright yellow (22KT or 24KT vermeil).

The gold is electroplated, not fused. Anything plated wears off. The manufactuers have the option to determine how thick the plating should be over the sterling. However, in

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most vermeil products you will buy, the plating is not that thick and the gold on the Vermeil will fade away on its own, just sitting around exposed to the air, in about 2 years.

Gold bonds OK to Sterling Silver, but not perfectly, like it does to Brass and Copper. Where the gold has not bonded to the sterling underneath it, the sterling will continue to tarnish underneath this gold, and the gold above it will start to darken. If you have a piece, say a button, with a large smooth surface, over time, and this can be as quickly as 3-6 months, the piece will look blotchy.

There is an overly-decorative style of beads and findings called a Bali Style. This name derives from the characteristic style of jewelry associated with Bali, Indonesia. These have a lot of wires, granules, and the like creating busy textures and patterns. As these beads darken with age, the beads take on an antique-like look. The darkening goes hand in hand with this overly-decorative style.

One problem that often comes up, is that when people buy Vermeil, they buy Vermeil and Gold-Filled at the same time. When they buy it, they are all shiny. The problem comes when they mix these in the same piece. Now the Gold-Filled will stay shiny, but the Vermeil will darken.

Vermeil is a lot less expensive than Gold-Filled. As an artist, if you want to use something people would see as “real” gold, then Vermeil gives you a very large palette of styles and choices to work with.

What The Heck Is “Bali Silver”?

From time to time certain styles of decoration and certain techniques of metal fabrication tend to get associated with the specific cultures or groups that created them. A long time ago, people of the Hindu faith were expelled from most of the islands of Indonesia and sent to the island of Bali, also a part of Indonesia. The Hindu people represented the artistic and intellectual classes at the time, and they brought with them rich craft and artistic traditions.

Their master silversmiths created a very beautiful and what I would call an overly-decorative style to their pieces. They also frequently relied on their inventive technique in silver fabrication called granulation. They worked in sterling silver. They would take their finished pieces, and either oxidize them, which darkens or blackens the silver, or they would electroplate their pieces in bright karat golds. This is called “vermeil”.

I like to think of Bali Silver as a style, because it has been widely copied and imitated, and all the copies and imitations are labeled Bali

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Silver, as well. In Bali itself, each piece is handmade. This is called fabrication. Jewelry design and Bead supply companies contract with different silversmiths on the island to come up with unusual designs and thus make their lines special and unique. If left to themselves, the local silversmiths can get sloppy in their work, so it’s important that these companies have some strict and consistent quality monitoring of the work. Without this quality control, the stones pop out of their settings and the decorative elements like granulation pop off as well.

Many countries, most notably India and Turkey, have copied the Bali pieces. But instead of hand-making (fabricating) them, they cast them. In the casting, it’s amazing how well they can reproduce the intricate details. The casting also allows them to keep making the same piece over and over again, so you end up with many beads or findings that look exactly alike – same size, same detailing. No imperfections. This is not true with fabrication, which results in a lot of variability. In the casting process, a lot of silver is lost, so these pieces typically are not “sterling”, that is 92.5% silver, and usually aren’t labeled as such. And of course, anything cast cannot absorb the tremendous forces jewelry components are subjected to when the jewelry moves as worn. So cast pieces tend to crumble and break when confronted with excess force, where fabricated pieces do not.

The Bali Style is copied in all types of metal materials. You will easily find the same bead in sterling silver, pewter, brass and metalized plastic. They all look alike – it’s really hard to tell the differences.

NICKEL: Nickel is very similar to Sterling Silver. It looks like silver. It tarnishes and buffs up like silver. If you make jewelry, it works a lot like silver. Nickel is everywhere so it has no precious metal value.

Nickel is one metal that some people are allergic to – roughly 12-15% of the population. Some jewelry parts are labeled “nickel-free.” Usually, this label refers to the metallic platings on these findings. The label does not tell you if the metals underneath these

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platings have nickel in them. – often an unpleasant surprise when the plating wears off. Ideally when buying “nickel-free” products, you want the metal underneath the plating to be surgical steel, brass or otherwise nylon.

NOTE: While not common, some sterling may have nickel as part of its alloy component.

What’s important about Nickel beads is how they are made. Nickel beads are stamped out of a sheet of nickel. You have a flat sheet of nickel. You take what looks like a cookie cutter, and stamp out the general shape. These are usually in two halves which are then pushed together. The seam is buffed up so that the two halves look like they were soldered together.

The nickel bead on the left was stamped out of a sheet of nickel. The pewter beads on the right were cast in a mold.

STAMPING is an important concept is jewelry design. Anything STAMPED out over time will bend or dent, but not break. All jewelry moves. To us, it doesn’t feel like there’s much movement, but to each component in your jewelry, it’s like getting whipped – over and over and over again. At the point a stamped piece can no longer absorb this excess force, it bends or dents. And usually you can un-bend or un-dent it.

One drawback to stamped pieces, is that you have to finish off each piece individually. Thus, stamped pieces tend to be expensive, and you have a very small palette to play with.

PEWTER: The opposite of STAMPING is called CASTING. All pewter is cast. Anything “cast” over time, can not absorb any excess force that comes from movement. When a cast piece is confronted with excess force, it crumbles and breaks.

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Pewter is basically a recipe. You make a molten metal, and pour it into a mold. You can vary this recipe a little, and still have your piece be called Pewter. One thing that happens when you vary the recipe, is that it varies how hard the pewter is.

Whenever I buy pewter, I always try to stick my thumbnail into it. If my thumbnail won’t go into it, I call this Hard Pewter. Hard Pewter usually lasts about 5 years before it crumbles and breaks. A lot of people don’t wear their jewelry for 5 years.

Sometimes, however, when I stick my thumbnail into a piece, the piece crumbles and breaks in my hand. [So I always know where the door is.] If my thumbnail seems to be going in easily, this piece is probably only going to last about 3 months before it crumbles and breaks.

Now the advantage of pewter and casting is that you only have to make the first piece. Every other copy that follows comes out of a mold. So you usually can make the first piece look stronger than it really is, and you can come up with all these great designs, shapes, patterns and textures. You have a very big palette to play with. You trade-off some durability for having all these choices in beads and parts.

About “Lead-Free” Pewter: There are standards, which get tighted up from time-to-time, about how much lead is allowed (thus deemed “safe”) to leach out of pewter. If the amount of lead that leaches out is below the standard, the product can be labeled “lead-free”. The product, however, is not free from lead.

GOLD- AND SILVER-PLATE AT THE COSTUME LEVEL

When we get to Nickel and Pewter, and continue down to Brass, and Aluminum, Steel, Base Metal, and Metalized Plastic, …. This level I call the Costume or Throw-Away Level. When talking about gold-plate or silver-plate at the Costume level, in most cases, we are not talking about real gold or real silver. We are only talking about a color.

To overly simply things, the plating at this level is made up of two chemicals. You have a chemical that gives the plating its color. Then you have a finishing chemical which brightens up that color. The manufacturer may use real gold to make the color

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chemical. However, we don’t consider the plating to be real gold. We use real gold to make the color RED, but we don’t consider RED beads to be real gold beads.

The finishing/brightness chemical fades away more quickly than the color chemical. In an average environment with an average person wearing the piece, the finishing/brightness chemical fades away in 3-6 months. The color chemical fades in 6 months to a year. If the environment is very humid or very polluted, this can happen much more quickly. In Miami in the summer time, this can happen in hours. For some people, their sweat has a lot of ammonias or sulfides in it, and these dissolve one or both of these chemicals.

