How to Make Jewelry - Essential Tools Pt 1.

Jewelry Making Must Have Tools

In the last post you found out got tips for best managing your setting up your storage space for your jewelry making hobby; next of course is a list of the important tools of the trade that you must have as you discover how to make jewelry. As with your storage considerations, there must be some time put into what kinds of tools you should get.

 This is most important when you are first starting to learn how to make jewelry. The following is a list of what I think to be the most important tools to start your collection with and as time goes on you can add more specialized pieces to your toolkit:

Bent chain nose plier

Bent chain nose pliers are extremely useful for opening and closing jump rings, positioning and working in small areas difficult to reach with straight chain nose pliers, and tucking in small sharp wire tips in your wire work. Bent Closing pliers serve the same purpose but have angled jaws for easy leverage to work with smaller loops and jump rings.

Bent chain nose pliers have a 45 degree bend for getting into tight places. They are typically used to create angled bends in wire, close bead tips, open and close jump rings, and form loops, for picking up small parts, and opening and closing jump rings.

Chain nose plier

I have listed the chain nose pliers because I have found them to be the most versatile and effective of all my pliers for jewellery making. The reason for this is because you can open loops that have been closed, things getting stuck together that your fingers cannot pull out, bending wire and many other useful functions. Chain-nose pliers have smooth flat jaws that taper to a point. Unless I’m completely off base you will be using these pliers all the time!

Chain nose pliers are great for closing bead tips and crimping in tight places. They are a good tool for wire wrapping; chain nose pliers are quite similar needle nose pliers without the grooves on the inside of the jaws. What this does is allow you to manipulate the wire with out fraying or in any serious way, damaging the wire.

Crimping pliers

Some novices to beading may mistakenly think that stringing beads on wire and then simply squeezing the crimp tubes closed is the correct method. This is not correct as you can sometimes find that the crimp tube is not sufficiently closed off. This is where crimping pliers come in handy.

They have two oval holes in the nose. The oval closest to the handle also has a depression in it, for keeping the wire round. Crimping pliers of this type, i.e. Such a gauge, which is usually provided in the form of an adjusting mandrel, has to be made available in this connection for all adjustment measurements of the crimping mandrels.

Round nose pliers

While you could probably use the chain nose pliers in place of the round nose pliers, their primary purpose in the jewellery making world is to give your pieces that professional look and feel about them. I challenge you to bend loops with the chain nose and then to do the same with the round-nose and you will see that the finished products will be a cleaner looking piece of jewelry. Round-nose pliers have smooth cylindrical jaws that taper to a point. Quick tip: Since these pliers have a tapered design you can make loops of many varying sizes based on where you place the wire on the pliers.

As I mentioned the round nose pliers look similar to the Chain Nose pliers are but are used to give a professional finish to the handcrafted jewelry. You may have to go to a specialty store since these may not be readily available at the local hardware store since these are specialty pliers created for the handmade jewelry making industry.

One particular brand, Beadstrom Round Nose Pliers, have ergonomic handles and precision tips, Double leaf spring action creates less stress on hands and provides and always open pliers. Beads of choice are glass beads, semi-precious with large holes, and lamp work beads.

I think that will about do it for this first post on the essential beading tools that any true beaded jewelry enthusiast should own as they are learning how to make jewelry. By now you’re probably sick of talk about pliers anyway, but they are a versatile tool that can be used for all types of jewelry projects including making your own earrings. Until next post…

If you aren't quite ready to jump into making your own jewelry you still don't have to miss out on fun projects. Other fun DIY projects could be learning how to make your own homemade candles.

Genuine Troll Beads & Books to Help Create Jewelry with Them

Tutorials for Jewelry Making

Well after a long holiday break from updating my how to make wire jewelry blog, I have returned to give all of you the opportunity to find out more about troll beads and the beading hobby by giving you a list of the books that have helped me to become familiar with beading, finding the right tools and workspace...of course in the most economical fashion possible. 

Cause if you're like me, you want to find fun hobbies to do, but really don't have that trust fund to fall back on to pay the bills. So without any further delay here is the list of four books that really helped me:

1. Jewelry Making and Beading for Dummies 

I have always enjoyed the "for Dummies" series of books, due to the simplification of all of the tasks. This one in particular has step by step instruction for beginner projects all the way to the more complex ones that involve things such as wire wrapping and knotting. So whether you want to use trollbeads for making necklaces, key chains or wine charms, you're sure to find the steps to guide you on how to make jewelry on your beading project.


2. The New! Beader's Companion by Judith Durant

Personally, I consider this my beading reference book! This was the second book that I purchased and after getting the basics down, "Beaders Companion" is just that, a companion to provide you with all of the terminology and reference for a huge list of beading techniques. I definitely recommend getting this book after reading a more introductory-type book like the book listed at #1.


3. Bead on a Wire: Making Handcrafted Wire & Beaded Jewelry by Sharilyn Miller.

Now we have ventured into the arena for the more experienced beaders. After you have done about 3-5 projects of beading together trollbeads, this book will provide you with the information to create more complex jewerly. Sharilyn has a wonderful way of elaborately describing and detailing all of the advanced techniques. Once you've done a few of the ones illustrated in this book, you will be a pro!!!


4. Marketing & Selling your Handmade Jewelry: The Complete Guide to Turning your Passion into Profit by Viki Lareau

This final book is being listed because, after creating several works of art (IMHO!!), I ran across this book at Barnes & Nobles. I thought to myself, what the heck?!! I enjoy making these pieces of jewelry, why not see if I can make some extra spending money. Viki takes a very good approach to describing all of the skills and factors that come into play in presenting, pricing, marketing and ultimately selling your handmade pieces of jewelry. Now this book may not be for everyone, especially those of you who enjoy beading as a simple hobby to relax after a long week! If you want to pad that emergency fund with some extra cash, this might be the way to go.


I hope that you go out and enjoy these excellent books, but more so that you find the passion for creating one of a kind pieces of jewelry with troll beads. You will be creating items that you can't just go down to the local jewelry store or mall outlet to find!!

Stay tuned for the next upcoming post that will include a beginner's level beading project for you. In the meantime, if you want to pick up some beads to get ready to do some beading be sure to follow the link above!!