Famous Jewelry Collections: THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

4 Ways to Finish Cord Necklaces Using Different Findings

Posted: 22 Feb 2012 04:00 AM PST

Cord necklaces can be bought ready made. But it is so much better to make your own because you can easily add the beads or pendants before you add the cord ends. Commercial ones pretty well commit you to using bails for pendants.

COIL ENDS
I often make my own wire coil ends for my cord necklaces (shown above). It's not only handmade but I get to work with softer metals and can create any size I want. If you've bought the coil ends made from memory wire like I did when I first got started into jewelry making, you'll know why I eventually re-purposed these awful things!

One of the easiest coiling tools to use is a knitting needle of the right size. If you check out these past posts on how to make jewelry clasps from wire and 4 Ways to Make Short Wire Coils, you can see how I coiled the wire for a custom 2 stranded cord necklace. One end of the wire is made into a loop for the clasp. The other end is cut close to the coil - this is the part that is pressed into the cord.

If you can handle wire well, another alternative tutorial to mine is Lytha Studios' hook and eye clasp tutorial. You wind the wire directly around the cord.

FOLD OVER ENDS
Another type of cord ends are the fold over crimp style ones. I particularly like the tutorial by Satin Cord because the instructor shows you how to round off these fold-over types (shown below). She uses crimping pliers, naturally!

END CAPS
But what if you have a multi strand design? These will be more challenging.

If it is really a very thick bundle of cord, as for a kumihimo necklace shown above, then use bullet ends or end caps. Check out Cindy's tutorial on how to attach them.

CONICAL BEADS
However, if you don't have that many cords and you are using finer material like C-lon, then opt for the alternative tutorial by Vicki Potter of Orion Designs.