Sometimes retailers label these products as if they contained real gold or real sterling silver, when in fact any “karat” or “sterling and silver” content is nil – the karat or sterling label is only referring to a coloration. This can be very misleading.

For example, one of the bead stores in our area sells gold-plated brass beads, and has them labeled 24KT gold, not “plated”. And customers who have bought these there, come into our store to get the same thing, expecting to be able to purchase real gold beads here that cost them $0.03 at the other store. The same beads, in this case, cost $3.00 - $4.00. At Michaels and Hobby Lobby, they sell a line of beads and findings, where the pre-printed packaging says that they are “S.Silver”. So a lot of customers who purchase these there assume they are purchasing “Sterling Silver”, when in most cases they are getting Metalized Plastic or a base metal. But they come to our store and expect to get Sterling at the prices they’re paying for “S.Silver”. Another line of silver-colored beads and findings at these major craft stores has “STERLING” printed in large script on a label. I think this is the brand name, because the pieces don’t look or have that pliable feel of sterling silver. On some STERLING brand labels, you will see .925 printed on them; on other STERLING brand labels, there is no “.925” listing. If you look at the weigth of those packages marked .925 and compare to the current price per ounce of silver, you will notice that these craft stores are either selling these products way below their costs, or something else is going on here. Again, very misleading, and probably intentionally so.

One final point. Remember to plan ahead. By that I mean, if you use silver plated clasps and beads, and these are plated over brass, then over time, as the plating wears off, these will start to turn golden. Similarly if you get gold-plated clasps and beads, and these are plated over aluminum or steel or pewter, they will turn a shade of gray. Rogue Elephants may be rogue, but they are very particular when it comes to their metals and metal colors.

Let’s continue down with our list of metals….

BRASS: From a functional standpoint, if you have to work with plated metals, Brass is your best design choice. The plating bonds the best to brass, so it takes the longest time

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to fade away. All Brass is stamped out, so it has a high degree of integrity as a jewelry making metal. But because Brass is stamped out, and you have to finish off each piece individually, Brass tends to be pricey, and, as a jewelry artist, you have a very limited palette to work with.

ALUMINUM, STEEL or POT METAL (also called BASE METAL): Below Brass, is Aluminum, Steel and Pot Metal. Aluminum and Steel are stamped out. Pot Metal is cast. The color of Pot Metal is black. The plating doesn’t bond at all to Aluminum, Steel or Pot Metal. So what happens over time: First the brightness goes away, then the color fades. Long before the color fades, the plating just chips off.

You will find that plated findings and beads, which you buy in a bead store, will usually be plated over brass. The plated findings and beads, which you buy in a craft store, will usually be plated over aluminum. So, similar pieces might be less expensive in craft store, but they will be less durable, as well.

METALIZED PLASTIC: The least expensive bead in the metal family is Metalized Plastic. Metalized plastic is a metal shell around a milky white plastic bead. When we work with metalized plastic, we talk about how quickly the plating will chip off. On regular metalized plastic, the chip test is hitting the edge of a table once or twice.

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On a lot of metalized plastic, you’ll see black on it. This black is called an “antiquing” or “varnish” finish. What this antiquing or varnish finish does is strengthen the metal shell. It makes the chip test 3-5 times hitting the edge of a table, instead of once or twice. But it dissolves the finishing/brightness chemical over the plating. It just leaves the color chemical, which is duller.

If you need your earrings to last 2 weekends, instead of 1, and you can live with a slightly duller bead, then you will want to look for color names that include words like Antiqued, Bronzed, Oxidized, Varnished and the like.

We have a lot of customers who attend local home shows, where they pick out beads for a Mother’s or Heirloom Bracelet, and the people running these shows then make them up as finished bracelets. And our customers spend $100., and $200. and $300. on these pieces, and come show us what they made. Virtually all of them are full of metalized plastic beads.

I think you can easily picture yourself doing the same thing. You go to the home show, and they have tables and tables of beads made from the full range of materials – 14KT Gold to Sterling Silver to Vermeil to Brass, Pewter, and yes, Metalized Plastic. Metalized Plastic is So Cheap, that you have your biggest and funnest and most interesting palette to choose from. The beads that would be most appropriate probably have just two choices – plain or corrugated. But people tend to want something unique, different and fun. They naturally gravitate to the Metalized Plastic beads. And the people running the home shows put out Metalized Plastic beads because they can make the most money from them.

Metalized Plastic beads, however, are totally inappropriate for anything you would call “Heirloom”.

METAL PAINTS, ROUGES, OXIDIZERS and PATINAS

There are so many things to play with these days. And this is a good thing. As the price of gold and silver, and even brass and copper, sky-rocket, we have so many options today to create our own metal colors and finishes. Yes, lots of things to play with.

Metal PaintsDid you know you can take any metal or plated metal part and paint the color finish you want on it, using a special metal-based paint?

Traditionally, people have used metal leaf paints, which come in a variety of metal finishes. However, there are newer products I think work better, called metal paints or surfacers. They come in many more colors than the traditional metal leaf paints. These

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new paints (or surfacers) have tiny metal pieces suspended in a paint solution. As the solution dries (usually in about 20 minutes), it leaves a metal coating. The coating takes 24 hours to cure (that is, fully dry). But I like to let these pieces dry several days before I utilize them in jewelry. When dry, you want to paint a sealant over the metal to protect it from chipping or peeling back. I like to put 3-4 coats of sealant on these pieces. Each sealant coat usually takes about 30 minutes to dry.

There’s been an explosion of available metal colors out there in jewelry findings, chains and other components. Copper and Antique Copper, Brass and Antique Brass, Antique Silver, Steel, Platinum, Pewter, Antique Gold, Bronze and Dark Bronze, Rose Gold, Gunmetal, Metallic Cobalt, and many more. When you are making a bracelet or necklace, however, you might not be able to find the metallic colors you want in the pieces you want to use. Metal paints are one easy way to solve this problem.

I like to use 2 or 3 colors of metal paints when converting a piece of metal to the final coloration I want. If you look at any metal piece, you’ll see some variations in coloration. These might be due to many factors, including the metal finish getting applied in different thicknesses, not coating some indented or creviced surfaces, some peeling back, some pitting with age, some aging of the metal.

To reproduce something that looks more realistic, it takes 2 – 3 colors. I’ll have a main color, a lighter color and a darker color. I apply my main color, let it dry, and apply a 2nd

coat. I then paint in areas that I think should be darker. I lightly brush over some of these darkened areas with my main color again. I repeat this with my lighter color. I let dry. I hold the piece in different directions and under different lights and light pathways, to see if I need to adjust any of the dark, main or lighter areas a bit.

I paint a sealant on the painted metal, usually 3-4 coats. If I want the piece to be glossier, I’ll spray a Krylon acrylic gloss over this. If I want the piece to be more matte, I’ll spray a Krylon acrylic matte finish over this.

Aging your pieces: If you really want to get a little fancier in aging your pieces, you can do the following:1. Apply 2 coats of surfacer in the metal color you want2. Get Krylon Metallic Paint in a light color, like an Almond Color and a dark color, like a Very Dark Bronze.Put your piece on the ground in an area you don’t mind getting some paint on.Do a short spray of the light color into the air about 4-6 feet from your piece, but in the direction of your piece, so that some droplets will fall on it.Do a short spray of the darker color into the air about 4-6 feet from your piece, but in the direction of your piece, so that some droplets will fall on it.Let dry.Old pieces are pitted. This makes them look pitted. Dark drops will fall partially over light drops, and this gives dimensionality and shadow to your faux pitted look.

