How many strands of beads can I fit into a bead cone? That’s the question for this tutorial.
This is a nine stranded necklace and I have one bead cone (well two actually, one for each end). I’m going to see if I can squeeze all nine strands into this one bead cone.
This bead cone only measures 13mm x 10mm – do you think I can do it?
Watch the video or follow the instructions below.
Cut a piece of tiger tail approximately 40cm (16”) long. Place the bead stopper on one end. If you don’t have a bead stopper you can thread on a spare bead, then thread the wire back up through the bead the same way. This will stop the beads coming off.
Thread on all of the 8mm white opal beads.
Place another bead stopper on the end.
Repeat this for all of the beads.
Take the bead stopper off one end of one of the strands. Thread on a crimp tube. Wrap the tiger tail around the piece of wire and then back down through the crimp tube and one or two of the beads. The wire is there as a guide to make the loop the right size and also to ensure you don’t accidentally pull the tiger tail back through the crimp tube.
Crimp the crimp tube using your crimping pliers.
You will note that I’m not using my Magical Crimping Plier here. I wanted a very small crimp and, while I love the Magical Crimping Plier, it does make the crimps quite large, so today I used my Xuron Crimping Pliers.
Trim off the short end of the tiger tail.
If you haven’t crimped a piece of jewellery before, here’s a useful video to watch – 3 ways to crimp.
To crimp the other end, you repeat the process. This time make sure that there aren’t any gaps in your bead string before your squeeze the crimp, but that your piece will still move freely (ie the beads are not too tight).
Repeat this process for all of the strands.
Lay your strands out according to colour, light to dark.
Make a loop in the end of the wire. If you’ve never done that before, or you have difficulty with that, please watch this video all about how to make the perfect loop.
Don’t worry too much about this loop being perfect. It won’t be seen.
Open the loop and feed on one end of all of the strands. This can be a little difficult as they will want to fall off. You can push the first strands up the wire a bit until you get them all on and then push them back down, holding it so that they last one doesn’t fall off. Close the loop.
Thread the wire through the bead cone from the bottom to the top. Pull as hard as you can so that the loop (and hopefully the crimps) disappear inside the bead cone. Make a right angled bend at the top of the bead cone.
Cut the wire to approximately 1cm and make another loop.
Now that you have all the strands anchored into one bead cone, you can do your twist. Don’t just the strands as one or they will come untwisted. Separate the strands into colours and twist each colour.
Tip: Place your pliers on the strands to hold them once you’ve twisted them.
Now twist all three of the twisted strands together.
Attach the second bead cone in exactly the same manner as you did the first one. Before you do the top loop, just check that you are happy with the amount of twisting and how the necklace looks. It’s easier to change it now than take it all apart later.
When you are happy with the necklace, go ahead and do the loop on the top of the bead cone.
Measure the necklace against yourself to see how long to make the chain. In the video I made my chain 6cm long but I’ve since made it about 2cm shorter on each side as I wanted the necklace to sit higher.
I used stainless steel chain and I cut it with my memory wire cutters. If you can cut it with your flush cutters, go ahead.
Open a 6mm jump ring and thread on the loop and the end link of the chain. Close the jump ring. Here’s a handy video all about jump rings if you need help with this.
Repeat for the other side.
Open the 4mm jump ring and thread on the end link of one of the pieces of chain and the loop of the clasp. Close the jump ring.
Finally, open a 6mm jump ring and thread on the end link of the other piece of chain. Close the jump ring.
I was wearing my heart and cage necklace in this tutorial where I discuss how to design a necklace using texture and shape.
I’m also wearing my Heart Chandelier Earrings.
I hope that you enjoyed this tutorial. If you do make it, share it with me via email or post it on your social media and tag me.
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December 5, 2023
Hi, my name is Carol Karl. I live in little old New Zealand. My family and I strive to live the most ‘real’ life we can – by that I mean that we eat real food, we live real lives and just generally be our most authentic selves.
