3 Easy Ways to Crimp Jewellery

What is crimping and why is it so important that you get it right? Well the answer is easy, crimping is what happens at the end of a necklace or bracelet – it usually attaches your clasp and it keeps your beads from falling off – so you can see it’s quite vital when you make a necklace or bracelet.

Instructions

Watch the video or read the instructions below:

What is a Crimp Bead

A crimp bead is basically a tube which you squash down onto your wire.

They come in various sizes. Today, I’ll be using some 1.5mm long crimp beads as well as some 2mm Magical Crimping Tubes.

As you can see, they are tiny tubes.

I’m using a piece of cardboard tube here to demonstrate. The stringing material goes through the crimp bead, loops through your clasp or other attachment, and then comes back down through the crimp bead. Then you squeeze the crimp bead flat so that the stringing material cannot come out of the crimp bead. In this instance, my fingers demonstrate the stringing material.

Crimping Option 1 - Chain Nose Pliers

This is the most basic way to crimp a necklace or bracelet. It requires so special tools and is often used by beginners as it’s the easiest way.

Once you have the stringing material threaded through the crimp bead twice, take your chain nose pliers and squash the crimping tube. Squeeze hard as you want the tube to flatten down onto the stringing material, thereby holding everything in place.

Once flattened your crimp bead will look like this.

Crimping Option 2 - Xuron Crimping Pliers

The second way I’m going to show you is use the Xuron Crimping Pliers.

You will see that the pliers have several divots in the jaws. The back divot has a piece poking down which goes into the divot.

Place the crimp tube inside the back divot and squeeze. This creates a depression in the centre of the crimp tube with the wires going through on either side. Once you’ve done that, place the crimp tube into one of the other divots on its side and squeeze again. This has the effect of folding the crimp bead over on itself to create a sandwich.

Crimping Option 3 - Magical Crimp Forming Tool

The third option is by far my new favourite. This option uses the Magical Crimp Forming Tool.

This tool only has one divot. The shape of the divot makes your crimping tubes look like a little bead or ravioli shape.

Thread the Magical Crimping Tube onto the stringing material just like before. Now place the crimping tube into the divot of the pliers and squeeze. Turn the crimp tube on its side and squeeze again. Repeat until you have a nicely rounded crimp tube. You may need to give a little more pressure with this tool but it’s worth the effort as it products a result that looks like just another bead.

So there you have three options for closing crimp beads.

Which method do you like the best? Let me know in the comments section below. Remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel and ring the notification bell so you will never miss a thing.