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3. Use a tint or patina. Brush it on, and wipe it off. You may want to do this 1-3 times until you get the look you want.

4. Paint on the Sealer. One coat may be sufficient. Two coats may start to make the piece look too shiny and new again.

Metal RougeA similar product to metal paints/surfacers is metal rouge. This product has been around a long time in the basic metal finishes. However, there are many, many more colors of metal rouge to play with today. Metal rouge is like canned shoe wax. You can apply it with a soft cloth, a paper towel, a medium to hard bristle paint brush, or your finger. You rub this on the surface you want coated. You can blend these, while you are rubbing them on. These take 24 hours to cure, but I like to let them cure for several days, before I utilize the pieces in jewelry.

At that point, you would either paint a sealant on them, or spray them with a Krylon fixative or acrylic finish. I like to apply 3-4 coats of these, and let dry at least 24 hours, if not several days.

TINTS, ANTIQUING SOLUTIONS, and COLORED VARNISHESTints (an antiquing toner that gets brushed on over the Surfacer to create a type of aging or patina). Antiquing Solutions (like making something look rusted or oxidized)Patinas (to make the metal look like it’s both aged and changed colors, such as blue or green)Colored varnishes

To use these, what you are painting must be metal or plated metal.

If the pieces are clean, you can paint right onto them. If not, you can prime the surface with a Sealer/Primer or Metallic Paint.

With the Tints, Antiquing Solutions and Colored Varnishes, you are painting on an actual metallic color. You paint it on, and wipe off with a soft cloth. Let dry for 20 minutes. You want the higher points on your piece to be lighter and the lower points to be darker. If you haven’t reached the colorations you want, you repeat. Paint, wipe off, let dry. This usually takes 3 or 4 times.

The Antiquing Solutions will also come with a sealant. You paint this on, 2-3 coats.

The finish with these is usually shiny.

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PATINAS and OXIDIZERSWith the Patinas and Oxidizers, you are creating a chemical reaction that changes the coloration of particular metals. Some will work for all metals. Some for specific metals.

You might want to change the color of the metal completely. You might only want to give the metal a sense of aging.

With some Patinas, the color change is gradual, and may run through a series of different colors. You can stop the process at any time, that is, at any coloration, by removing the piece from the solution, and washing it off in water. For example, a silver patina might begin making the silver golden, then red, then blue iris, then black.

You would then dip or paint on a sealant or lacquer or spray with a fixative or acrylic coating, to preserve the coloration.

The color itself tends to be matte.

Turning Silver Black (Oxidizing)There are many ways to oxidize or blacken silver.   You can buy some products that do this for you.

One is called Liver of Sulphur.    With Liver of Sulphur, this turns silver into a dull black.     When using Liver of Sulphur, either the solution needs to be hot, or the metal needs to be hot.    To heat the solution, you can put it in the microwave for 90 seconds.

Another product is called Black Max.    Black max turns silver into a dark black, much more intense than the Liver of Sulphur.   The product does not have to be hot.    It has a shorter shelf-life, however.

With both of these products, you can darken your silver, and then take a soft cloth, like a piece of denim, and buff the surfaces, so that the top surfaces gleem, and the crevices are dark.

Another thing you can do is to buy an antiquing solution, or use a dark color varnish.   You paint this on, and then rub it off with a soft cloth.   Let it dry for about 20 minutes, and repeat, if you need the antiquing to be darker.    This leaves a glossy black finish.    Here, again, you usually want to leave some gradations of color on the metal, so that the top surfaces are shinier than the crevices.

You can also use a hard boiled egg.   Put your silver in a plastic bag along with a hard boiled egg.  The sulphur from the egg will blacken your silver.

If you want to speed up the tarnishing process, but do not want to turn your product black, spray your metal with Windex with Ammonia.   The ammonia will turn the silver black, and the low amount of ammonia in this product will make the process more gradual.

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NOTE: Using fine steel wool will remove any of these finishes, if you don’t like your product.

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CLASPS

Everyone wants to know What Is The Best Clasp? The answer is, It Depends. Some are better than others. Some metals from which these are made are better than others. The clasp has to visually fit with your design. The clasp has to be attached correctly to your beadwork. The clasp has to be user friendly. The construction process – how the clasp is connected to the beadwork -- may as important, or more important, functionally than the type of clasp itself.

Some brief notes about clasps. More notes to follow in subsequent chapters.

The least expensive and least durable clasp is the Spring Ring. You find spring rings on many finished pieces of jewelry, because clasps overall are very expensive, and the designers do not want to pass these costs along in their finished pieces. So, if your jewelry has a spring ring as the clasp, you might want to consider replacing it with something more durable.

The spring ring pictured above is plated over brass. So, first the brightness goes away, the color slowly fades. Usually, long before the color faces, the mechanical mechanism in the clasp breaks. However, if the color faded all the way, the clasp would still look golden, because it is brass underneath. If this particular clasp had been silver plated over brass, then over time, the clasp will change colors. It will start to look golden as the silver plating fades away.

Barrel Clasps are very popular, particularly among college age and early 20’s. These screw open and closed. They pass the “Guy-Test” because guys can figure out how to open and close them. A barrel clasp is the kind of clasp that you would not want to buy in sterling silver. When a sterling barrel clasp is resting on the wrist or the neck, the threads soften and strip. If someone wanted an all sterling necklace, and wanted a barrel clasp, if you came to us, we’d tell you to drop down to the costume level. The silver-plated barrel clasp is plated over steel. The clasp just gets darker over time.

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Magnetic Clasps are very popular these days. People in general hate clasps, so they like these. These are not problematic on a necklace. But on a bracelet, it’s easy to knock these off. It’s easy to leave your bracelet on the refrigerator door or the car door. We suggest adding a safety chain on a bracelet, so you don’t lose them. Magnets come in different strengths.

What’s important to know about a Magnetic Clasp is how to open and close them. You never pull them open. Pulling them open weakens the settings that the magnets are in, and they pop out. The way to open a magnetic clasp is either to slide them back and forth, or to crack them open like a nut, as if they were on a hinge. In most cases, you know people will pull on them. I suggest extra-reinforcing the ends of your bracelets where you have attached the clasps.

Let’s say you were trying to select a Lobster Claw to use, from a tray with many options. Suppose one option was a lobster claw gold-plated over pot metal at $0.65, and another slightly smaller option that was gold-plated over brass at $1.00. You might be inclined to go with the larger pot metal one because it is cheaper and looks stronger. But if you knew what they were made of ahead of time, you might go with the brass one.

Over time, with the brass lobster claw (pictured to the left), the brightness will disappear, then the color will slowly fade. Lobster claws, as clasps, have a few design flaws. One of them has to do with the thin lip at the top of the clasp. This lip is not designed to handle any excess force that would come from pulling, tugging, getting your bracelet caught on something, or general movement. All brass is stamped out. So when this lip is confronted with excess force, it will bend out. And you can bend it back. Eventually all the plating will fade away, and the clasp will still look golden.

Over time, with the pot metal lobster claw (pictured to the right), the brightness will fade away, then the color will slowly fade. When the lip of this piece is confronted with

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excess force, because pot metal is cast, the lip will just break off, and you will have to restring your bracelet.

A Toggle Clasp is basically a ring and a bar. If the toggle clasp visually works with your design, it’s considered the best clasp. It’s considered the easiest to get on and off and the most secure. Virtually every toggle clasp that you can buy has been cast. When they engineer these clasps, they very tightly engineer the ring to work with the bar. So you never mix and match.

