Bend a short “U” shape at the end of a dead soft 22-gauge silver
wire. Th read the steel bead wire (Soft Flex) through a smooth tube
crimp bead, throu gh the “U”, back through the crimp bead, and cinch
up the wire until the end loop is tight to the “U”. Crimp the bead
and gently tap hammer the silver wire “U” flat enough to be no larger
than the diameter of the crimped bead. The crimp bead and “U”, if
short enough, can fit entirely inside a hollow S ilver Bead. Drill
or file one S. Bead hole of a hollow silver bead large en ough to
accommodate the diameter of the crimp bead unit, and, thread the end
of the silver wire through the smaller hole. Wrap the silver wire
around a mandrel (e.g., shank of a Dremel tool burr) and, using round
nose pliers, p inch the ends to form a nice round loop. Wire wrap
back to the S. Bead, abo ut 3-4 turns or enough times until the crimp
bead unit is held firmly inside up against the smaller S. Bead hole.
The wire wrapping gives a finished lo ok and the crimp bead unit
stays hidden inside the S. Bead even if the neckl ace wire is
slightly loose. (The same crimp bead unit can be hidden inside a
length of silver tubing.
A word about crimp beads. I use the shortest length crimp bead with
the sm allest inside diameter possible. The first crimp with the
crimp pliers fold s the crimp bead in half, snugly between the two
wires; the second crimp fol ds the two sides together to a tidy round
diameter cylinder. If the inside diameter of the crimp bead is too
large for the wire used, the final crimped shape becomes a flattened
round. This shape won’t fit into the larger dril led hole without
making the hole even larger, and, with the weight of the ne cklace
pulling against it, the wire can slip out of the grip of the crimp
be ad. Rio Grande sells crimp beads in a variety of sizes, by both
length and inside diameter. Nancy