Thinking of Starting Beaded Jewellery Making?

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So, I guess if you are reading this you are interested in learning the basics to set you up for beaded jewellery making. Welcome to this very exciting hobby or career choice, whichever one you are hoping for. Both of them bring their own enjoyment and design ideas.

Firstly, you do not have to have been artistic or creative before. I was never very good at art, and did not do a lot of crafts when I was younger. I may have dabbled here and there, but the only one I ever really enjoyed fully was making jewellery. It seemed to come naturally. I always liked fashion, and colour and jewellery, so I guess that helped to a degree.

After having my son I decided that I wanted to do a job that I loved and would fit around time with my baby, especially as he got bigger. So, I unravelled my dream! I attended several 1 day workshops and then just started making and creating different items and designs. I found once I had started I couldn’t stop (you will find it is very addictive)… I now have my own jewellery making business, specialising in wedding items, Tiara’s, Handmade Jewellery and I now also run my own 1 day courses.

So from the beginning-

Basic tools required are:

Chain nose pliers – These are used to grasp, pull, secure and turn wire.

Round nose pliers (a must have) – These are used to shape and form wire, for all wire work, including Earring making, and Tiara’s.

Wire Cutters – These are used to cut wire to whatever your required length is. (If you decide to use memory wire, you must have special memory wire cutters. Memory wire is very tough and can blunt your normal wire cutters).

Bead mat – Excellent for keeping all your beads in one place, and stop them from falling all over the floor!

Bead box container – For storing all those lovely beads you are going to need to create your beautiful pieces of jewellery.

So these are your basics, there are lots of others you will come to need the more you do. However, you can make almost anything using the above.

Next comes materials-

These will depend on how adventurous you want to be. Stringing materials range from Cord, Nylon Thread, Memory Wire, Elastic, Wire, Suede and Leather Thong, as well as much more. The above are the most used. Then of course, there are your beads, too many varieties to list, but can be found easily online and in specialist bead shops.

The next things are the findings, these are a very important part for any jewellery maker. They are the components used to make the jewellery. These are clasps, toggles, crimps, gimps, head pins and eye pins and the list goes on. Don’t worry I promise once you start it will all become clearer! Findings keep beads on their stringing material and finish off the pieces.

So you know what you need, and have learnt some jewellery lingo, the next step is to just give it a go!

The best way to learn techniques is on a course, especially one that has a smaller group. You will get longer to make things and have more one to one time with your tutor for those fiddly bits that you can’t quite get your head around. It happens to us all, but, when you work it out and get it right you feel a huge sense of achievement.

So…what are you waiting for? Get out there, good luck and happy beading.

http://www.zebedeezjewellery.co.uk

Bernadette Bamber

Author: Bernadette Bamber
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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Filed under Bead Craft Ideas by on Sep 15th, 2010. #

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