If you go into a store that sells these mix and match, you don’t want to buy these there. If you’re in a store that has a wide selection, and you’re putting these in a tray, make sure there is no confusion about what goes with what. When you go to the register, be sure they get bagged up so that there is no confusion about what goes with what. And when you store them at home, be sure there is no confusion about what goes with what.

I tell this to everyone, and they still mix and match, then come into the store saying all their bracelets are falling off. Your eye can’t tell the difference. The bar could be off 1 millimeter on the side or anywhere along the bar, and no longer work.

Often you will see basically the same toggle clasp design at different prices. What the price is telling you is how good the casting was. This means how long the toggle clasp will last before it breaks. Usually the ring breaks in half. Let’s say you see an average size, sterling silver, plain toggle at $3.00, $7.00 and $11.00. The $3.00 one will probably last 2-3 years before it breaks; the $7.00 about 5 years; the $11.00 one about 7 years.

STRINGING MATERIALS

I’m not proud to admit it, but I used to string things on fishing line and dental floss. It was there. I knew about it. I understood it. It was simple. Uncomplicated. Didn’t need directions. Didn’t need a 20-minute explanation about when these were used, and when they were not, or what they were used for, and what they were not.

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Then I discovered Tiger Tail cable wire. This seemed magical, somehow. It was something more than fishing line or dental floss. It seemed strong. It was metal. It was masculine. You could swing from trees on it. You could tie up old planks together to secure them. You could string things on easily without a needle. You didn’t need glue. You didn’t need bead tips or knot covers. It tied easily to clasps. And although the Tiger Tail broke rather easily, I’d pretend like it never broke for me.

Luckily, today, beaders have been blessed with an abundance of stringing materials to choose from. Each has it’s pros and cons. Some would work better on a sleeping elephant. Others would work better on a posed elephant. Fewer would work well on a Rogue Elephant, especially if that Rogue Elephant was in the midst of a stampede. But we won’t worry about that now.

When beaders and jewelry makers select stringing materials, they need to ask a lot of questions of the people who sell these products, as well as the people who use them. You’ll get a lot of contradictory advice. But you need a lot of information to help make your choices. For me, I prefer stringing materials that don’t break easily, allow pieces to drape nicely, move freely and correctly with the body, and are relatively easy to use. But don’t we all.

From a design perspective, you typically get your best results with needle and thread. Needle and thread projects always take the shape of your body. So they feel the best, move the best, and drape the best. However, needle and thread are very involved and time-consuming to do. Especially if you’re selling your stuff, it’s difficult to use needle and thread and expect to recoup your labor costs. As long as you know what the ideal is, however, it becomes a little easier to step back from the ideal, and compensate for any weaknesses through various design techniques and devices.

Threads, Needles, and More Threads

Long before I ever saw my Rogue Elephant, I discovered Nymo thread, Size #12 English beading needles, and Tiger Tail cable wire. This wasn’t a match made in heaven. I didn’t take to it like a duck takes to water. It wasn’t a piece of cake.

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Have you ever seen a beading needle? They’re so thin. They have even thinner eye holes. You have to take a semester-long class at a community college to learn how to get the thread through the hole. First you learn that cotton sewing thread is round and sewing needles have round holes. Next you learn that nylon beading thread is flat like a ribbon, and beading needles have rectangular holes. Round pegs. Square holes. Square pegs. Round holes. Get it straight. Get it.

THREADING YOUR NEEDLE

There are two ways to thread a needle. The logical way, the way your mind and brain and eyeball and heart and gut all say to do is this:

- Take the thread in one hand, and the needle in the other. Push the needle onto the thread. Keep poking the thread with the needle until the thread meets the hole and slips through. Then pull on the thread.

The illogical, but more correct way, is to pop the thread into the needle:

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- Put the thread between your thumb and fore-finger, and pinch it. Pull it down between your fingers so that the end slips just below the top surface of your fingers. Place the needle over your fingers, lining up the eye hole just above the gap between your two fingers where the thread is hiding, and keep the needle from moving. Squeeze your thumb and forefinger together, so that the thread pops straight up and into the eye-hole. Voila! Magic. Then pull on the thread.

When cutting your thread off the bobbin or spool, if you cut at a slight angle, it makes it easier to get the thread through the eye hole of the needle.

Another trick: Rather than wet the top end of your thread with spit by placing the thread in your mouth, wet the eye hole of your needle. The water that gets trapped in the eye hole will draw up the thread, as you put it to the hole.

So, I never understood why, when you buy a kit of beading needles, they typically include a needle threader. Needle threaders work with sewing needles where they eye hole is round. They don’t work with beading needles. You can push the threader through the eye hole of a beading needle, but once you put the thread through, you can’t pull the threader back through the hole.

One more trick you learn in school. The shape of the eye-hole is like a funnel – Yes, believe it or not, one side of the hole is bigger than the other. If you are having trouble fitting that thread through the hole, turn the needle around. Try again.

I started with size #12 needles. I find #10 needles to be more useful for bead stringing and both #10 and #12 most useful for bead weaving. Proporitionally, the eye holes in the #10 are much bigger than those in the smaller, thinner needles.

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Major Beading Threads

NYMO thread is the granddaddy of them all. It comes in many colors and thicknesses. It doesn’t look like it, but it is one of the strongest things you can string things on.

C-LON thread (also called SuperLon) is a relatively new thread. It’s similar to Nymo, but a little stronger. It comes in a lot of colors, but only a couple of thicknesses. In our store, if you came in for a Nymo product, and there was an equivalent C-Lon product, we would suggest you switch to C-Lon.

ONE-G thread is made by TOHO. This is a premium nylon beading thread, and much more expensive than Nymo or C-Lon. I’m very fond of the strength of the thread, and the feel, give and take of the thread while I’m beading. It’s my beading thread of choice.

SILAMIDE is a prewaxed thread. Lots of beaders love this. I’m not a big fan of this because it breaks very easily. Some people suggest that you double the thread to deal with the breakage issue, but I find it awkward to use a doubled thread. Even though Silamide is prewaxed, if you purchased it from us, we would tell you to wax it. There’s no waxy buildup on it, and this, we feel, is the major advantage of waxing.

Basics of Bead Stringing Using Needle and Thread

Discussed later in this book is a more involved, design oriented approach than here, but here are some basics of bead stringing using needle and thread that anyone can do. When

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you string with needle and thread, you typically go through your piece 3 times.

First, start with an outstretched arm to outstretched arm length of thread (about 6 feet). This should make an 8-inch length bracelet.

Put the needle on the thread and leave about an 8-10” tail.

Wax your thread, by pulling the thread through a block of beeswax twice. Then take your two fingers, and pinch the thread at one end. Slowly move your fingers down the thread to the other end. Your body heat will melt the wax into the thread.

We wax the thread for many reasons. It strengthens the thread. It makes it less likely to fray. The process of waxing stretches the thread a bit before we use it. It makes it glide through the beads better. But the major reason we feel you should wax your thread is that it gives the thread a little waxy build-up. This wax fills in the jagged rim around the hole of the bead, and makes the bead less likely to cut your stringing material. We prefer natural or synthetic beeswax here. There’s a product called Thread Heaven which does everything, except have a waxy build-up, and we feel this is the primary advantage of waxing.

Stick your needle into a pad or work surface.

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At the other end of the thread, tie this off to the largest part of your clasp and ring assembly. If using a toggle, for example, this would be the ring part, not the bar. Leaving an 8-10” tail on this end, tie a double knot to this part with the thread.

