Beaded Jewelry Making - Need Help with a Lock Mechanism

[Monique]

I believe Kerrie has experience with doing this.. I bought a little bead-kit today to start making some jewelery. Now there is a thing in there that I don't know how to use, anyone an idea?

I thought it would go with a lock mechanism, but there are only 6 locks and two dozen of those pins.

 

[zoobyshoe]

All those things look the same to me. Which is the one you don't know how to use?

 

[Monique]

All of them, I usually use things shaped that way to set up a tent

I just made a bracelet for my bf, but he doesn't want to wear it to work
(I tied it to his wrist with a triple knot )

 

[Moonbear]

I only tried my hand at jewelry-making once (I enjoyed it, but need to have a bead store closer for the little stuff I need halfway through a project). You can use the pins in several ways. One would be for making earrings. You could put a bead or beads on the top part, and use the loop to add a dangling part. The same concept could be used anyplace you want to add a dangling part. You can also get pins like that but with a flat head instead of a loop to use as an end (the trouble I run into is the hole in a bead is sometimes bigger than the head of the pin, so you need to add a tiny bead at the end so the bigger bead doesn't keep falling off). Of course, you can also make loops out of finer wire if the pins are too thick for your beads. I think it's just a short-cut to have one loop already made so you only have to make the loop on the other side.

If you know anyone who makes jewelry, have them show you how to use the tools to make loops and coils for strong connections to clasps. I had the people in the bead store I went to show me (actually, I had them do it for me amidst all their sales pitch of trying to tell me to take their class where they would teach me how to do it myself, except that's the sort of thing I can watch once and then go ahead and do, so once they did it for me once, I didn't need a class ). If I find a bead store around here, I might still sign up for a class one day, just because it is a fun hobby and I'd like to learn to make more complicated designs.

 

[Monique]

You can use the pins in several ways. One would be for making earrings.

Great idea, I was just wondering how to make earrings.

If I find a bead store around here, I might still sign up for a class one day, just because it is a fun hobby and I'd like to learn to make more complicated designs.

Yeah, it is very relaxing (frustrating at times), a time to quietly sit and think. I just remembered a crazy dream I had last night in vivid detail. One part was a horse half jumping out of a 4-story high window, not quite reaching the ground with its front hoofs and stretching back into the window again

 

[zoobyshoe]

All of them, I usually use things shaped that way to set up a tent

Well, it looks from the finished one like you stick one of those pins through the hole in the bead and then turn the other end into a loop. There must be some kind of tool for forming the loops. You would form the loop around the pre-existing loop of the next pin, put a bead on that pin, then form a loop around the next pin, till you have a chain of them long enough for a bracelet or necklace.

 

[Moonbear]

Well, it looks from the finished one like you stick one of those pins through the hole in the bead and then turn the other end into a loop. There must be some kind of tool for forming the loops. You would form the loop around the pre-existing loop of the next pin, put a bead on that pin, then form a loop around the next pin, till you have a chain of them long enough for a bracelet or necklace.

Oh, there are all sorts of tools. That's what got me to try my hand at jewelry making in the first place. I love acquiring interesting little tools (they're basically small pliers of the most interesting shapes).

That's a good idea of chaining together beads! Really, you're only limited by your imagination (and skill level ). If you can make little loops out of wire that actually look round, you can make almost anything.