I’m a store dog, from a long line of store dogs. My name is Lily. I’m part Chihuahua and part Shiatsu. Other store dogs have it much easier than I do, because I work in a Bead Shop. Wherever I try to lay down, there are beads. In the classroom, people are talking, talking, talking and waiving those needles all around. In the front, everyone wants to pet me and make nice — not my thing. And, try as I may, and feign as I might, I don’t think I’ll ever master this — beading and jewelry making.
5/5
Warren took me aside, and held me tight. He told me Connie had died yesterday.
I am so sad. I lost my best friend. I know Connie is together with Rosie by her side. – Lily
5/1 Thunder and lightning all day. Sorry Warren, No McCabe workshop for you. I come first. – Lily
4/27 Again, Daisy. Jayden dropped Daisy off at the store. And what is the first thing she does when she walks into the store? She runs to everyone, one at a time, and kisses each of them. Daisy, THOSE ARE MY PEOPLE!!!!! Paws off! – Lily
4/25 It was Daisy all week. Daisy on Monday. Daisy on Tuesday. Daisy on Wednesday. Daisy on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. All she does is sleep in her green cushioned chair in the front of the store. She slept right through Attaching Clasps and Bead Study and Wire Clinic and Pearl Knotting. And I saw Vera sneak Daisy and extra treat. – Lily
4/20 Have you ever gotten a bead stuck in the matted hair on your snout just below your eyes? Quite a perspective. – Lily
4/18 Daisy, dastardly daisy doodle, got in trouble yesterday. She jumped up on the bead table, and was taken to the dark bathroom for time out.
A Vanderbilt professor did a study that showed that dogs didn’t really smile. Then, what’s this! -Lily
4/17 They waxed the floors last night.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! #^Vdkla@)(!%
Oooh, they missed a bead. – Lily
4/15 These substitute UPS drivers don’t get it.
Nip or Treat!
No treat, you get nipped. – Lily
4/12 “Do you think we should give Lily a T.R.E.A.T.?” That means, Bark twice, Whine moderately, and Paw up. Mmmmmm… – Lily
4/10 Thunder and lightning, Oh My!
The only safe place to hide is under Warren’s chair.
Too bad it’s on wheels. – Lily
4/8 Connie was worth waiting for!
I love Connie! – Lily
4/7 Tomorrow is Bead Study. Can’t wait. Connie takes good care of me. That’s why I like to jump up on the seat next to her, and curl up and look cute.
She’s very good about not dropping beads on top of me. – Lily
4/4 Becky came to the store again today. I thought she was shy. Now she’s all store dog — barking, greeting, kissing.
A lady came in, bent over, and Becky kissed her! No, no, no, that’s not how it’s supposed to be done. I’m the only kissy-face around here! – Lily
4/3 I laid on my back, my soft tummy up waiting for someone to rub it. 20 minutes. 30 minutes. Nothing.
I know what to do in this situation.
“Lily, WHEWWWW!!!!” – Lily
4/1 — even later I was playing with my baby toy, as I do after work each day. Somehow, I fell over off the chair, and rolled a bit. A bit too far, and right into Jayden’s TV tray, where she was working. It’s too high up to see.
The tray fell over, and now I see what she was working on — very pretty.
And Jayden smiled a big smile. Or was it a frown? I can’t tell this far away on the ground. I know she loves me. – Lily
4/1 — later Daisy came to work today. I don’t know why she bothers. You could slap her up and down the side of the snout with beads, and she wouldn’t care.
I’ve dug a secret hole for Daisy in the back yard, near the rear fence and the bamboo. She’s stronger than I am, so I’m a bit afraid to push her in.
But consider her warned….. – Lily
4/1 Richard stuck a red price tag on the hair on the back of my neck. He said it showed everyone how precious I am. Then why were they laughing? – Lily
3/31 Jayden likes to play dress-up with dogs and anyone else around her. I’ve been through it all — bows, hair clips, ribbons, Austrian crystal necklaces, Austrian crystal leashes, sweaters, embellished sweaters and embellished sweaters with further embellishment. Thank God I don’t have any lips, or she’d be putting lipstick on me.
Recently, she’s been struggling about how to dress-up Daisy. Her hair is too short for hair clips and bows. And her breast is broad and large, but her neck is tiny and narrow. She can’t pull off those necklaces of hers. – Lily
3/30 I have a pronounced underbite. Girls think it’s cute. It goes with my pug nose. I’m still able to crush the crimp onto the wire, though, but I can’t get my jaw and teeth to re-round them. – Lily
3/29 Oooh! Some of my hair got sewn into one of Warren’s works.
I hope he doesn’t notice. – Lily
3/28 Got myself tangled up here in black Nymo thread. Around my paws a few times, and my tail, and it feels like it’s cutting up into my butt. I’ve been chewing at it for hours now.
Thank God it’s the Nymo on the bobbin and not on the spool. I’d never be able to chew through that. – Lily
3/24 I sat through another Orientation class of Warren’s.
Rosie, one of the last store dogs, went to every class and soaked in all the material.
I can’t help it if she mastered tubular peyote after two years. That damn step up.
In a bead store, “adorable” just gets you so far.
Mastering the step up — now that will get you put on a doggy pedestal for life.- -Lily
3/18 I can’t believe Warren got even smaller treats.
I expect everyone to give me a treat every day, or at least, ever time they come in.
That means, Marje and Richard and Nola and Linda and Nancy and Tiffany and Connie and Vera and Cecilia and Bonnie and Ethel and Mary and Andrea and The Postman and The UPS Man and The FedEx Man and Beverly and Kathleen (even though she doesn’t like dogs) and Susan and Susie and Dagmar and Terry and Sandy and Warren and Jayden. -Lily
3/17 Richard put a green self-stick label on me, so I could wear the green like everyone else.
At least, I think that’s why he did it. -Lily
2/24 Ronnie brought Becky today and Jayden left Daisy at the store.
NO NOT AGAIN.
Becky is too big to play with. Daisy gets all the attention, and she doesn’t even like to bead. -Lily
2/24— later Becky found Daisy’s bone and hid it.
Daisy found it. And hid it somewhere else.
Becky found it. [“It’s there, you big dog,” I said.] Then hid it.
Daisy found it again, and took it somewhere else.
Fun to watch, but they’re both slobbering over all the beads on the floor. -Lily
2/3 Stepped on another needle today.
I guess Size #10 needles ARE bigger than Size #12’s. – Lily
1/11 Dastardly Daisy Doodle came to work again today. I don’t know why she doesn’t stay home. She doesn’t like to bead.
Today, as usual, Daisy slipped her rubber bone with the wheel on it into Vera’s larger than life, at least larger than Daisy, canvas bag.
And in return, copped one of Vera’s peyote stitched pieces. I wonder how long it will take Vera to notice. -Lily
I can’t help it if she could Square Stitch. After all, she had a much larger snout than I do.
It was much easier for her to thread the needle. -Lily
1/4 I snorted a bead today. It was an 11/0 Japanese Miyuki seed bead in turquoise luster.
I guess it’s true what they say about seed beads. They are not all exactly the same size. The 11/0 aqua transparent I snorted yesterday was much smaller. -Lily
I was driving down the interstate, not really going anywhere, but enjoying the ride. As the billboards passed, and the cows passed, and the gas-stations passed, and as I passed car after car and truck after truck, I began to begin to suppose — suppose I used some particular beads, with these other beads, in this configuration, with this design. Just suppose.
My mind wandered a bit for a moment, distracted by something along the side of the road I caught in the corner of my eye, and then I returned to thinking about my piece and its design. I needed a sense of the clasp and how it fit with my visualization of the beads. I wanted to evoke a feeling. An emotion. A sensibility. A restrained elegance. Something different than for my sweaty body, somewhat tired and disheveled, somewhat stiff, driving an older car along a long stretch of road. Flat. The same grass, bush, tree, grass, bush, tree, grass, bush, tree over and over again.
I wanted to create five segments, each with a subtle color and pattern variation. The clasp had to fit in with that pattern. Should I string it on cable wire, thread or FireLine (a cable thread)? This one would be FireLine. I’d go through three times to steady the beads from wobbling on the line. Black FireLine. Black was important this time.
I wanted to try to bead-weave off the bead-strung piece. I’d need to subtly build in some delicas into the patterning, and some way to drop them down from the line of the string, so I could weave off them. I wanted to use some shapes I hadn’t made much use of before — 15mm angel wings, 12x6mm bell flowers, and fireballs or crystals. Police lights in the distance. A purple-y blue. Blinking rapidly. In succession. I slowed down. And slowed down some more. I lost my train of thought and wondered for a few seconds to remember what I had been thinking about.
My lady wearing my necklace would be in a long, slimming gown, with a low cut neckline, and hair pulled back. She was busty, but not too busty. She would be walking rapidly down ramps and stairs, through rooms and parties, turning frequently to talk to one person, then another. My necklace had to move with her, like a natural extension of her persona. That meant colors would have to flash and sparkle from every angle of every bead, and from every segment of beads.