Put on enough beads over this length of thread to make the size bracelet you want. [Remember that the other piece of your clasp will add another ½” or more to the length of your bracelet, once you add this one.] Thread on the other piece of your clasp. Again, if using a toggle, this then will be the bar. Tie a double knot to this piece.

Work your way all the way back down your line of beads, coming out between the first bead and the original (and largest) piece of your clasp assembly. Tie a double knot to this piece again.

And one more time,

Work your way all the way back down to the other side again, coming out between what is your last bead and the smaller piece of your clasp assembly. Tie a double knot to this piece again.

Work your tails back through about 2-3” of beads and cut them off.

Bead Cords

For some types of jewelry projects, you don’t want to cover and hide all the stringing material with beads. You might be putting knots between beads, or you might be doing macramé, braiding or kumihimo with beads, or you might be doing something like a Tin Cup necklace, where you have a cluster of beads, then some cord showing, then another cluster of beads, then more cord showing, and you get the idea.

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In this case, if we used threads, the raw and waxed threads would be kind of ugly. So instead, we use what is called Bead Cord. Bead Cords are threads which have been braided together to make the stringing material look pretty. However, we can’t wax the bead cord to deal with issues like fraying or stretching. This would ugly it up.

Thus, when we use Bead Cord, we are trading off durability for appearance. If we were going to cover all the bead cord with beads, then this would not be the best choice of stringing material. You would want to use either a thread or cable wire, in this case.

There are many brands and qualities of bead cord.

Most people prefer Griffin Bead Cord, which comes on cards, and has a needle fixed to one end of the 2-meter long cord. There are many colors and thicknesses. It is available in Nylon and in Silk. I’d give this cord a grade of a “B”. What people like about this cord is that it comes with a needle attached on one end. This makes it easier to use when you are knotting between beads.

I recommend using silk bead cord if your project is all pearls or mostly pearls. I suggest using nylon bead cord if your project is very few pearls or no pearls. Unfortunately, every other type of stringing material, except the silk, will ruin the pearls. These other materials cut into the nacre around the pearl, starting at the hole, leading to cracking and chipping around the bead, thus ruining them. Only silk won’t cut into the pearls. Unfortunately, silk naturally deteriorates in 3-5 years, so anything you do on silk will have to be re-done every 3-5 years.

Nylon doesn’t deteriorate, so that’s why we suggest it for everything else. Now some people tell me things were always done on silk. I tell them nylon wasn’t always. But I can reverse hats. Say you’re selling your pieces. There’s more marketing cache if you

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say “it was strung on silk”, than if you said “it was strung on nylon.” You can make it your customer’s problem to re-string in 3-5 years.

Basically, at the same level of quality, the pros and cons of nylon and silk are the same. At the same quality level, they fray the same, stretch the same and get dirty the same. It’s just that the silk deteriorates and the nylon does not.

Bead cords are also used in knotting, macramé, braiding, bead crochet and kumihomo.

WHEN THE CORD DOESN’T COME WITH A NEEDLE…What Should I Do?

The Griffin bead cord, both nylon and silk, comes with a needle attached to the end of the cord. This makes it easier to string. It also makes it easier, when knotting, to use a thicker cord and get a larger knot.However, many bead cord products come on spools and do not have needles attached. What do you do in this case?First, there are needles that work in this situation. There are two kinds of needles to use with bead cord, and you would probably want to have both on hand. The first is called a Big Eye Needle. You wedge the end of the cord at one end of the needle, and that becomes your trailing end. The other is called a Twist Wire Needle (also known as a Collapsible Eye Needle). A medium size in this needle would probably work fine. Both needles have short life-spans, so you would need to have a bunch on hand at any one time.Another thing people do with the nylon bead cord is either use superglue on one end, or take a bic lighter to one end to melt it. This makes the end stiff. Then you take a razor blade and cut the very end at an angle, so you have a “needle” at the end of the cord.

Flexible Cable Wires

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When I first started beading and making jewelry, I was not a big fan of thread. I was never one to sew. Needle and thread seemed so complicated. It took so long. The threads seemed to break. They frayed. They stretched. They got tangled up and they got knotted up. It was hard to see and keep in my field of vision a very thin thread on a very thin needle going through some very small beads. I poked myself with the needle. It made me cranky.

You can’t thread an elephant through the eye-hole of a beading needle. Or, at least, that’s what I told myself at the time.

I turned to Tiger Tail cable wire. Cable wires are flexible wires that are braided together and encased in nylon. The wire is stiff enough to be its own needle. Stringing beads on a cable wire seemed so perfect. You only had to go through your beads once. Zip, zip. Fast, fast. For years, I made everything on cable wires. Always satisfied, never a complaint. That is, until I began to cross paths with my Rogue Elephant.

Today, there are many brands, qualities and distinctions of cable wires. There are easily over 24 choices. Each brand organizes its worst to best wires differently. None of the brands provides sufficient information on their labels to make a fully informed choice. It’s very confusing. It’s virtually impossible to compare across brands. You need to know the materials the braided wires are made of, the thicknesses of the finished wires, and the number of wires braided together within the cable, the material the nylon sheathing is made of, and the thickness of this sheathing.

The true measure of wire strength is called “tensile strength.” This is the amount of force it takes to keep the wire from bending. This information is not found on any of the labels.

A long time ago, manufacturers put “pound strength” on their labels. There are no government standards about measuring “pound strength.” Because of this, whenever you see “pound strength” on a label, whatever the product, you need to take this with a large degree of skepticism. First, there are two measures of pound strength – (1) how heavy the fish is that the line will support, and (2) how much force the line will support when reeling in a fish of a given weight. But because there are no standards, it is up to the factory to put whatever they want. Most of these wires are made in total or in part in one factory in Taiwan. The person at the factory responsible for labeling pound strength never got it right, and never got it the same. One batch would show 20#, then the next time it might show 2#, then 5#, back to 20#, down to 10#. Since he could never get this right, the manufacturers asked him to leave this information off the label.

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There are many brands of flexible, nylon coated cable wires. These cable wires can be grouped into three levels of quality:- Craft (Tiger Tail)- Designer (Flex Wire)- Professional or Artist

I start people at the Designer (flex wire) quality cable wires. Most craft stores only carry the Craft quality. This is rather useless. Most bead stores carry the Craft and Designer levels, and sometimes the Professional or Artist level as well. The “best” level is extremely expensive, so I feel the beader or jewelry-maker needs to justify the extra expense when moving up to this quality.

Tiger Tail was the original cable wire, and today it is the low-end product. It’s the Craft level wire, and all brands carry it. Often you don’t see the word Tiger Tail on the label. You can tell it’s Tiger Tail because it’s very cheap – substantially cheaper than anything else – usually under $5.99 for a 30ft spool. Tiger Tail wire breaks very easily in and of itself. The wire tends to kink. The way you should attach Tiger Tail to the clasp is to tie the wire into a knot or a double-knot. This gives you a very secure connection to the clasp.

Flex-wire is the Designer Level. Flex-wire (again available in several forms in each of the brand lines) is noticeably more expensive than the Tiger Tail – usually starting at $10.99 - $14.99 for a 30ft spool. It does not break easily in and of itself. It does not kink. However, it is very difficult to tie into a knot. So you have to use a crimp bead in order to hold the wire in place and secure the clasp.

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The way you use a crimp bead is that you take the wire and go through the crimp, through the clasp, then back through the crimp. You crush the crimp with a pliers to hold it into place. The major reason to use a crimp bead is to make your piece look more finished, than if you had tied a knot. However, it does make your piece less secure.

