Are Beads Letting You Down Too?

Sarah, a customer, related this experience while we were having one of our usual chats;

In the course of a lunch, Sarah tapped on her ring while talking. Moments later, she detected odd expressions on her lunch partner and uneasy glances were directed at around her hands and plate.

She looked down and a bead was gleaming beside her spoon. Another was clinging onto the tip of her right index finger!

I am telling you Sarah's experience because ours are too embarrassing to recount.

 

One More Reason to go Handmade

When we were exposed to handmade jewelry, the first advantage quickly noticed was that beads don't go missing anymore!

With mass-produced jewellery, gluing is a very common method of attaching beads to a piece of jewellery.

It is commonly experienced that this is not a good way to a lasting union. There is no telling how long they will stick and beads can disappear or drop anywhere at embarrassing moments.

Quality of glue can be a factor as well as how adequately the glue was applied. These are elements that can't be discerned except for strayed glue marks which may suggest the standard of workmanship.

Bad experiences and the uncertain nature of glued jewellery has led us to stay away from them and refrained from listing gluing among our crafting techniques.

 

3 Methods to Secure Beads in Handmade Jewellery

Gluing

Gluing is present in Handmade Jewelry as well.

If the crafter is conscious about the pitfalls of this method and applies care together with quality glue, decent levels of security can be achieved.

I don't want to comment further as we don't practice gluing. Why should we when there are more secure options?

 

Claw Setting

Another widely employed method to hold on to beads and stones is setting them as shown on the right.

Also known as the Prong Setting, the Claw Setting has small metal claws with a vice-like grip that ensure the stone's secure position.

The more Claws, the more secure and safe the beads will be. It is our opinion that this is a more secure option than gluing.

 

Go Through Them

Handcrafted jewellery generally uses beads, stones, crystals and components with cavities that allow threadlike materials to pass right through them!

Unless the beads break, there is no way they can break loose. How do you achieve better security than that?

Sometimes, craft jewellery utilizes ready-made parts and these parts may feature glued beads on them.

 

As a matter of policy, Agalil in-house designers are prohibited from using such parts and from glue application as the sole method of attaching beads.