But too much sparkle would be overwhelming, so I’d need some subtle color shadings and blendings that would catch the eye, but not hurt it. That would intrigue, and not disappoint. That would flatter, and not make clownish. And that necklace would have to stay in one place. That means thread or FireLine, and a well-jointed and supported clasp assembly, starting with a simple hook and eye.
It was an accident.
Oh, no, not my fantastic fantasy of a necklace. The cars, police lights, police cars, fire engine, and the police, and a few by-standers. My necklace would be no accident. It would be a star upon a star upon a star. Whoops, I’m veering a little bit off the roadway here. I’m still within eye-sight of those police troopers, so I don’t want to do that. Got to pay more attention to the road. Stop designing jewelry in my head. At least, for now.
I’ll soon be at the next big town on the map, to check out all the bead stores there.
DESIGN — MORE THAN A BUMP IN THE ROAD
Design is more than a road trip. It’s more than a day-dream interrupted by a bump in the road. It’s not triggered by flashing lights, nor disrupted by them. Design doesn’t suddenly drape itself around you because you’ve visited every bead store between here and there. It doesn’t become a part of you because you’ve attended X-number of bead shows and taken Y-number of jewelry making workshops. Design is something more.
Design means having some intention in life. It means screaming Here I Am without having to scream. It means interpreting the inner you for the outer them. To Design with Beads makes this process wondrous. It means capturing light and shifting shadows within colors and shapes and sizes and materials, front, left, center, curve and crevice, inside-out and outside-in. Design doesn’t get any better than designing with beads.
But there is a self-awareness factor. As an artist. A creator. Someone who esteems themselves. With courage. And direction. And meaning. With curiosity. Attention. And detail.
It’s something more than calling yourself a Jewelry Designer. And it’s something more than other people, upon seeing your work, calling you a Jewelry Designer — only because that is what you call yourself. Designers are artists who find their inner designer self — creating resplendently, appropriately, exuding desire, fantasy and a certain edginess in appeal. Their designs may speak loudly or softly, but in each case, they resonate.
Most people who call themselves Designers, avoid design. They might follow trends or fads. They might shy away from choosing colors or patterns. They might rely on simple rhythms, unthreatening, un-announcing, un-tantalizing, un-sexy. They might resort to simple lines, instead of shapes and forms. They compensate for a lack of understanding of contemporary jewelry design principles by over-embellishing, or using overly-expensive materials, or placing their jewelry in overwhelming packages with tissues and informational cards and business cards and perfumed essences of something.
How many times, I cannot tell you, have I walked through craft shows and jewelry shows, or paged through jewelry and bead magazines, or examined the pictures of the winners and runners-up of numerous and prominent jewelry design competitions, and been disappointed. Dull. Unwearable. Inappropriate materials, clasps and components. Unimaginative. Seemingly copied. Weak color choice. Boring rhythms. Balance for the sake of balance, symmetry for the sake of symmetry. Predictable. Safe. Unreflective of the artist’s unique human hand. Overly embellished. Ignorant of the art in craft, or the craft in art.
The good designer sees jewelry as art as it is worn. No matter where the person is. No matter what the person looks like. No matter what the person is doing. Jewelry must hold up as art as it is worn. It can only do so if the artist has attended to design principles.
Design Principles help us understand why people find some jewelry attractive, and other jewelry not. The first set of these design principles we call Rules of Composition. Using these rules is more a conviction, than an established, conscious fact.
But way, way before you get to these rules, you go through a trial and error, almost happenstance, process of discovery. It’s in the little things, some clever strategy, some fortuitous decision, some working down an unknown pathway to see what happens. This is how you begin to discover the designer in you. This is how a few jewelry designers discovered art and design for themselves.
For Arynthia, today a prominent jewelry designer and instructor, she felt she crossed that initial threshold with her bead woven garden urn. She created a vessel with little beads that kept its shape. No easy feat, especially at the time.
Her vessel took hundreds of hours in figuring out how to create it. And she created and re-created it many, many times. Three dimensional bead woven pieces tend to collapse on themselves from the weight of the beads, and the lack of structural supports to keep their shapes. Most bead woven vessels and 3-dimensional objects are woven over another object — a jar, a vase, a ball, a piece of wood or Styrofoam — to keep the shape.
With Arynthia’s urn, she gave it four shoulders. Arynthia had always sewn. She was adept at making jackets that kept their shape at the sleeves and shoulders. She applied these insights to her bead weaving strategy in making her garden urn. She created a shoulder at the North, East, South and West points at the top of her circular urn. It worked. She had solved the core design problem before her.
The first time she made her successfully structured garden urn, she said it looked like a strawberry. So there were more design decisions to come, before she claimed final success — an urn that held its shape and looked like a garden urn. She had told me that the garden urn evolved through 25 or so versions, until she was satisfied with the design. And she, as a designer, evolved with her piece, as well.
Lanie, (another noted jewelry instructor), took a different path in her design evolution. When she initially got into beading, she would deconstruct existing pieces, and analyze the stitches. When she began her career, there were few contemporary bead weaving artists. There were many Native Americans and Africans creating bead weavings, and they provided most of her examples. How did they hold the piece together? How did they function? What about the stitchery allowed the piece to flow, curve, and move without breaking? What were the specific steps involving in stitching? Were there any commonalities and universals among pieces from different bead weaving artists?
Lanie translated what she saw into contemporary designs. Her observations about structure became explanations about structuring bead woven pieces. Things clicked. She became a designer.
And finally, we have Geoff. Geoff had no particular goals or aspirations when he started making jewelry. It was something that kept him busy. Kept his mind from wandering and his attention focused and grounded. Allowed him to be creative. He tried every technique — bead stringing, netting, peyote, brick, right angle weave. He went back and forth. Beading is somewhat addictive, and he found himself addicted. But nothing at the moment felt like self-expression.
Geoff began to teach the peyote stitch. He was rigorous. He drove his students to try more and more things. And then more things. He was never satisfied. He wanted to achieve something he could not articulate. His students suffered for it. He was disappointed in them. And he distanced himself from them.
While playing with another stitch — the right angle weave — he found he could build upon the stitch, and layer it. Not only could he layer it, but he could give it dimension and shape. He constructed mattresses filled with coils of beads which formed multidimensional objects — a certain realism and sculpture-like precision. With this same stitch, it was easy to create layers of beads over these mattresses, resulting in beautiful forms and objects. He broke out of his box with these discoveries in techniques.
With this more dimensional and sculptural right angle weave as his base, he found his calling. His new insights created more new insights as he applied his ideas in different situations, with different goals and with different materials. He began blossoming as a designer.
As the Jewelry Artist comes to know jewelry and discovers their personal take on style or technique, the Jewelry Artist comes face to face with Design. Every artist’s pathway is different.
Jewelry Design is the application of basic principles of artistic expression. These principles involve:
1. COMPOSITION 2. MOVEMENT, Flow, Drapery, and Torque 3. FORMS in Relationship to the Body and the Mind, including Functionality and Support 4. TECHNIQUES and MATERIALS
These principles are merely rules for making choices about how to proceed, or not to proceed. About what to include in your pieces, and what not to include. How to anticipate wearer and viewer issues, and how not to screw up here. What techniques will work best, and which will not.
The jewelry designer delineates the Design Process, something that works for her or him, and something that allows her/him to apply the rules.
The jewelry designer articulates for her- or himself an Inspiration, sometimes very specifically, but other times vaguely.
The jewelry designer Plans out his or her designs, with the rules in mind.
S/he sets Goals for the piece — its attributes and their justification for why they must be included, and other attributes excluded, in the piece, and again, with the rules in mind.
S/he defines Standards about quality, wearability, context-sensitivity, timeliness and the like, with the rules in mind.
The jewelry designer then sets up a Schedule and a Routine, things that work for her or him, and begins to work.
And day-dreaming about jewelry design can take you to all sorts of places.
I swear I keep sticking my needle into my finger to reality-check that I’m still alive. Good, Red … I’m still alive. That this mess of a jewelry making project before me, one I keep starting, then stopping, then starting, then putting it away, and then retrieving it, and starting it again is more than a blur, a fog of my imagination. I have this great, intricate beaded necklace to make. And I can’t seem to get it done.
I’ve gone through two packs of 25 beading needles. I pick another one up. I bend it. The needle-hole catches my eye. My eye twitches a bit. Why would I ever want to thread this needle and start this project one more time? Bend now. I can’t wait for you to bend when I’m in the middle of things.
Oh, and the guilt. Everytime I stop, I think I’m being selfish. If I go outside, someone will get sick. If I complain that I’m BORED, CLIMBING UP THE WALLS, SAYING NASTY THINGS ABOUT JESUS, someone will die.
And I love beading and making jewelry. I do it all the time. Almost every day. Hours a day. Never one iota of boredom. Mind never wandering. Until now. Until I’m forced to stay inside.
I can’t focus. I can’t read. I am even getting tired of complaining to my husband. Who doesn’t care. Has never pierced his finger with a needle. And should he ever, he wouldn’t know what to do, anyway. [You know I just want to take this needle and see how he reacts. But I won’t.]