When you crush your crimp bead onto the wire, this flattened crimp becomes like a little razor blade. All jewelry moves. So your crimp is constantly trying to saw through your wire. On Tiger Tail, crimps easily cut through the wire, so that is why we suggest tying a knot. If you don’t like the look of the knot, you can either use beads on either end with large enough holes to swallow the knot. Or you can use a piece called a crimp cover and slip this over the knot, squeeze it shut, and it looks like you have a bead there.

With Flex-wire, this wire is so strong that we feel very comfortable recommending that you use a crimp bead on each end. However, and this is a big However, we DO NOT suggest that you use more than one crimp on each end. Sometimes your friends or your mind will tell you that using 2 or 3 crimps on each end will be more secure. It’s not. All you are doing is adding razor blades. You’re increasing the changes that one of these crimps will cut through the wire.

If you’ve crimped correctly, one crimp on either end is sufficient. It doesn’t matter what the shape or the size of the crimp bead is. Cable wires come in different thicknesses.

For necklaces, you want to choose the thinnest wire that is the most durable. This is because the major design goal here is to have your necklace drape as best and as comfortably as possible. We suggest something around .014” or .015”.

For bracelets, you want to use the thickest wire that is most comfortable. Bracelets take a huge beating on a daily basis. We suggest something around .018” or .019”.

For eyeglass leashes, we suggest .024” or .019”. These take the most beating. You don’t want the leash or the eyeglasses themselves to break.

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Cable wires are fast and easy. They are not as involved as using needle and thread. However, with the cable wires, the finished projects tend to be stiff. They don’t lay well. They don’t move well at all. If you make a bracelet with needle and thread, the bracelet, when worn, conforms to your wrist. If you move your wrist to the right, your bracelet also moves in the same direction to the right. If you made that same bracelet on cable wire, the wire takes the shape of a circle. Your wrist is actually oval. If you moved your wrist to the right, the bracelet done on cable wire would actually move in the opposite direction – to the left.

Lots of deep physics here. But the results are obvious, and often embarrassing. This most often happens with necklaces that turn around when worn, bringing the clasp front and off-centered, sometimes making the wearer look somewhat clownish.

Most brands of cable wire I find too stiff. They have major problems of draping and moving with the body. They lay on the body funny. Two brands I find particularly good, and these are the only brands I use, are Soft Flex and Flexrite.

The Hybrid “Cable Thread”

Every year there are many new stringing materials. Many start as advances in fishing lines. One recent advance is what I call the hybrid “cable thread”. These are made from threads that are braided together and encased in nylon, instead of braided wires. Two brands – Power Pro and FireLine are very prominent. I especially like the FireLine.

You use these with needles, but do not have to wax them. You don’t have to go through your beads three times, like with the threads. Once is sufficient, though I sometimes go through 2 or 3 times to firm up the way the beads lay on the stringing material, and so the beads don’t wobble.

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You don’t necessarily have to wax the FireLine, but a lot of people like to do this. If you wax it, this will increase your thread tension considerably. In most projects a tight tension is very desirable.

Beading thread is flat and shaped like a ribbon. Beading needles have rectangular holes. FireLine, however, is shaped round. To make it easier to thread FireLine into a beading needle, you can flatten the end of the FireLine. I pull the end between two of my fingernails. You can also use a chain nose pliers to flatten the end. Then pop it into your needle.

Pieces done with the cable threads lay stiffer and feel stiffer than the threads, like Nymo or C-Lon, but they drape and feel much better than the cable wires.

Many stringers and bead weavers have switched to cable threads.

Hard Wire

People use hard wire to make things like ear wires and clasps, earring dangles, chains, rosaries, coils and components, and wire-wrapped settings for stones.

There are many kinds of hard wire.

At the low end is called Craft Wire. Craft Wire is plated wire over steel or a brass alloy of steel. Craft Wire is bad for finished jewelry projects. It’s OK for practice. It’s OK for stationary objects like a beaded ornament. All jewelry moves. The plating doesn’t bond at all to steel. So when you bend the steel back and forth, the plating tends to wear off quickly. Also when you bend steel back and forth, it doesn’t take long before it breaks.

Craft wire, no matter the brand, tends to be packaged like the white spool pictured below.

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Above Craft Wire is Plated Copper Wire. If you need to work with a plated wire, then Plated Copper Wire is a great product. There are many brands. The packaging varieis but it never looks like that of the craft wire above. The plating bonds perfectly to copper, so it takes a very long time to wear off. Also, when you bend copper back and forth, it takes a very long time to break. It comes in lots of colors and lots of metallics.

Higher in quality than plated wire is called “Raw” wire. In our store, we sell raw brass, raw copper, raw nickel. We sell sterling silver wire, fine silver wire, gold-filled wire and a new metal called argentium silver. Argentium is tarnish-resistant sterling silver.

The sizes of wire are measured by “gauge”. What Gauge means is that somewhere on earth there is a standard sized pipe. Gauge refers to how many wires will fit into the pipe. So, if you can fit 20 wires into the pipe, the wire is 20 gauge. If you can only fit 6 wires into the pipe, that wire is 6 gauge.

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When buying wire, another choice to make is how HARD the wire should be at the start of your project. Wire is usually sold as “Hard”,“Half-Hard”, or“Dead-Soft.

With “Hard” hard wire, you can’t bend the wire. This is useful when making a hat pin or stick pin. You cut the length of wire you want. You take a metal file and file one end into a point. The wire is stiff, so it will easily puncture a hat or a fabric, without bending. However, if you wanted to make a loop on one end of the hard wire, say to make an earring dangle, you could not; it won’t bend.

With “Half-Hard” and “Dead-Soft” wire, you can manipulate the wire. You can twist it, bend it, curve it, wrap it, hammer it. Each time you manipulate the wire, you harden it. If you keep manipulating and manipulating the wire, it eventually hardens to the point where it is “Hard”, that is, unbendable.

Your goal as a wire artist is to find that level of hardness/softness where, after you manipulate the wire the way you want, you’ll end up with wire that stays in place, or if it is holding a stone in, that the stone won’t pop out.

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If I want to make an earring dangle by putting some beads on a wire, and bending one end into a loop so that I can hang it, if I started with “Half-Hard” wire, I would grab the end of my wire with a round nose pliers, twist my wrist to form the loop-shape, and let go of the wire with the pliers. I can trust that the loop-shape will keep its shape.

If I had started with “Dead-Soft” wire, however, and repeated this same procedure, the loop would open up and lose its shape. The wire is too soft. To start at “Dead-Soft”, I probably would have to grab the wire at both ends with vises or pliers, twist the wire until it started to harden, make a loop with a round nose pliers, and perhaps hammer on this loop a bit – all before I could trust that the loop-shape will keep its shape.

For me, and what I use in my classes and recommend for my customers, is to, in most cases, start at “Half-Hard”. Most people, including myself, don’t want to take all the time and effort “Dead-Soft” requires. However, you will find most wire artists and most how-to wire books telling you to start with “Dead-Soft”. For these wire artists, they love to manipulate their wire a lot. It makes sense for them to start with a softer wire. I just don’t think this makes sense for most people.

Some Other Popular Stringing Products

Elastic String: People hate clasps. So they love this material. You put the beads on, tie a square knot, put a drop of glue on the knot, cut the tails, and that’s it. Comes in different colors, different thicknesses, different textures. Does deteriorate a little over time, and it does lose it’s memory. There are many brands. Some labels say they don’t deteriorate or lose their memory, but from experience, they all do.

