Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

We recently had this question sent to us at Ask A Question, the third button just below our Think Crafts! title banner,  ”Help! I love making jewelry, but my crimping skills are terrible, how do you crimp so that your jewelry wires don’t end up slipping away from the crimping tube or crimping bead? Is this a skill I can learn? What’s going on?”

Okay, that’s several questions, but the most important answer is that crimping is a skill that anyone can master with the right tools and practice. I can understand this crafter’s frustration because I’ve been there and crimping can be overwhelming.  There is nothing worse than putting in a few hours for a great necklace or bracelet only to have it fall apart the first time you wear it!

If you are going to make jewelry, you have to learn to crimp.  Crimping is done with a crimping bead or crimping tube, a crimping tool, and your beading wire (wire is a generic term I use for any stringing material). 

Crimping beads and tubes come in different sizes, but always do the same job, which is to secure your bead wire to your clasp.  Clasps vary too.  But no matter what type of clasp you use, the process of securing the clasp to the “body” of your jewelry piece is the same. Crimp beads and tubes are tiny, usually around the size of a seed bead. Use larger crimp beads and tubes if your finished jewelry piece is on the heavy side.  A tip if you are in a pinch and need a larger crimp bead/tube is to double crimp with a smaller crimp bead/tube!

A crimping tool is in the plier family, but has a unique “mouth”.  As you can see in the photos, the tool has several indentations along its mouth.  It’s within these indentations that you will center your crimping bead/tube, press the crimping tool mouth closed, firmly press, then release.  For some crimping beads you’ll do a second squeeze on another of the indentations to round out the crimp for a more appealing look.  You can also use crimp covers to hide a crimp bead.  You need to apply just enough pressure to crimp the bead or tube around your clasp securely, but not so much pressure that you break the crimping bead or tube.

I found some great crimping tutorials for you:  Video &  Step-by-Step Photo

My best tip for crimping is to practice.  Buy a package of crimping beads or tubes and just practice the skill over and over until you feel more comfortable with the technique.  Do you have a crimping tip to help others?  Let’s hear it!

Here are some photos of different crimping tools.