crimp beads on tiger tail in callottes breaking - any alternatives?

[Genie]

Hi all,

I've only joined today so hope you don't mind me asking my first question. Hopefully I will be able to return the favour.

Recently I've had a few necklaces break. I use tiger tail and a calotte with a crimp bead to secure the tiger tail inside the calotte. With the few that have broken the tiger tail has slipped out out of the crimp or the crimp had disinctigrated (sp?). I always close the crimps enough but perhaps that is the problem.

Is there another way that I don't know about to finish a necklace more securely. I like the look of calottes so don't want to go back to looping the tiger tail through the crimp only.

I have now resorted to placing some glue ("Craft It Metal Glue") on the join of the crimp and tiger tail inside the calotte but I still have ALOT of necklaces I have already made and I'm not confident that they are going to last now.

Can anyone help please!?

Thanks.

G

[beadsbydesign]

crimps work best when there is a tail left.
Callottes are really designed to be used with nymo, fish line etc that can be tied.
Because tiger tail is a substantial thread it will not tie and therefore the only solution I can see is to add a crimp then the calotte, thread through a seed bead and then back out and through the crimp. I know that it really defeats the idea of using a callotte, but the calotte is what is pushing your crimp off your tiger tail!

[Genie]

Thanks for your reply :)

I understand what you mean about having the crimp outside of the calotte, I guess I could use a crimp cover (I've got some but haven't used them yet) so that it looks more part of the necklace although it just adds to the length of the unbeaded part of the necklace.

Maybe I should change the thread/wire I use.

I tend to use:-
tiger tail when using any glass beads / glass pearls
Griffin thread for freshwater pearls
nylon type thread for illusions.

Should I be using nylon type thread for glass pearls and beads (some are heavy) then? I do struggle with tieing thread inside calottes though for some reason and always add a crimp and some glue to the knot.

Thanks for your help. Any other ideas/views much appreciated.

[JBJB]

I know what you mean about the look of callotte, but I agree about them being unreliable.

Here's what I do :

I thread the tiger tail through the finding (clasp, etc), put the tiger tail through 2 crimps and squash them, then I put a third crimp on and then use a crimp cover (http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=crimp+cover)over the last crimp. This looks particularly good if you're not doing a fully beaded necklace (floating style).

With regard to which thread to use, I always use Beadalon for my floating necklaces, especially the more expensive silver plated one as I personally think it has a less harsh appearance than tiger-tail. I use tigertail for all my fully beaded necklaces as it's about as tough as you can get, and I use Stretch Magic for my stretchy bracelets.

Hope all that helps!

[Genie]

Hi JBJB,

I think I will try out the two crimps, then crimp and cover technique, thanks.

Do you put the wire straight through the hole on the clasp or use jump rings or are they only neccessary to join calottes and clasps?

Hopefully the necklaces I have already made which are also glued will be fine, its just that I have lots made already that I am worried about now!

Thanks.

G

[Pebbles]

You shouldn't need glue if you are using crimps.

beware the crimp cover, make sure you get your crimp in the dead centre of the tiger tail as when you close the cover, if the crimp is not dead centre, the act of closing the cover squeezes the crimp, and it falls off! Maybe I am just too rough!

make sure you buy good quality crimps, I would recommend beadalon ones, I also use beadalon tiger tail.

For glass beads, I would always use tigertail as I had a nylon one break due to rough edges in the glass cutting the nylon. For very heavy glass beads, two strands of tigertail may be required. Try to secure with as many crimps as you can get away with if it is heavy.

Hope that helps

[JBJB]

beware the crimp cover, make sure you get your crimp in the dead centre of the tiger tail as when you close the cover, if the crimp is not dead centre, the act of closing the cover squeezes the crimp, and it falls off!

I always do the crimp that's going to be covered deliberately off-centre then once I've crimped it, I cut it as close to the tigertail as possible and then cover it with the crimp-cover.

Do you put the wire straight through the hole on the clasp or use jump rings or are they only neccessary to join calottes and clasps?

I put the tigertail through the hole on both the parrot clasp and the round clasp. I don't use jump rings at all these days, I only ever use split rings or thread the tiger tail through.

But it's all about personal preference and what suits your style!

[Genie]

Thanks everyone, you've been really helpful.

I've now realised that I don't know the difference between split and jump rings! Arrgh!

Thanks.

[beadsbydesign]

Thanks everyone, you've been really helpful.

I've now realised that I don't know the difference between split and jump rings! Arrgh!

Thanks.

split rings are like mini key rings.
jump rings are asingle ring

[Genie]

Thank you! :D