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When using elastic string, you first take some super glue and coat the beginning 3/4" to 1” of the string. Let it dry. Take a single edge razor blade and cut the end at an angle, so you have a point, and the end becomes a self needle. Put your beads on. Then tie a square knot or a surgeons knot. As you tie your knot, put a drop of glue on the inside of the knot, pull tight, and put another drop of glue on the outside of the knot. Any glue EXCEPT super glue.

We suggest E6000 or Beacon 527, but you can use school glue, rubber cement or elmers glue. Super glue dries like glass, so the bond becomes like a piece of glass. When you pull the string, the bond shatters like glass. Moreover, the broken bond looks like a piece of broken glass. The other glues dry more like rubber, so when you pull on the string, the bond acts like a shock absorber.

Illusion Cord (monofilament): Basically a thin fishing line. Used to make illusion necklaces. Small crimp beads are used to hold clusters of beads in place. Not particularly durable. Any monofilament will dry out and crack from exposure to ultraviolet light and heat.

Hemp: Used with various macramé, micro-macrame, knotting and braiding techniques.

Irish Waxed Linen: Similar to hemp, but a higher quality. Used for more fashion-oriented jewelry that incorporates macramé, knotting and braiding techniques. In jewelry, the waxiness of this product draws dust and dirt to it. You might want to use, instead, an unwaxed bead cord for jewelry.

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Leather: Always popular. Greek leather is the highest quality. Don’t shower in this. It makes the leather dry out and crack.

Waxed Cotton: A more durable leather substitute. It doesn’t have that great earthy smell of leather, however. Simply a waxed or glazed cotton wrapped around a nylon monofilament. You can shower in this.

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Pearl Cotton #8: Used in making bead-knitted bags. 11/0 seed beads will slip over the Pearl Cotton #8.

Rubber Thong: Another leather substitute and more durable. Very soft to the skin.

Satin Cord (Rat Tail): A shiny, colorful cord that’s used to hang pendants from. Pretty. Frays relatively quickly. Not durable at all.

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Organza Ribbon: The type of ribbon that you would string beads on. Use a Big-Eye needle to get your beads onto the ribbon.

Memory Wire: A stainless steel coil, like a slinky. Cut off some rings, put beads on, then, bend the ends. Caution: Memory wire will ruin all your jewelry tools. If you are using Memory Wire, then use industrial strength tools – things you would find in a wood-working shop.

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TOOLS

When people begin to bead and make jewelry, they rush to buy every tool they’ve heard about or read about. They don’t realize that there are significant differences in tool design for any one type of tool. They don’t understand how different kinds of tools are used with different types of beading or jewelry making techniques. They haven’t necessarily learned how to use the tools.

When starting with tools, I suggest starting with inexpensive tools – what’s called the Economy Level tool. Using tools which do not fit your hands, or are too heavy, can cause all kinds of body aches and pains. Tools have different shapes, lengths and curvatures of handles, handles have different coverings, they have different kinds of springs and joints which affect the opening/closing actions, and they have different shapes and weights of jaws. Before you start investing, use the less expensive ones awhile so you can get a sense of what feels good, and what doesn’t. If these hurt your body, well, you haven’t made a big investment yet.

The Economy Level tool in a store will cost around $8-10.00. All these tools have been cast, so the handles will break and the jaws will break. Keep replacing them at the Economy Level, until you used them awhile. You can get a lot of these at local flea markets for $3-5.00.

There is a Super-Economy Level, often sold at craft and discount stores. These are often a couple dollars per tool. Avoid these. They will really end up doing some serious harm to your hands, arms and neck. The major problem with these is that the two sides of the jaws don’t meet correctly, so your hand is always over- or under-compensating for this.

Above the Economy Level are $20-35.00 tool. These are forged and are a solid piece of metal. They tend to last about 2-3 years before the jaws get a little funky.

Above that is the $40-65.00 tool. They are also forged, but use a better metal.

Above that is the $100.00+ tool.

As you go up in price, the tools get better and last longer – everything except your cutters. As you go up in price with cutters, they get more specialized in terms of the shapes of the cuts they make, and the types of metals they are designed for. But all cutters tend to get dull with regular use over a year or year and a half. On very expensive cutters, you can re-sharpen them, but they never seem to be the same as when you first bought them.

I tell people to start their tool collection with these 5 tools:

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BEAD REAMER: Bead reamers have different drill bits, and are used to smooth out the holes in beads, makes the holes larger, or straighten the channel of the holes. Austrian crystal beads have some of the sharpest holes. Pearls have some of the smallest holes. And gemstones have some of the least straight-channel holes, since their holes are drilled by starting on either side of the bead and drilling towards the middle. They never really meet in the middle. Bead reamers are perfect for these.

When buying a bead reamer, be sure the bits are “diamond coated”. The surface of the bit has to be harder than the surfaces you are working on. They sell these that are not diamond coated. Don’t buy those. All the bits that come with your bead-reamer have been cast, so they break. You can find replacements at a hardware store where they sell the dremel equipment. Just be sure they are diamond coated.

CHAIN NOSE PLIERS: This is your most important tool. It is an extension of your hand. You can push and pull with these. When buying a chain nose pliers, be sure that the insides of the jaws are smooth. In a hardware store, most of these have ridges to catch a screw. We want them smooth so that they don’t scratch the pieces we’re working on.

ROUND NOSE PLIERS: We use round nose pliers to make shapes, particularly loops. It’s important that at least one side of the jaws be perfectly round. These come long, they come short, they come with one side flat and one side round. There’s one design where the insides of both sides are flat. This is no good. We need one side perfectly round.

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SIDE CUTTERS: This is used to cut things. Nothing special here. For most jewelry making, this and a scissors is sufficient. If you get into wire-work jewelry, however, you will probably want to invest in several more specialized cutters, including a Flush Cutter, which leaves a straight edge on your wire, when cut..

CRIMPING PLIERS: This is a specialized type of finishing pliers. It has two pairs of notches. The bottom pair of notches is used to crush your crimp onto your cable wire to hold it in place. You then end up with something that looks like a flat pancake. The top pair of notches is used to re-shape that flat pancake so that it looks like a bead again.

Again, the major reason to use crimp beads is to make your piece look more finished, than tying a knot. It does make it less secure. The crimp pliers are basically a finishing

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pliers. Stick to the original crimp pliers. And don’t buy the crimp-pliers-of-the-month. None secure your crimp beads as well as the original.

With one exception. In 2011, a manufacturer came out with a 1-Step Crimp Pliers. This one does work as well as the original – and in just one step.

DUCT TAPE YOUR PLIERSIf you feel you are scratching up your pieces with your pliers, you can do one of two things.You can replace your pliers with nylon tipped ones. This solves the scratching issues, but sometimes you don’t feel you have the same control over these, as you do with regular pliers.Or, you can take some duct tape, and tape over the jaws of your pliers. You can do this to your chain nose pliers, flat nose pliers, round nose pliers, and the like. Since the duct tape is thin, you don’t lose that “feel”, as you manipulate the pliers with your hand.

You will also want to get these items:1. Ruler (marked in both millimeters and inches)2. Bead Board (3 channel is best)3. Bead Stoppers4. Storage Jars and Storage Units5. Scissors6. Work surface or pad7. Tweezers8. Thread Zapper or Bic Lighter

If you get into wire working and wire wrapping, you will also want to get some of these items:1. Steel block2. Chasing Hammer3. Leather Mallett

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4. Flush Cutters5. Jump Ring Forming Mandrel6. Ring mandrel7. Dome block8. Narrow needle file set9. Pin Vises (at least 2 of these)10. Flat Nose Pliers11. Stepped Chain-Nose Pliers12. Finger Sizer (to measure size of fingers for rings13. Wire Rounder (Cup Burr)14. Metal Sheet Hole Punch

WHAT GLUE DO I USE?