I can’t believe, and you won’t believe, what I just did. For the 8th time just in the last couple hours. I ali-kazam’d with my fingers and commanded the beads to usher themselves into this spectacular, wonderful, beautimous piece of jewelry. And did they? No. Out of spite? Now I’m losing focus again.
My house has become the Hanoi Hilton Hotel. John McCain is in the cell next to mine. He has a window. But the floors lay at a 30-degree angle. My floors are flat. But he has a window. I’ve managed to chip off over 60 pieces of brick off the walls. I’ve spent the last 375 days trying to drill holes in them with whatever I can find. A shard of glass. A rusted nail. A piece of metal I’ve wedged off the bars. I’ve slowly, with cleverly pinched fingers, positioned just so, manipulated the threads in my pants, rolling them, working them off in long threads. I am so sure I can drill those holes. My confidence has me believing I can secure the material to string them on.
But I digress.
They say you can survive a quarantine with a smile. I’m better off than a Neanderthal because I have a roof over my head and a grocery that delivers. That should make me smile. Neanderthals lived and hunted and played in packs. I am free to live and hunt and play by myself. This should make me smile. Neanderthals never knew what was going to happen next. I don’t know what’s going to happen next either. This should make me smile. Neanderthals never expected perfection. I do. I’m not smiling.
The news is making me crazy. So I turn it off. Now no news is making me crazy. I spend more time with my friends on Facebook. My friends are getting whiny and beginning to repeat themselves — over and over again. So I stopped linking on to Facebook. I miss my friends. I made a schedule for myself to keep me occupied and, frankly, feeling some sense of safety and security. I cannot keep to it for the life of me. So I threw it out. And made another schedule.
They say sit back and relax. There have been worse times in our history. Be helpful to one another. Show kindness, understanding. Be flexible. Get outside, if possible. Eat well. Get enough sleep. Try to connect with one person each day. Be positive.
I’m trying.
I decided to do small beading projects — ones I can finish in a few hours. This keeps me from getting overwhelmed. It gives me a feeling of accomplishment. I can sense I am living each day by day, instead of feeling I’m losing touch with time.
I do other things between projects, instead of one project after another. I go outside. Make a phone call. Bake something.
I pick projects which will develop a skill I’m unfamiliar with, or further develop a skill that I already know. Learning is very rewarding, and keeps me focused and happy.
And instead of keeping to a routine per se, I spend some time re-organizing my supplies and workroom. I feel better in my re-organizing mode, rather than following a schedule.
My Aunt Gert had, what some people call “Chutzpah” and others “Cajones”. She could always make a business situation work to her advantage. She had no self-doubt, some would say no self-restraint. One time, she came up from Florida to visit us in New Jersey, where I grew up. An A&P grocery store was going out of business. Aunt Gert prepared herself for the kill.
At the beginning of the week, the A&P had a big banner on the outside of the store — “25% OFF EVERYTHING”. My Aunt Gert moved rapidly towards the entrance, grabbing two, not one, but two shopping carts, and rushed to the meat section first. When the carts were both full — a matter of minutes, it seemed — she approached one of the managers, and asked him, since she was getting so much, could he do better on the price.
With little hesitation, the manager agreed. He told her to grab him when she was ready to checkout, and he’d give her another 50% off at the register. My Aunt Gert filled two more shopping carts that day, and at the register, they first took 25% off, then another 50%.
Exciting, great, good deal, almost war-winning. Yes?
No, Aunt Gert wasn’t quite finished. She went back the next day, got her 25% then 50% off. And the next day — 25% then 50% off.
On the fourth day, the A&P now displayed a banner that read “50% OFF EVERYTHING”. This only egged my Aunt Gert to get more eggs and cheese and canned meats and vegetables. Another 2 shopping carts worth. And at the register, they first gave her 50% off, and as she pointed the cashier to look in the manager’s direction, she reminded her that she was to be given another 50% off. And another 50% off it was.
And Aunt Gert went back on the 5th day, and got 50% then 50%, and on the 6th day, and got 50%, then 50% off, and to her glee and the store manager’s dread, she came back once more on the 7th day. But now the banner read “75% OFF EVERYTHING”. And, I’m not sure how she found enough to fill another 4 shopping carts worth of food, but when she got to the cash register, they very reluctantly gave her the 75% off, then her extra special, the-manager-was-very-nice-to-be-giving-her her additional 50% off.
Well, my Aunt Gert lived in Florida, so virtually everything she bought was for us. But she was determined to bring back her 276 cans of tuna fish, that she had paid $0.04 per can, with her back on the plane. She stuffed these into two large leather suitcases.
When we got to the airport, an airport attendant offered to get her two cases out of the trunk. Was he ever surprised? I wish I had a camera to capture his face. And at the ticket counter — the ticket counter lady tried to lift the bags onto the conveyor belt. She’s probably still going to the Chiropractor.
This story doesn’t have anything to do with jewelry, which is my thing, I know, but I love my Aunt Gert, and always love to tell her stories. But, in her week-long grocery shopping business, she does illustrate a point and some lessons about business which can serve you well. Negotiating, price consciousness, and persistence are keys to success. Very often “creative” types are uncomfortable with these more business oriented skills. But these are important to your success.
Whenever I feel uncomfortable in a business situation, I role play. I suppress who I am, and try to become someone else. Very often, I pretend to be my Aunt Gert.
If we’re to cope with our beading addiction, we may have to figure out, at least part of the way, how to bead in a car. We’re not talking water beading on the car when it gets wet. We are talking about taking beads and stringing material and clasps and all those other little pieces, and making jewelry, while traveling in a car. As the passenger. Not the driver. Or, I think not the driver. Addictions can be very powerful.
So, this all begs the question: How DO you bead in a car?
Most people say, “Don’t!”
Or, “Only if the light is Red!”
But others say it is possible under certain circumstances.
Bonnie’s Advice:
Put two pillows on your lap, and wedge them between you and the dash board, to create a type of table and shock absorber.
Use a “lap desk” that has ridges around it. Lay fleece on it.
If also using dishes or containers, put fleece in each one, as well. The fleece “holds the beads”. Regular material does not work.
The pillows absorb a lot of the bumps.
Don’t put too many beads out at a time.
For bead stringing, use long bracelet gift boxes, or something with a deep groove in it.
You can also take a piece of fleece and put it OVER your beadwork as you’re working. Or you can put your beadwork into a ziplock sandwich bag, and work on it at the opening of the bag.
Vera’s Advice:
Put beads in a fleece-lined Frisbee.
Have a towel folded up on you on the other side of the console to cushion the frisbee, so it doesn’t move.
Kathleen’s Advice: As the passenger, for bead crochet: Real easy. Use a tray lined with fleece. Pray to God you don’t hit bumps and stuff.
Pullencreek:
It is not easy beading in a car as a passenger but it can be done if you are persistent and determined. I use a shoebox lid with soft suede underneath my beadwork but it is difficult to thread while riding down the road.
Satine: Definitely NOPT while you are driving! LOL
I’ve tried beading in a car. First off, take a lot, a lot, a lot of extra beads, unless you want to spend most of your trip trying to pick them up off the floor, under the seats, in the water cup holders, in fact, they fly everywhere. Don’t bother. Just bring a lot of beads.
Learn how to shift your hands in sequence and harmony with bumps. You let them move up and back down at the same time, and with the same rhythm as your car goes up, and then back down. If one arm moves at a different rate, or to one side or the other, instead of straight up and down, it can be all over. You have to start again. And if both arms move too fast or too slow, OOPS, you have to start again.
A few times, I tried to incorporate a lot of double-sided tape and some velcro to keep things in place. Especially on those side roads. They are a killer. Doesn’t work as good as shifting your body up and down in sync with the car over it goes over humps and bumps and pot holes and changes from asphalt to concrete.
Be sure to be stern with the driver. You cannot have them hollering at you to stop. Or laughing at you. Or giving you directions. They need to be quiet.
Don’t work on major, massive projects. Keep things simple. Do things in very, very small steps. And for God’s sake, don’t worry about perfection.
You might first practice with make-up. See if you can put on lipstick and mascara and face powder while traveling in a car. If you master that, making jewelry won’t seem so hard.
But, if you’re OCD, and can’t stand things being out of place, don’t even think about bringing your beads and beading supplies into your car!
Tony: “I have memories of always being surrounded by the arts.”
Tony comes from a family that was very arts-oriented, and very supportive of him pursuing the arts and crafts — wherever it took him. His mom was a watercolorwatercolorist and oil painter. His father was a small business owner as well as a photographer. His dad’s dad sculpted for Lockheed, and even was a street dancer. He had a great uncle in New York who had a jewelry business, and Tony remembers, even at age 5 or 6, his uncle was always making jewelry for everyone in the family.
Starting out with gymnastics, Tony graduated to dancing (because his older sister danced). As a dancer, he had to teach himself to sew for costumes as his Mom was much better with a glue gun then a needle. He remembers his family always making things — food, pastry, lapidary, painting. He has fond memories of always being surrounded by art and creativity.
A family friend — Frank — taught him how to bead weave the summer he was ten. That Summer Frank and his wife exposed Tony to the artisan craft as well lapidary, jewelry festivals and much more.
