Make Your Own Crimp Beads Jewelry Making Tutorial

Hey there, Heather Boyd Wire here, and if you're new to my channel, be sure to subscribe and hit that little notification button because I post videos about wire art and jewelry every week, every Saturday and every Wednesday I go live. And this week's project is a special request from Deb. So Deb is in my Wire Art and Jewelry Makers Club on Facebook and she asked me about little crimps for necklaces because she didn't have any crimps. And so it got the wheels turning in my brain and I figured out a way to make crimps out of wire. So I'll show you that today. So all you're going to need for this project are cutters, flat pliers, a straight pin and some 22 gauge artistic copper wire. So I cut about an eight inch piece of wire. It's always better to have too much than too little. And I have my straight pin. And the reason I'm using a straight pin is because it's quite solid. It won't bend. And so I just hold the artistic wire on the pin and very snugly wrap it around, I would say about three times. Now you can decide how many times you want to wrap it around, but I think three times is good. And you want the spring to be very tight and end both ends on the same side. And then you simply pull the pin off and cut it really flush on one side. So you want really good cutters for this. You want to make sure your cutters are sharp. And so you cut one side and then you flip it and then you'll cut your other side. So it's a nice clean cut and there is your crimp. So to use the crimps, I've already set up a little necklace with one of my little horse charms. You can see my work in my Etsy shop. I'll link it up below. This is tiger tail. So we're just going to put a little crimp on each side of the beads and these will be pinched in place so the beads don't slide on the cord. So we just put our crimp beads on there. Let them fall down. Center the beads how you want on the necklace. And then you're going to simply just pinch the little end there. So find out where it needs to be and just give it a little, little pinch. You really want to just pinch the end of the spring and not the whole spring. So that's stuck there. And then the other side, you're going to do the same and just pinch that one little edge there, not the whole. Now, to make the crimps that go on the end of the necklace, you're better to use, rather than the straight pin, use a 20 gauge piece of wire because it's a little thicker and then we're going to do it in the same way. We're just going to wind it around three times and then this will actually hold the clasp and the split ring on. And if you want a little bigger, you can even like sort of back, unwind it a little bit if you need to. But 20 gauge wire should do the trick for that. And then the same thing, we're going to cut the ends and then we're going to put it to hold our clasp on the necklace. So we cut the ends and then so we take our necklace here and then we're going to put the crimp on the end of the necklace and then we're going to get our little hook for the necklace and put it on there. You can use any kind of clasp that you want. And then what you have to do is actually bend the wire back through the crimp to hold it in place. So you're going to bend it back through the crimp and make sure it goes right back through there. That's why you need a little thicker wire. So it'll actually be wide enough to put two strands of tiger tail. And then once it's back through there, you're going to do the same thing. Just pinch it slightly on one side, like one little end of the spring and then slightly on the other end of the spring like that. And there you have your clasp with your homemade springs. I just did a split ring on the other side and your necklace. So thanks so much for watching the video. Thank you, Deb, for your great idea to make these wire crimps. Give the video a big thumbs up if you like it. Be sure to subscribe to my channel for lots more wire art and jewelry videos. Hit that notification bell to be notified when I go live and when I post new videos. And be sure to check out my Facebook page, the Wire Art and Jewelry Makers Club, where you can share photos of your creations and be inspired by others. See you the next time.