How to Use a Bead Crimping Tool

Bead crimping tools are among the many supplies that are necessary for jewelry making. They are used with either spacer beads or crimp beads and tubes. Bead crimping tools, which resemble pliers, add the finishing touches to bracelets or necklaces by rounding out the ends or edges of your jewelry.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Crimp tubes
• Jewelry wire
• Jewelry clasps
• Crimping tool
• Wire cutter

1. Slide a small crimp tube onto one end of the jewelry wire before or after stringing your beads. Leave about an inch of wire at the end of your necklace or bracelet. Place the jewelry wire through the small loop of a lobster, toggle, or some other clasp of your choice, then back through the crimp tube.

2. Push the crimp tube up to the loop of the clasp at the end of your necklace or bracelet. Make sure that the wire isn't too tight as you'll need some movement in your jewelry.

3. Get your crimping tool and hold the crimp in the first notch. This would be the space inside of the plier that is farthest from the tip, with a dimple in the middle. Rearrange the wires so that they don't cross within the crimp tube. Squeeze down with the crimping tool until the crimp tube looks like a C or an 8.

4. Move your crimp to the second notch, or the notch that is closest to the tip of the tool. Press or "fold" the crimp tube into a tubular shape. Repeat the steps to add a crimp tube to the other end of the necklace using a matching clasp. You can use a wire cutter to trim any excess jewelry wire, then thread some of that wire through one to three beads to finish your necklace or bracelet.