Warren: “Do you think now, with all the creative things you are doing, that you, in some respects are re-creating your childhood?”
Tony: “Oh, for sure! I would say that’s part of a goal I have. I swore I would never be a teacher, but kids gravitate towards me like a moth to a flame. I realized it is because I am ‘5’. Kids get me, which should be the other way around. I am young at heart. I think trying to retain that naivete, that sort of blissful ignorance, especially as a Creative, just allows you to be a little more free with your aspirations. All of a sudden you grow up. It’s like Peter Pan. You lose that sense of innocence and exploration.”
Tony grew up in Los Angeles, spent some time pursuing a career in fashion in New York City. He moved back to Los Angeles for a few years. And then he came to Nashville with his wife who is a singer-songwriter. Today Tony wears several hats: Jewelry Designer, Dance Educator, Choreographer, Costume Designer, Jewelry Design Educator.
Tony: “Growing Up, I always thought I had to do one of these things, or the other. Before I moved to Nashville, jewelry making was just a hobby. When I moved here, one of my goals was how do I interweave all of the creative aspects that make me whole. I think a lot of creatives are creative in more than one discipline, as well. So I’m just trying to figure out how to make it one — one happy world.”
KEEPING GOING
Warren:”Today, how would you describe what your jewelry making is like today?”
Tony:”I describe Lock & Key as a modern interpretation honoring an artisan craft. I am doing something that is ancient in terms of its art, as a form of communication and expression. The loom that I use is about 80 years old at this point, so it’s touched many different hands and many different stories. It’s definitely art jewelry. I describe what I do as boho eclecticism. Tribal influences, so I say it is international in feel. One of the main feedbacks I get is that it is fashion, but not trendy.”
Tony continues by describing his core consumer.
Tony:”My core consumer is 40+. Is a woman who appreciates artisan product, as well as pieces which make them feel modern with a sense of timeless appeal.”
Warren:”So, that first day you decided to become a business. What was that like?”
Tony’s first piece, done around 1998, was a custom piece. He was asked to design a piece for the head designer at Betsey Johnson, a New York fashion designer of clothes and accessories. It was a loomed piece, 1 1/2″ wide choker with multi-colored skulls in it and dangling feathers. He was excited, to say the least. He shared the story about making this one piece, which inspired other people to ask him to design a piece. People responded to his authenticity, and then it became all about the product.
When Tony moved to Nashville, he decided to focus on jewelry. It was part, what was he going to do to make a living? Part, honoring his childhood mentor who had made the Indian jewelry. Part passion about his loom, and gradually adding precious metal clay to the mix of media he relied on for his jewelry designs.
Tony:”And I still love it. Exhausted. Up until 3am getting production ready. Fingers chewed up by my drill bits. But I absolutely still love it!
CREATIVE PROCESS
In describing a typical piece, Tony begins with multi-media. This includes some loom bead weaving. He incorporates ball and chain. He likes to use a lot of color and texture, and mix matte and glossy. People respond well to his color sensibility. He uses many square shaped beads with round beads. With the beadwork, he includes a piece of metal, like a sculpted metal clay piece, either an integral part of the piece, or as a pendant. He often includes semi-precious stones. He likes to mix metal finishes.”Silver and Gold is the same conversation as Navy and Black. If it is well-balanced, it makes it very versatile.”
Tony mentions that, to understand his creative process, you have to go back to his goal of trying to meld together all his creative worlds. His creative process is not a linear process.
He cites as an example a very successful pair of earrings he designed which are precious metal clay based. But they were flowers, which is very specific seasonal iconography. When he started thinking about what he wanted to do the next season, he thought about how he could adapt these earrings. He mentioned that a lot of his pieces and his bead weaving have an almost art deco or art nouveau feeling to them. At the time, there was an Egyptian revival style that was prominent because of a world wide tour of Egyptian antiquities.
He reflected on his artistic style and the current revival trend, and asked himself: This was a successful piece. I’m thinking business here. How do I creatively then come up with the next version of it? So for the Fall holiday he explored hieroglyphics and lotus flower motifs. And for the following Spring, he thought about incorporating the scarab and other Egyptian touches.
Tony: “Things started to trend in High Fashion — snakes, beetles, insects, and bees. I have a scarab beetle tattooed on my back that is about 14” long, the whole width of my back. It’s an icon that is important to me. It symbolizes the sun god Ra. It represents newness and renewal, and I have chronic back pain, so it was interconnected. It started from something that was authentic and meaningful for me, and which started to become a trend years after I had gotten my tattoo. I introduced this sculpt and coupled it with beadwork. People responded to it. Then I started thinking how to tie this all up from a business perspective. If we’re just creating ‘pretty’, who cares? You have to be able to speak to an audience.”
Tony discussed that jewelry artists have to be able to synergize the Business-Creative Mind. Both worlds need to be respected. It’s a hard business, he agrees. Artists have to monetize their creative output and still remain authentic to themselves.
Frequently, he asks himself: Do I need to break up with my design? It is OK, he indicated, to say Yes! His scarab beetle was a good idea, but some reality testing was in order. Was it too early before the trend? Would it be marketable?
On a second business level, Tony poses the question: Can I stand behind my product?Can the store that sells his pieces be able to stand behind his products?
A third major consideration is whether he has successfully differentiated his products from the mass market. That is one reason he incorporates glass seed beads and Czech beads within his work. Glass beads allow him to inject colors, where more mass market pieces are mostly metal and look very machine made.
MOVING ALONG
Tony reflects daily how art jewelry, as opposed to jewelry mass produced overseas, will be accepted by the general public.
He sees that consumer demand for artisan jewelry is on the rise, but there are still nagging questions whether you can make a viable business out of it. Can you make enough product? Can you do it efficiently? Can you transition from a one person designer business to having staff make the pieces, as well? Meeting business goals gets more complicated if you are not going to produce your jewelry overseas.
One of his biggest challenges coming up is to create sufficient infrastructure — studio space, supplies and personnel — to be able to easily kick out 30 pieces of 20 styles on demand.
MARKETING
Tony is natural marketer, so I asked him what kinds of things he does to reach his target audience. The extent of things he does can provide a lot of ideas and insights for all of us.
Tony:”I always try to make marketing creative so I still enjoy it.”
FUTURE PLANNING
Tony is a planner. He’s developed a clear vision for the future. Some of the things he wants to accomplish over the next 3 years include,
— maintaining a 60% year-over-year rate of growth — grow from a more regional line to a national one — focus on his infrastructure — studio space, materials and personnel — to keep production, shipping/receiving, website and marketing all on track
The big questions before him: How does he meet demand that he has created for his jewelry? How does he enhance his brand? How does he grow his ability to distribute his products?
He wants to contine to be flexible, given the instability of our economy. He wants to maintain his constant rate of sales so his business can sustain itself. He sees, perhaps, his line represented in a showroom. Perhaps he can gain more presence in museum shops.
Tony:”I have a lot of jobs right now and it would be great to have one focus. Or add a couple hours to the day.”
FINAL WORDS
Tony: “The true test of a good designer is an ability to sell it.”
Tony: “If I don’t get that gut feeling that my piece is going to be successful, it’s time to move on.”
Tony has had to create the opportunities himself. This has involved a lot of reflection, reality testing and planning. He has created a business plan framework with year over year goals for design, production, and distribution.
Tony:”In today’s world, you always have to be creating your own rules to stay on your feet. There is wide competition. Email inundation. I like the challenge but it’s exhausting.”
Tony: “Whether or not these jewelry artists work professionally, they need patrons, and that sometimes is even more important than being an artist.”
Tony wishes there was more of a connected jewelry designer/artist community in Nashville. It is still very fragmented. He finds that politics gets in the way of creative collaboration.
Tony:”There’s room at the table for everyone.”
He wants to call artists attention to the Arts and Business Council of Nashville, as well as their Periscope program. There are opportunities for networking, expanded contacts, a support system of creatives and their ideas, developing business skills and confidence.
Jewelry designers in Nashville still need a more functional, consistent support system, particularly to thread the business-needle better. Help to find studio space. Getting a small business loan. Finding an angel investor. Connecting to mentors. This is all important, and we need more organized systems to make these kinds of things easier, smoother and more reliable.
WHERE TO FIND TONY’S JEWELRY
Tony has taken a shot-gun approach to getting his jewelry out there. He does a little direct retail through an e-commerce site. He finds that this is a great billboard for him, but not a great selling outlet. He does art and craft festivals. He likes to focus on juried or well-curated shows in particular.
He wholesales his products to stores. Sometimes this involves cold-calling on stores, with product in hand. But he also does wholesale markets, like the Atlanta Gift and Apparel Market. In 2017, he did 2 shows there; in 2018, he plans on doing 4 shows. His pieces currently are in 28 stores in the United States and the Virgin Islands. He is looking at other wholesale markets. He is exploring options to lock in with a jewelry rep or a jewelry show room.
You may find Tony’s jewelry locally at:
Two Old Hippies (the Gulch) 401 12th Ave S, Nashville, TN 37203
Tony has an eye out to find his ideal studio-showroom. He pictures it full of natural light. Small and intimate. A low wall separating the front from the studio. Inspirational and calming. A sancturary.
