CatWithNoName Jewellery

When I started jewellery making I didn’t have the faintest idea about most of the names of the bits I used to make my jewellery. I lived in Israel at the time, and the shop I bought from had all the beads and findings in little compartments and trays. All I’d do is take them to the counter, and buy them. The names never came into the equation. So somehow despite having headpins, eyepins, earwires, and jump rings, I never knew their names. It took a lot of figuring out to realise that the collective name for jewellery bits that weren’t beads was “findings”. But now I’m not sure how I would even begin to look for items without knowing that word nowdays! So I’m going to try and make occasional postings about basic jewellery making concepts, trying not to assume any prior knowledge.

Findings:

Findings, (as I just mentioned above) are the metal bits you use to make jewellery. Some common ones:

• Earwires, which come in various different shapes – metal earring bits (the part that goes in your ear)
• Headpins – thin long metal wires with a ball or pinhead on the end to stop beads sliding off
• Eyepins – these are similar to headpins, but instead of having a ball at the end the wire is formed into a loop of “eye” so that it can be joined to something else
• Jump rings – a loop of wire formed in a ring, usually open so you can twist it open to join to another item and then twist it shut again
• Split rings – a loop, but two layers of ring, like a keyring. This is superior to a jump ring because there is no gap through which things could slip out
• Chain – Well, you probably know what chain is, (grin) but there are a lot of different types, depending on the link shapes, such as curb chain or trace chain.
• Bails – these are the bits of metal you’d typically put into the hole in a pendant stone to connect it to the cord it’ll be going on
• Tigertail, Beadalon, Jewellery wire (and probably other names) – thin metal threads covered in a nylon coating. They are stiffer than fabric based threads so make it easy to thread beads into, but the stiffness makes them more likely to kink.
• Crimp beads, crimp tubes – small beads or tubes made of a soft metal. Used in conjuntion with tigertail, you can crimp the beads over the thread to make them stay in place.
• Clasps – these come in many different shapes as well. Lobster clasps, bolt clasps, toggle clasps – the main idea is to make a necklace or bracelet openapable and closable so it can be taken off and put on…
• Illusion cord – clear cord like fishing wire, used for threading beads
• Stretchy elastic, Elasticity – stretchy cord (this can also be clear) mainly used for bracelets or necklaces when there is no clasp, so it can stretch over your hand / head.