Using a Bead Crimping Tool for Making Beaded Jewelry

Video Transcript

"On this segment for Expert Village, we are going to work on crimping. Okay and crimping is just the finishing of the pieces that you make with the fine cable that we showed you earlier; the Softlex or Betalon. I do enjoy working with this product because it is so easy to use. Of course, it is very strong that is also a huge bonus and you don’t have to use a needle. So if you go ahead and get started with your length of your Softflex or Betalon whichever you prefer, all you have to do and I have got a little piece here just to show how easy it is to work with, you simply have to take your piece to the bead and just slip on and just work your way all the way on down the line. So it is very easy to use as well as being strong. Okay, now we have gone ahead and we strung up this one necklace here and what we have here are some freshwater pearls and crystals which are very pretty and we are ready to finish it off to use the crimping technique. So what I am going to do is I am going to take my little bead stopper so that I do not lose my beads and I am going to first work on this one and here, go ahead and take these two pieces apart. Alright, so now we are ready to complete our project here. Now I am going to start at one end. So first what I am going to do is I am going to get one of these little finishing balls that I like to use when I get to the end of my project, slip it on like so, next is the crimp bead; just this little tube right here, that is actually what is going to be the finishing of this necklace. I am going to loop it through one end of this toggle glass, which I have chosen to use. So you can see how I looped it through the clasp and now I am doubling back through the tube and the bead and for this I am just going to smooth the whole thing on up to the very end. You want to get it close but not so tight that you are choking your piece; you need the movement in there. Now I am going to start off with my crimp tool, which is a two step process. There are actually two segments that you use on this tool. First we are going to the very back part, and we are going to punch down on it and what that does, it will create a little groove there. I am then going to move this up to the tip of the tool to the second hole there and it is a little bit of a balancing act but what you want to do is you want to grab those two edges, bring them together, there we go and that's it; you are done. Now I am going to bring my piece and we are going to finish off the other end. So I have taken out all my slack and again we start off with the ball, our crimp tube, going through the other side of the clasp and we are going to back it through again the tube and the ball; there we go. If it happens to go through another bead that is fine; as long as you always follow through that one ball you are going to be okay. This is the side where we draw all our slack out like so, and again remember we are bring our crimp tube up close to the clasp but not choking it, we do need that movement in there, and we are going to finish off with our crimp tool. We are going to the back hole first, we are going to punch down on that, which creates the crease and then we are going to move up to the tip of the tool, grabbing both those edges and we are going to pull that on itself like so, trimming off both ends and we have just about got it done. Another nice little finishing touch is using these little crimp covers and it is almost like the little ball, only it has been opened and that is just simply is going to slide right on over your crimp and we are just going to simply close that up, like so which gives you a little nicer finish. One thing you remember when you start beading and stringing especially let yourself go a little bit, get a little creative; you have nothing to lose when you are beading. What is nice about using especially the Softflex product is that once you string everything on, if you don’t like what you just made, all you have to do is cut up and start all over again. So you haven’t lost anything except may be a little bit of time. So get out there, have a great time, and great creative and thank you. "