Be Dazzled Beads is a community of Creatives. Some people use our beads to make jewelry. Some to do mosaics. Some to adorn and embellish costumes. Some to enhance things like wine classes or drapes or mirrors or sweaters or cross stitch patterns. Some to embellish paintings or sculptures. Some actually use our beads in science experiments. To us, all Creatives are Designers. That is, they make artistic and functional choices about how to incorporate the types of supplies we sell into personal visions. Some design for themselves. Some design for friends and family. Some design as a business. It is not as much fun to work alone or isolated when you realize you are part of the larger Be Dazzled, Land of Odds and Nashville communities. We can learn a lot of insights from each other. We can support each other. It’s all about Connection!
How to Crimp Using Crimp Beads, a Crimp Pliers and Flex Wire
Crimping is a technique for securing a clasp to beads strung on cable wires. Here crimp beads are used instead of tying knots.
Mechanically, crimping does three things:
In the first steps in crimping, you need to separate two wires that lead to the clasp component. One wire is your spine — what your beads are strung on. The other wire is your tail — extra wire you will need to cut off.
Second, you need to create a lock to literally lock the two wires in place.
Last, you need to make it pretty. The crushed crimp is ugly, and you need to make it look more like a bead again.
So with your pliers and your crimp bead, you separate the wires and create a lock and make things pretty again. The process is relatively simple and requires only a little practice.
If using a traditional crimping pliers, you would follow the 4-Steps listed below.
However, you can also use what is called a One-Step Crimper. This crimping pliers does all four steps in one step. If crimping is a technique that you will be doing often, then I suggest investing in a One-Step Crimper.
My warnings to you:
(a)Usually the instructions on the package that comes with your crimping pliers is inadequate to the task. Better designers know this from experience. Less experienced designers, however, rely on these inadequate instructions.
(b) There are over 55 different crimping pliers on the market. The only ones that truly work are the original and the more recent One-Step Crimper. The originals are made in China. I’ve noticed that the major craft stores now sell copies of the original ones. These are made in India. Total disaster. They don’t do the job at all because they have a poor configuration of the jaws.
(c ) When students and customers say they are having trouble crimping, they usually blame themselves or the pliers. What I have found is that have bought cheap crimp beads, usually from one of the craft stores. With crimp beads, you get what you pay for. The plated aluminum ones sold in craft stores break when you crush them. The cheap sterling ones have nickel in the alloy (sterling is 92.5% silver and 7.5% something else we call an alloy), which makes the sterling brittle. Sterling is supposed to have copper in the alloy, which makes it malleable, but many manufacturers substitute nickel to keep the cost of sterling down.
Successful crimping requires that you understand the following:
1 . Which cable wires are best for which projects
2 . How the materials you use affect your success
3. The mechanical process itself, how it works, why it works, and why we do each step
CABLE WIRES
Cable wires are nylon coated, braided wires and are very flexible. These are made for stringing.
[What is called Hard Wire — wire that is not braided and is not encased in nylon — in contrast, is not meant for stringing.]
Cable Wires come in 3 quality grades.
Tiger Tail.The low end is called Tiger Tail. Tiger Tail was the original cable wire product. Today it is the low end of the cable wire line. Most spools of Tiger Tail do not have the words “tiger tail” on their labels. You know it is Tiger Tail because of the price — typically $5.99 or less for a 30ft spool you would find in a bead or craft store.
Tiger Tail wire breaks very easily in and of itself. It kinks easily, and even with the beads on the wire, the kink often shows. The way you attach Tiger Tail to a clasp is that you take the wire through the loop on the clasp, and tie an over-hand knot. You can tie a single knot or a double knot. This actually gives you a very secure connection to the clasp. This is one positive of Tiger Tail.
Unfortunately, when you use crimp beads with Tiger Tail, they too easily cut into the Tiger Tail and make it break. So that is why we suggest tying knots. If you do not like the look of the knotted cable wire here, you can either use beads on each end and which have larger holes so that they swallow the knots. Or, you can slide a crimp cover over the knots, press the two ends on the cover together, and you have something that looks a like a bead to hide your knots.
Flex Wire. The middle quality level — what I suggest people start with, if they want to use cable wire as their stringing material — is called Flex Wire. This wire does not break easily. It does not kink easily. However, it is difficult to tie into a knot. So, we use a crimp bead to secure the wire in place.
The price on this is considerably more than the Tiger Tail. It will start between $10.00 and $20.00 for that 30-foot spool.
Professional or Artistic Wire. The top of the line is referred to as Professional or Artistic Wire. Most of these wires are very expensive, and we don’t suggest this level as the place to start.
There are many brands of cable wire. I am particularly fond of two brands — Soft Flex and Flexrite. I find the wire of other brands too stiff, and sometimes not strong enough.
Cable Wires come in different diameters or widths, usually stated in inches.
We recommend the following:
.014″ — .015″ for necklaces: here you want the best drape you can get, and still have a durable piece
.018″ — .019″ for bracelets: here you want the most durability, yet your piece still feels good when worn
.019″ — .024″ for eyeglass leashes: here durability is you primary factor
About Selecting Cable Wires
There is a lot of information on the labels of cable wires. However, while most of this information is necessary, it is not sufficient for determining which wire is best.
The only true measure of cable wire strength is called Tensile Strength, and you will not find this information on the labels. The strength of a cable wire will come from what the wire is made of, what the nylon sheathing is made of, and how thick that nylon sheathing is. You cannot assume that a 49-strand product is stronger than a 21-strand product, without knowing more about the wire composition and the sheathing. That 49-strand product may actually be weaker.
Nor can you assume that a product, the label of which indicates 20-pound strength is necessarily stronger than a product that indicates 10-pound strength. “Pound Strength” is very unreliable as a measure. In most cases, these pound strength numbers on the label are somewhat made up.
Governments provide two definitions for pound strength — what it takes to hold up a fish of a certain weight, and what it takes to reel in a fish of a certain weight. But they leave it up to the factory to determine exactly how to measure and report pound strength. So you are at the mercy of some factory worker in a place like Taiwan, high on Toluene, having the motivation to maintain a pound strength standard.
On most cable wire products, measures of pound strength are not included. Many years ago, pound strength was listed on all cable wires. The people at the factories responsible for the labels, however, could never get the same pound strength listed from batch to batch. One time it might list 20 pounds; another 2 pounds; another 6 pounds; then back to 20 pounds. So the manufacturers told them to leave this information off.
It is very difficult to compare cable wires across brands. Each company organizes its line, from low end to high end, differently. Some companies, like Beadalon, use 7-strands for Tiger Tail, 19-strands for Flex wire, and 49-strands for their Professional wire. But other companies do not use this ordered arrangement of number of strands to quality. In the Soft Flex line, their top-of-the-line 7-strand product is stronger than their 49-strand middle-range product. And don’t assume one brand’s 49-strand wire is equivalent to another’s. They are not. The Soft Flex 49-strand middle range produce is stronger and more subtle than Beadalon’s top of the line 49-strand product.
I actually only recommend 2 brands — Soft Flex and Flex Rite. These are considerably stronger and more subtle than other brands.
Know this: What makes cable wire strong is the nylon sheathing’s ability to maintain the twist in the cable wire. As soon as the integrity of the nylon sheathing is violated, the wires inside immediately untwist and break. I find that the nylon sheathing on most brands is very thin, sometimes porous, and weak chemically.
CRIMP BEADS, CRIMP COVERS, and HORSESHOE WIRE PROTECTORS
Crimp Beads
Crimp beads come in many styles, sizes and finishes. These are used to secure cable wires to clasps. You take your cable wire up through the crimp bead, through the loop on the clasp, and back down through the crimp, forming a loop. The crimping process involves crushing the crimp onto the cable wire loop, first, separating the tail and spine wires, then, locking them in place, and finally, re-shaping the crushed crimp so it looks like a bead again.
Sterling silver crimps are usually made the best, especially ones you buy in places other than the big craft stores. For plated crimps, if they are plated over brass (and years ago, they all were plated over brass), than they were very good. Brass is your best jewelry metal. The major issue was that the plating would wear off and you would have a black crimp (basically, tarnished brass). Now, most plated crimps are over aluminum. These break easily when crimped.
I tend to use sterling silver crimps for every piece, though my crimp covers and horseshoes may or may not be sterling, based on the value of the piece, and the finish colors I want to end up with.
Crimp Covers
These are U-shaped parts that slip over the crushed crimp. You can slide crimp covers over your crushed crimps. You can also use these to slide over any knots, to hide the knots. Crimp covers come in different sizes, finishes, and texturing. Crimp covers are optional pieces. They act as lamp-shades to hide something ugly, but they serve no structural role, per se.
Closing a crimp cover is done in 2-steps, not one.
(1) Using the tips of your crimping pliers, you push the two sides of the U together, so you have a pretty bead. These are made of a soft metal, so you don’t want to push too hard, or you will crush them. After you get the two sides to meet, you’ll find that the lip on either side doesn’t meet up perfectly, line up perfectly or close perfectly.