I often get many questions about what glue to use with rhinestones and other beading and jewelry-making projects. Nothing is perfect, but based on our experiences, here are some good tips:

(1) Always experiment with your adhesives first, before you use an adhesive on your final project. No one glue works with every project.

(2) Glues vary widely in terms of which materials they stick to, how well they form a bond between two smooth surfaces, and how the glue bond ages, both in terms of durability and color, and whether the glue expands in volume after it dries, or not.

(3) Clean the excess glue off your piece before you display or sell it.

(4) You will probably have to rely on more than one type of glue to accommodate all your types of projects.

E6000

My favorite glue is referred to as a 1-part epoxy (but it’s not really an epoxy). “1-part” means that you don’t have to mix anything to make the glue – it just comes out of a tube. One brand is called E6000, and this version of the glue is thick in consistency. Another version of the glue is called Beacon 527. This glue is runny. Some people prefer one or the other. E6000 is the first one I used, and I prefer that one. There are other brands as well.

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Perfect for attaching findings to base metal and costume jewelry pieces. Also, use E-6000 on bead strands to seal end knots and to provide a strong, flexible seal that won't become brittle or damage the bead cord. E-6000 is safe for use with virtually every type of gemstone and works on wood, leather, vinyl, and canvas.

Non-corrosive and self-leveling, E-6000 adheres in 5 to 10 minutes, and hardens to a clear, waterproof cure in 24 hours. This means you have about 10 minutes to position and reposition whatever you are gluing. After about 20 minutes, you can take your finger and/or a tweezers and rub off any glue that has oozed out from any edges or around any pieces. If you are making jewelry, you should let the piece dry "hard" overnight, before you wear it.

E-6000 dries like rubber, so the glue acts like a shock absorber, as your jewelry moves.

Drawbacks: It doesn’t bond well between two smooth pieces of glass. It doesn’t bond well to very oily surfaces.

GLUING RHINESTONES

When we use E6000 with rhinestones, we put a little drop of glue on the end of a pin. Then we touch the glue to the back of the rhinestone. We maneuver the pin-glue-rhinestone over the place where we want the stone to be. Then we push the rhinestone in place, and simultaneously pull the pin away from the stone. We rub the stone and around the stone with our finger or the pin to get any excess glue off. Before it dries, E6000 rubs off like rubber cement.

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WHEN YOU DON’T WANT THAT POP!…Gluing Rhinestones to Flip FlopsFlip Flops are a fashion statement — especially when decorated with bright, shiny Austrian crystal rhinestones.    Unfortunately, the rhinestones will pop off easily, if the surface of the flip flops isn’t treated first.  You see, the rubber flip flops are very oily, and glue will not stick to them very long.

I suggest going to your local hardware store.  Buy a can of wood-deck water-proofing sealant, and paint it on your flip flops.  Let them dry.   Then glue your rhinestones on.    I suggest using a glue like E6000 or Beacon 527.

Superglue

Superglue is not our favorite! It often ruins rhinestones (it discolors them and makes them cloudy) and other pieces we use in jewelry-making. It's bond is tough, but it breaks easily. Superglue dries like glass, and the bond shatters like glass. Moreover, the shattered bond looks like a piece of broken glass, so if any stringing material is nearby, the bond can cut it.

We do, however, use superglue occasionally. We prefer a stronger brand of this glue called G-S HypoCement or Watch Crystal Cement. We often use it to seal end knots, or coat a frayed strand of cord. We sometimes use it on crimp beads to enhance the closure. Unlike its super glue cousin, G-S Hypo Cement takes several minutes to set, so you can move things around during this time.

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Hot Glue Guns

Hot glue guns are fun to use. When the materials you are using are large and bulky, hot glue guns make the projects go faster.

The glue's bond will not last forever. The glue will yellow with age. The bond weakens at body temperature. If you made a dangly pair of earrings, and hot-glued a rhinestone to the piece that touches the ear, the rhinestone will likely pop off when the earring is worn. If you hot-glued stuff on the dangle, you won’t have the same problem.

Some additional suggestions about glues

A great book to buy is The Crafter’s Guide To Glues by Tammy Young. In it she discusses all the types of glues, including the following:

White glues, such as Elmer's Glue All- bond is not strong, so useful for lightweight objects only- bond is not flexible, so not useful for things where there is movement- may not dry clear- materials used must be porous

Tacky glues, like hot glue gun- usually dry clear and are flexible, but can wash out- body temperature can weaken bond

Clear Craft Glues- wash out easily- for lightweight projects

Super Glue- instant adhesive, that works with many smooth surfaces, but not well with smooth glass surfaces- will cloud rhinestones- especially good with plastic pieces- water resistant, but not best choice for washable projects- inflexible; does not work well where there is movement

High Tech Adhesives, like E6000 and Beacon 527- not water soluable- bonds to both porous and non-porous materials- does not bond well to rubber- sets slowly, so you can reposition things- dries clear

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Fabric Glues, like No-Sew- holds up through several dry cleaning cycles- formulated to glue fabric to fabric- make also work well to glue various embellishments to fabric

Fusibles, where you melt the glue with an iron or another heat source, such as a transfer- for applying appliques or transfers- prewash all materials before fusing

Aquarium Glue (glass cements)- great for bonding two smooth surfaces of glass

Clear Cements, like G-S Hypo Tube or Watch Crystal Cement- Doesn't dry as fast as super glue, so can do some repositioning, but bonds strong like super glue- Good to use for sealing knots in jewelry projects- Not as strong as epoxies or high tech adhesives- water resistant and not affected by temperature

As with anything you do as a bead and jewelry artist, you want to ask lots of questions and get lots of advice. You want to play with a wide variety of tools and glues and stringing materials and metals and beads. You want to experiment. Let yourself try and err. This is a lot of information. But this Orientation is important. Very important. Making jewelry is very similar to building a bridge – you must be familiar with many kinds of materials, how the materials interrelate, and how you link and connect these materials in a durable and appealing piece which wears well, and moves well with the wearer.

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Even Elephants Like To Play

It was a boring Sunday afternoon in the jungle. The Elephants were all beaded out. And it was a little hot, but not too cold, and not too humid. A good day to be outside, they thought.

So the Elephants decided to challenge the Ants to a game of soccer. They had played them before, and everyone always had a great, fun time. The game was on.

Today’s game was going very well. The Elephants were beating the Ants ten goals to nil, when, all of a sudden, without warning, and totally unexpected, the Ants gained possession of the ball.

The Ants' star player – Stanley J. Ant -- was dribbling the ball towards the Elephants' goal when the Elephants' Left-Back came lumbering towards him. Closer and closer, quicker and quicker, until this Elephant trod on top of the little ant. Right on top. He killed him instantly. Squat. Just like that.

A hush came over the field. The referee stopped the game.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Do you call that sportsmanship, killing another player?"

The Elephant Left-Back replied,

"Well, I didn't mean to kill him, really, I didn’t -- I was just trying to trip him up."

Well, I hope your Orientation to Beads and Jewelry Findings was relatively painless. No need to concern yourself about Rogue Elephants or Rogue anything. Not yet. Just some facts, ma’am. In subsequent segments, I discuss more about clasps and how to use

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them, as well as go into great detail about pieces called “Jewelry Findings”, what these are, and how to use them. I explain many bead stringing, bead weaving and some basic wire working techniques. And since you’re just getting started in beading and jewelry making, I later bring up a few more pertinent points. These have to do with Organizing Your Work, and Managing Your Emotions While Working.

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