(2) At this point, you return the crimp cover to your crimping pliers, this time resting it between the top notch in each jaw. Gently push the jaws to force the lips to meet more perfectly. Sometimes you have to position the pliers in an awkward or odd position, in order to push in the desired direction. The two half-cup shaped ditches in the top position on each jaw helps to keep your crimp cover rounded while you apply pressure to it and shift the relative positioning of each open side.
Horseshoe Wire Protectors
This part is basically a bent tube, with the top of the tube at the arch cut out. These come in many finishes and metals. There is some variation in size relative to how wide an opening the tube has.
Using these serve several purposes.
It forces you to leave the correct size loop in the cable wire, so that you have the appropriate support system or jointedness. Without the loop, you would be pushing the crimp all the way to the clasp. This is a No-No. You never push the crimp all the way to the clasp — this creates stiffness with metal parts, and general movement would cause these to break.
The horseshoe also makes the loop more finished looking — better than a bare-wire loop. Your eye/brain wants you to push the crimp all the way to the clasp. It hates a bare, exposed loop. The horseshoe fools the eye/brain here, making it think that the loop is finished and more organically a part of the whole composition.
The horseshoe prevents the cable wire from folding into a “V-shape” over a period of time and wear. If the wire were to change from an arched loop to a V-loop, the wire then would more easily bend back and forth and eventually break.
You will find that the legs of some horseshoes you will buy have too-narrow openings and won’t fit your cablewire. Also, the thickness of the cablewire along its length will vary somewhat. And sometimes where you cut your cablewire, it sometimes broadens or flattens out the end, making it too big to shove up into the leg. The morals here: have extra horseshoes on hand, and be prepared to cut off some more of the cablewire to get to that area on the wire that has the perfect width.
There are many choices to make when selecting crimp beads:
– Do you want to use a tube shape or a round shape
A crimp is a crimp. There is no difference in “holdability” between the tube and the round, but most people prefer the tubes. They sense that the tube covers more area, so it will be more secure.
A round bead actually starts as a tube. They blow air into the tube to puff it up and make it look round.
– If you want to maintain a silver color, how do you do that?
You have several choices here, each with pros and cons. You can use a sterling silver crimp. Sterling silver softens at body temperature. If your sterling crimp rests on the wrist or the neck, there is some risk that it will soften and release its hold. From experience, this risk, if you have crimped correctly, is very small, but the risk exists.
Another option is to use a silver-plated crimp. Silver plated crimps are plated usually over brass. Brass is your best jewelry design metal. Once you crush that brass, you never have to lose any sleep over it. Unfortunately, the plating wears away somewhat quickly, and you are left with a black crimp — basically tarnished brass.
Some people use silver plated crimps and slide sterling crimp covers over them. This adds about $0.90 per piece.
Another option: Use an argentium silver crimp. Both argentium silver and sterling silver are 92.5% silver. It’s the alloy that is different. Argentium is more expensive. There is no risk of argentium silver softening at body temperature.
– How do you achieve a satisfactorily re-rounded bead?
In the traditional crimping processing, you flatten the crimp and then you re-round it so that it looks like a bead again. You do not end up with a great look. Some people can live with this; for others, they are bothered by not seeing a perfectly round bead again.
There is a crimping pliers, which I do not recommend, called the Magical Crimping Pliers. This re-rounds that bead perfectly, but I find, in doing so, it weakens the hold.
You can always crush your crimp bead, and then slide a crimp cover over it, to get that pretty look.
– How many crimp beads should you use on each end — 1 crimp or more than one?
If you have crimped correctly, using 1 crimp on each end of your piece is more than sufficient, even if your beads are very heavy.
Using more than 1 crimp on each end is too risky. Sometimes your mind, or your best friend, thinks that if 1 is good, 2 or more would be better. No! When you crush your crimp onto the wire, it becomes like a little razor blade. All jewelry moves, so your crimp is constantly trying to saw through the cable. Using more than one crimp on each end increases the chances that one will saw through. All you are doing is adding razor blades.
– Should you use a plain tube or a twisted tube?
The twisted tubes (sometimes called Tornado or Cyclone crimps) are a little more expensive than the plain ones. When you crush the twisted tubes, they look decorative enough that you don’t have to re-round them. You definitely need to re-round the plain ones.
– Should you use regular and long tubes or short and half tubes?
Short tubes or half tubes are primarily used in pieces like illusion necklaces, where you have a cluster of beads, and the cord shows, another cluster of beads, the cord shows, etc. Half tubes are used on either side of the clusters to keep the beads in place. When you crush the half tube, the volume of space it takes up is not noticeable. When you crush the regular sized tube, its volume of space is too noticeable and detracts from the general look of the piece.
One mistake people make with the short or half tubes, is that, when they use them to finish off the ends of jewelry, their mind tells them, since these are shorter than usual, to use 2 or 3 of them so that they will “hold better.” A crimp is a crimp, and if you crimped correctly, there is no difference in holdability between the short and longer tubes. Each crushed crimp you add becomes like a little razor blade. All jewelry moves, so you’re increasing the chances one of these crimps will cut through the cable wire. One crimp on either end is enough.
– Are there differences or variations on quality/grade of crimp beads?
The short answer is Yes! Basically, you get what you pay for!
Here’s how crimp beads are made: You start with a sheet of metal. You roll the metal into a tube. You buff along the seam where the two sides meet, so that it looks like it’s been soldered together. However, there’s really a seam there.
So often, people come into our shop and tell sad tales of failed crimps and broken bracelets and necklaces. They blame themselves. They blame the pliers. But they never blame the crimp beads. In most cases, the crimp is at fault.
Cheap crimps, usually bought in small packages, usually at craft stores, are not made well. When you crush these, they tend to split along the seam. Sometimes you can see the split. Othertimes, you can’t quite see that the two sides of the tube have started to separate. Your cable wires pull out. Or your crimp edges have cut into the cable wire.
An A- grade crimp, usually costing about 3 times what the cheap crimps cost, can hold up to your initial crushing, as well as another 8 or so clamping down on it during the re-rounding process.
There are heavy-duty or A+ grade crimps. These run about 6–8 times what the cheap crimps do. You don’t have to worry about any splitting, no matter how much you work the crimp bead with your pliers.
– How do you know what size of crimp bead to buy?
Manufacturers are inconsistent in how they label the sizes of crimp beads. In general, although you may not know exactly what their measurement refers to, when they list:
2mm, this is the average size For .014, .015, .018, .019 cable wires
1.5mm, this is small For .010 and .012 cable wires
2.5mm, this is slightly more than average For .019 and .024 cable wires
3.0mm and 4.0mm, these are large for .024 cable wires, or thicker cords, or bringing more than 1 strand through at a time
LET’S PRACTICE OUR CRIMPING
How to Crimp Using Crimp Beads, a Crimp Pliers and Flex Wire
Supplies: 2mm sterling silver crimp tubes silver plated crimp cover silver-plated horseshoe wire protectors .019” soft flex cable wire toggle clasp enough beads to make a bracelet
Chain Nose Pliers Crimping Pliers Flush Cutters or Cable Wire Cutters
Work Surface Bracelet Sizing Cone Bead Board Bead Stoppers or Hemostats
Before we get started on our bracelet, we are going to practice crimping.
The Traditional Crimping “Pliers”
The traditional crimping pliers works with all sizes of crimp beads. In fact, I find it works better than most other types of crimping pliers, whether the micro-crimpers, macro-crimpers or magical crimpers.
If you look closely at the jaws, you will see that each jaw has two notches or ditches on it. The bottom notch or ditch in each jaw (those closest to your hand) is a full ditch on one side, and a ditch with a pyramid or triangle in it on the other side. It is important that you be able to see that pyramid. This is critical to the crimping process. Sometimes when you buy these, and other times when you use these awhile, the pyramid isn’t there or wears away.
The top notch in each jaw (furthest from your hand) has a full ditch on either side.
There are four steps in the crimping process. Basically, you use the crimping pliers first to separate the two wires (spine and tail), then second, to lock them in place. The last step is to make things pretty again.
We do the first two steps using the bottom notch in each jaw. We do the last two steps using the top notch in each jaw.
Hold your pliers parallel to the table, with curved part of jaws facing you.
[NOTE: There is also a new 1-step crimping pliers which works very well.]
The “Loop”
Position the crimp and the wires, so you leave an adequate “loop” (joint).
The clasp should be able to move freely.
You never push the crimp bead all the way up to the clasp.
Your eye/brain cognition wants you to push the crimp all the way up to the clasp; it sees the bare loop as ugly. You must fight your inner self on this, in order to build in appropriate level of support or jointedness. You are going to have to sacrifice some beauty in order to build in more durability and adaptability to movement.
When crimp/wire/clasp are too tight, and can’t move, then you basically have stiff metal bending back and forth against itself, and it breaks. If the bare loop bothers you, you can always cover the loop with 15/0 or 11/0 seed beads, or 13/0 charlottes.
Or you can use a horseshoe wire protector to cover the loop. What I like about the horseshoe wire protector is that it forces you to leave an ideal sized loop, and also makes what was a bare loop look very finished and appealing.
The “Tail”
You need to leave about a 3–4” tail on either side. You want to hold the tail so that it runs parallel to the spine, though not touching.
When you crimp by closing and letting go of your pliers, don’t let go of the tail. This is a mistake many people make. When they let go of the pliers, they let go of the tail. Don’t do this. If you let go of the tail at the same time, the tail will either bend over far to one side, creating a “V” with it and the spine. Or, it will cross over the spine.
When we trim our tails, we do not cut them off at the crimp. Instead, we feed back the tail through at least the first (or last) bead, and preferably several other beads, and then cut the tail as close to the hole of the bead it is exiting as possible. You want to be sure that at least your first bead and your last bead have large enough holes, so that they can slip over both the spine and the tail.
Tail sticking out too far and tail crossing over wire:
Finishing Your Piece Off and TrimmingThe Tails
On the first side of your bracelet or necklace, you secure your clasp component with your crimped wire. You then string on your beads. You want at least the first bead, and preferably several beads to slip over both the spine and the tail wires. When you get to the other side, you will add your crimp bead and horseshoe wire protector, slide your remaining clasp component over the tail up into the horseshoe. You need to have a 3–4″ tail remaining. Grab your tail, and bring it back through (top to bottom) of your crimp bead, and through at least your last bead, and preferably several beads.
Now you want to pull things tight, but not too tight, before you crimp that second crimp bead. Hold onto your clasp (or your horseshoe wire protector ) with one hand, and pull the wire with the other, to get everything tight, but not too tight. You do not want your bracelet to have poor “ease” and be too stiff. You should test the length of the bracelet one more time, using a sizing cone or someone’s wrist. Make any necessary adjustments to ease and length.
If your tail is showing on your first side of the bracelet, then trim it off now. Flush cutters or cable wire cutters work well here. If you pull your tail away from the bead, this creates a bit of tension, and when you cut the wire, the wire coming out your bead will pull back a bit into the hole of the bead.
If you haven’t been able to cut the wire flush enough with the bead, and some wire is poking out, work it with your fingers into the hole of the next bead on the string.
Re-check your length and ease.
Now crimp your ending side. Trim the remaining tail as close to the hole of your bead as possible.
NOTE: If you can’t work the tail back through the first bead, then cut it off as close to the crimp as possible. There will be two sharp edges. One will be the crushed crimp itself. The other will be the cable wire. You can’t really cut the wire totally flush with the crimp, so a little bit of a nipple will be protruding. Use an emery board or nail file or metal file and smooth out the rough edges of the crimp, and sharp point of the cable wire. Feel with your finger, until it is smooth. This is not your best option. Your piece will look less finished and be less secure.
Camouflaging the Crimp Bead
You can always make your crimp beads the second and next to last beads, instead of the first and last. In this case, the crimp will look like it is part of a pattern. The ends will look very finished.
Let’s Crimp: A Practice Exercise
Cut a 15″ length of cable wire.
Horseshoe on first. Take your horseshoe wire protector, holding it so that the arch is toward the ceiling and the legs are to the floor. Take your wire from floor to ceiling, up into the leg, over the arch, and back down through the over leg. Give yourself a 3–4″ tail past the horseshoe.
Slide on clasp component. Take your tail wire through the loop on the ring end of your Toggle clasp, and slide that ring’s loop right up into the horseshoe.
Add Crimp Bead. Slide a crimp bead onto the spine of your cable wire, and bring it all the way up to the legs of the horseshoe. As you get close to the tail, you want your crimp to slide over both the spine and the tail.
Pinch the legs of the horseshoe closer together, and get your crimp as close to the legs as possible. You can use your fingers or the tips of your crimping pliers to pinch the horseshoe legs.
Be sure your have left yourself as 3–4″ tail. Make any adjustments.
Crimp. Now grab your crimping pliers, holding them parallel to your table, curved part of the jaws bending towards you.
Pinch the tail and spine near to your crimp bead with your thumb and forefinger, making sure that your tail is parallel, but not touching, the spine.
In Bottom Notches (closet to your hand): ditch on one side, and pyramid on the other
STEPS 1 and 2: Your goal is to separate the wires. The pyramid in your pliers jaw pushes the wires apart, and makes a scoring line down the middle of your crimp, turning it into a double-tube, one wire in each channel.
Step 1: Crush
Sit your crimp bead between the bottom notches in each side. The loop/horseshoe should be laying horizontally, parallel to the table.
Crush the pliers all the way down onto the crimp bead, and let go of the pliers (but not the tail).
Step 2: Turn over 180 degrees, and crush again
When we crushed the first time, the part of the crimp closest to our hand crushed down, but the part furthest from our hand actually flared out a bit. In Step 2, we crush down the part that had flared up.
You end up with a flat pancake. If you look at this flat pancake, you will see a scoring line down the middle. This line was made by our pyramid.
So we turn the crimp over to its other side, and crush again.
In Top Notches (furthest from your hand): Ditch on either side
STEP 3: The goal is to create a lock.
Step 3: Fold flat pancake to make half-a-flat pancake
Sit your crimp bead between the top pair of notches. Hold so that your loop/horseshoe is vertical, thus perpendicular to the table.
Hold the crushed crimp vertically, and crush, to fold this flat pancake in half along the scoring line. You end up with half a flat pancake.
STEP 4: Your goal here is to make things pretty.
Step 4: Re-Round
Use the top notches to gently force and push the flat crimp back into a rounded tube shape again. If you look at either end of the crimp — from the loop end and from the tail end — you want to see a circular shape again, rather than a rectangular slit. It’s best to keep your pliers steady in one place, and turn your wire/crimp bead as you work the pliers. You do notCRUSH; you PUSH on the metal with your pliers to re-round.
Now, your crimp bead is wider than the width of the jaws the pliers. So, you will have to work the top and bottom of the crimp a little bit independently, so that both ends are round again.
NOTE: Instead of Step 4, you can use a crimp cover, and slide this over the crushed crimp to hide it.
But if using a crimp cover, be sure to do Steps 1 thru 3.
Putting The Beads On.
If you were creating a piece from scratch, and not following a pattern, you would probably use something like clamps, hemostats or bead stoppers. You would cut a length of cable wire — about 12″ more than the bracelet or necklace length you want to end up with. You lay out all your beads and the parts of the clasp assembly on a bead board or other work surface. Then you would clamp one end of your cable wire, slide beads on, and clamp the other end. This would let you add and subtract beads, or change your mind about the patterning, before you finished off the ends with the clasp assembly.
Otherwise, if you are following a particular pattern, you would start by securing one end with a crimp bead, and stringing the rest of the beads on. You would cut your cable wire — about 12″ more than the bracelet length you want to end up with.
Lay out all your beads and the clasp assembly parts on the bead board or some other work surface, in the order they are to be used.
You would attach the largest part of your clasp first — with Toggles, this is the ring — on one end, crimping it in place, and leaving a 3–4″ tail.
Slide on your beads, following the pattern. At least your first bead should slide over both the spine and the tail.
Determine the fit — both length and ease — by clamping or holding with your fingers the open end, and encircling a sizing cone or someone’s wrist with your bracelet. Remember here that the other end of the clasp will add another 1/2″ to this length.
“Ease” — You do not want to pull the cable wire too tight, making it stiff, thus uncomfortable to wear. And you do not want to pull the cable not tight enough, thus allowing the cable wire to show between the beads and the beads and the clasp.
Adjust the number of beads, if necessary.
Add your crimp bead, horseshoe wire protector, the other end of the clasp — in our case, the bar.
Don’t actually crimp things on this side, or trim your tail yet.
Slide the tail back through some beads. Pull tight enough to get an acceptable ease. Test the length and ease again.
POOR EASEGOOD EASE
When satisfactory, do your final crimping. Slide the tail through some more beads, if possible. Trim the tails on both ends.
Using a Crimp Cover
Use your pointer finger as an easel and your thumb as a clamp.
Sit your crimp cover on the top of the pad on your pointer finger, as if the cover were a cradle (open side up).
Set your crushed crimp on your cable wire right inside the crimp cover.
Immediately, clamp down over the loop/clasp part with your thumb. Your thumb is pushing down on the wire loop/clasp, so that the crimp cover can’t move.
We close the crimp cover in 2 steps.
Take your crimping pliers, and use the tips of each jaw. With these tips, push the opening of the crimp cover closed as best as you can. Press firm but gently. It is easy to crush these crimp covers. The two lips on each side will not meet perfectly, will not be aligned, and there may be a gap.
The second step is to put the crimp cover between the two top ditches on your crimp pliers (both ditches are open), and gently push to get things in place.
You may have to orient your pliers in some weird angles to get the two halves of your crimp covered lined up correctly.
Give It The Once Over…
Once your bracelet is done, look it over carefully. Be sure your cable wire isn’t showing. Be sure that it has sufficient ease.
The RAW Stitch typically is a circle of 4 beads (a Right Angle Weave Unit) connected to another circle of 4 beads (a second RAW unit), with one bead shared. The thread path follows a “figure 8” pathway. As you add units, you will find yourself going up and around in one direction, then going down and around to add the next couple units, then up and around, and then down and around, and so forth, always following that figure 8. At no point should the thread show within the negative space surrounded by our 4 beads. This is the reason for the more convoluted Figure 8 pathway which underlies the stitch. NOTE: We can use more than 4 beads in each unit. Many people use more than 4 beads to hide the threads from showing between each bead.
The St. Petersburg Chain stitch is a relatively simple stitch that generates a long, thin, flat length of beadwork. Traditionally, two lengths are created and connected together up and down the inside edges with a decorative bead.
This stitch is known by the herringbone or zig-zag pattern the beads make when stitched together. The stitch is very soft and fluid. It results in a very beautiful texturing and patterning. A lot of thread shows in this stitch, and, in this case, is a charming part of the whole effect. The beads sit in regular columns in angled pairs, forming a “V” (thus, herringbone,) shape.
With BRICK STITCH, beads are woven and locked into place by snagging the thread loops between them. As you add a new bead, you snag the thread loop (bridge) between them, and pull the bead down to the already completed rows. The BRICK STITCH always begins with a Ladder Row.
You stare at a bead, and ask what it is. You put some thread on a needle, then the bead on the needle, and ask what to do. You stitch a few beads together, and wonder what will become of this. You create a necklace, and ask how it will be worn. And you stare at each bead again, and think where do all these feelings welling up within you come from — beauty, peace and calm, satisfaction, magic, appeal, a sensuousness and sexuality. Your brain and eye enter into this fantastic dance, a fugue of focusing, refocusing, gauging and re-gauging light, color, shadow, a shadow’s shadow, harmony, and discord.
You don’t just bead.
There’s a lot involved here. You have to buy beads, organize them, buy some extra parts, think about them, create with them, live with some failed creations, and go from there. If there wasn’t something special about how beads translate light into color, shade and shadow, then beading would simply be work. But it’s not.
You have to put one next to another…..and then another. And when you put two beads next to each other, or one on top of the other, you’re doing God’s work. There’s nothing as spectacular as painting and sculpting with light.
This bead before me — why is it so enticing? Why do I beg it to let me be addicted? An object with a hole. How ridiculous its power. Some curving, some faceting, some coloration, some crevicing or texturing, some shadow, some bending of light. That’s all it is. Yet I’m am drawn to it in a slap-silly sort of way.
When I arrange many beads, the excitement explodes geometrically in my being. Two beads together are so much more than one. Four beads so much more than two. A hundred beads so much more than four. The pleasure is uncontainable.
I feel so powerful. Creative. I can make more of what I have than with what I started with.
And the assembling — another gift. String through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align, and string through the hole, pull, tug, align. So meditative. Calming. How could beads be so stress-relieving, other-worldly-visiting, and creative-exciting at the same time?
Contemplation.
To contemplate the bead is to enter the deep reaches of your mind where emotion is one with geometry, and geometry is one with art, and art is one with physics, and beads are one with self.
So these days, I confront my innermost feelings about beads. What I enjoy, and what I do not. What I have learned, and what I have not. What I want to achieve, and what I fear I cannot.
It’s not that, originally, I wanted to bead much of anything. I imagined what I wanted to create, and quickly found I couldn’t create it. This became my Rogue Elephant — the sum of all my jewelry design ambitions, and my fluency and ultimate success with it.
I had very specific ideas of what my beadwork should look like, and how it should function. I did not want to be considered a painter who uses beads, or a sculptor who uses beads. I wanted to be considered a bead artist. A bead artist who legitimately uses beads, and not paints, and not clays or stone. This was my dilemma.
Alas, this was the basis of all my fears. Could bead artists intentionally design with light in a fundamentally different way than painters use paint, or sculptors use clay or stone? If I beaded a mannequin, I’d be painting or sculpting.
But what if I beaded a Rogue Elephant? Something that moved. Something that reacted differently in different situations. Something that appeared in different contexts. Would my beadwork stand up to some test of grammar, poetry, art, vision and even love?
I was tentative, at first, about beading, but that Rogue Elephant kept getting in my way. To tame it, to get rid of it, to make sense of it, I had to bead it.
But how? Should I? Could I? Would I? It’s huge! It’s fast! It’s ornery!
Should I make my Elephant some kind of necklace or anklet to wear? How about a little hat? I can tubular peyote around its trunk OK, but what about its ears? What do I do there? That mid-section is awfully rotund. Fringe would be pretty, hanging around some kind of blanket. But, alas, wouldn’t it just drag along the ground?
The main problem is, though, that this beast keeps moving. How am I ever going to get anything to look good, and stay looking good, on this Elephant if it keeps moving? After all, Rogue Elephants don’t Pose. They’re not “Vogue” Elephants. They’re “Rogue” Elephants. They’re too busy tossing their heads at everything else in sight.
If I use large beads, I can accomplish this feat faster, but not necessarily as elegantly. Should my Elephant be elegant? Sophisticated? Earthy? Adventurous? Bohemian? Fashion-aware or fashion-I-don’t-care?
I can not get this Rogue Elephant out of my mind. The thoughts of beading it seem insurmountable, unconquerable. My eyes strain, my hands ache, my back stiffens at these thoughts. It will never get done. I won’t finish it. I won’t do it. I most certainly don’t have the time. I’ll try something easier, like a toy rabbit or a stick. A small stick. A very small, very straight, perfectly round stick. Surely not an Elephant, a Rogue one at that.
Calm down, I say to myself. Stop hyperventilating. Wipe those clammy palms. Don’t let the task before you scare you before you even start.
I grit my teeth. I stand up straight. I squeeze my hands into a fist. I hold my fisted-hands stiffly and tightly against my right and left sides. I lift my chin up ever-so-slightly until my eyes meet his. I stare that Rogue Elephant right into the face for those few seconds it stands in my field of vision. I will bead you. I will bead you. I will bead you.
I set my mantra going. I try to focus on my inner self. I reach way back to grab my inner being, setting its life force and motivation on track to complete this awesome task.
I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.
Glue. Thank God someone invented glue. I could corner that Elephant, pour buckets of glue on him, and use a leaf blower to blow a pile of beads right onto that beast. They’ll stick. I’ll be done. Whatever happens, happens. That’s what I’ll do.
But I wouldn’t be happy. And that Elephant would probably want to scratch and itch. Beads would pop off. The glue would yellow. That Elephant wouldn’t be able to walk with any sense of style or grace. It might trip. It would probably fall down, actually. And not be able to get up. Pitiful. It would lose its Rogue-ness. It’s essence of being. I would tame it, yet more than humble it. Where’s the excitement? Glue just won’t do.
I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.
How about Mardi Gras beads? These beads, already ironed into place onto a string, could be wrapped around and around and around. Purple Iris’s. Topaz AB’s. Olivine Lusters. They’d be colorful. They’d shine. They’d sparkle. It would be like lassoing a steer — over and over again. I don’t know if my Elephant would stand still for that. Perhaps I could corral him. I could tape one end of the bead string to the tail. Then go around and around and around his body until I reached the other end of the trunk. I’d parade the Elephant in front of all the other Elephants out there, and they’d all want to look as dapper. Everyone the Elephant meets, in fact, will want to be wrapped in bead-ropes. How easy, how simple, how divine.
Once I let my Elephant out of the corral, however, I fear the bead-ropes will reposition themselves and slip off and look sloppy. My Elephant would have to lose its Rogue-ness to pull off this look. My Elephant would have to stand still and pose. I don’t think my Elephant would stand for that. In fact, I know he wouldn’t. The jungle is not a circus, and the banks of the jungle watering hole do not provide a level pedestal for such an event. My elephant would be perplexed. And the result would not be satisfactory beadwork. He’d be off in an instant. This would be a mess — a big Mardi Gras mess. Only sanitation workers in New Orleans getting paid much overtime would have any determined appreciation.
I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.
Just what is the recipe then? Take needle and thread, add beads, mix lightly, separate whites and darks, bake, turn once, and voila? Do I have to have a recipe? A determined strategy? A plan of action? Can’t I just bead it? Do I have to think about how to get the beadwork to stay in place? Look good? Look great? Must the Elephant still be able to run with the beadwork on? If the Elephant runs, must the beadwork stay on? And still look good? Oh, dear, my head is beginning to hurt. I don’t know if I can do all this. And be satisfied.
And the poor Elephant. It looks at me one more time. It’s green eyes dart on me. Challenging me. Daring me. Perhaps fearing me and my determination. Perhaps pondering the why’s and wherefores of my insistence that he be beaded — in totality, Rogue-ness and all. The Elephant turns its head, touching his long torso from shoulder to belly with his trunk. His tusks shift uncomfortably. I’m sure the Elephant is wondering How! — How would the beads go on? How would they be arranged? How could he continue to walk and drink and eat and talk? How would the other Elephants react? How could anyone ever begin to bead a Rogue Elephant?
My Elephant looks at me one more time — staring directly into my eyes. It’s more than a glance. He stares, as if to say, it can’t be done. My Elephant lifts its trunk, extends its ears, snorts, shakes its tail, turns and darts away toward the horizon.
I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead. I will bead you. I can bead.
Learn To Bead 