Beads for Hemp Jewelry
When it comes to making hemp jewelry and finding the beads or pendants you want can be tricky. Why? Because you have to find ones that have big enough holes in them to fit through your hemp twine.
A couple questions to ask yourself when hunting for hemp jewelry beads:
- How many cords am I going to using as knot bearers?
- What is the thickness of the cords I am using?
Size of Beads
Let me back up a minute. Beads come in different sizes and are listed as “mm” sizes. The mm stands for how big the center hole is. The larger the number, the larger the hole size. I mostly try to look for beads that are 8 mm size and up. If I am using smaller sized cord, and only one strand, I can get away with using smaller sized beads.
I have found a bead chart that is a good reference for you. It is in pdf form, so you will need Adobe Acrobat to download it. Adobe Acrobat is free to download.
How Many Cords?
You need to know how many cords you are going to use as knot bearers. If you are using one cord, you won’t need too large of a hole in your beads. If you are using two, you need larger holes for beads. I know it seems trivial, but when starting my adventure in hemp jewelry, I did not take this into account. I would find the coolest beads, buy the wrong size and have to make a trip to exchange them.
Thickness of Cord
You must also take in to consideration the thickness of your cord. If you are using 20# test hemp, of course you can get away with using smaller sized beads. If you are using the thicker hemp, 48# or higher, you need larger beads! I know, once again, trivial, but important.
Of course, a lot of it is trial and error. But if you have a basis of what you are looking for, it helps. If you have any suggestions or questions, please leave a comment or contact me!
Happy Knotting
March 9th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I do thanks, I’m satisfied so much reading your articles. It’s really helpfull for me. Please add more,… and keep your good job.
Jeanne
Jeanne Bruce’s last blog post..Benefit of Making Handcrafted Jewelry
March 9th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Jeanne,
Thank you so much for your comment. Sometimes I feel like I am babbling to myself lol.
Thanks for visiting
March 14th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Another thing you can do if you are having trouble finding beads with big enough holes in them, is to make them yourself out of polymer clay. You can bake your beads on a bamboo skewer, wooden dowel or knitting needle to get the hole any size you want. If you are baking on anything porous like wood however, coat the skewer with cornstarch before piercing the bead to avoid the clay sticking permanently to it.
There are so many cool techniques you can do with polymer clay to make them look like turquoise, stone, ceramic, glass, wood and more… the sky is pretty much the limit!
Cindy Lietz, The Polymer Clay Tutor’s last blog post..Polymer Clay Baking Instructions
March 14th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Cindy,
You are SO right!!! In fact, I have gotten supplies to make my own poly clay beads!! I have not experimented to much yet on it yet, and what I have done I have burned lol.
I have been all over the net checking out how to make polymer clay beads and pendants, but hadn’t run into your blog! It is a great resource, thanks for visiting and posting here!!!
March 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
The problem with burning your polymer clay beads is really common. Polymer clay bakes at really low temperatures 265-275 degrees depending on the brand. It will scorch really easy and should never be baked at higher than 350 degrees or it can give off toxic fumes.
Most ovens aren’t that accurate as far as temperature goes. In fact my oven started getting 50 degrees hotter than it says on the dial. (I was not only burning my beads, but all of my baking as well!) I got an oven thermometer and the problem has stopped!
Cindy Lietz, Polymer Clay Tutorials’s last blog post..Re-Baking Polymer Clay Will Not Harm Your Beads
March 19th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
I have used Sculpey III. I followed their degree recommendation, and used a toaster oven to bake it. Although I did not use a oven thermometer to check the temps. Hmmm, I must do that.
Thanks for your input!!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
yh, some times the whole is not big enough on one side of my wooden bead and i have to use scissors to make it bigger. But a really unexpected place i found is the dollar section at target, i just got like a cheapie bracelet and used the beads (which were really cute!)
March 27th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Lauren,
That is a great idea to buy cheap jewelry u like and then use the beads. Actually, I have gone to auctions and found jewelry I liked and used those beads on other jewelry!!
I have trouble with those wooden beads sometimes with the hole not being cut all the way through and I use a pin to cut it out more!
Great tips!!! Thanks
July 29th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Hey! Kristy your all comment are nice. I have got great thinking from your comments. Thanks Auctions for jewelry is good, We get the correct price with relative demand.
The hole is not mattering thing - wooden beads look cool but your solution to lauren is unique. The things from Polymer clay is best loved by me. I would like to know more about it. HOPE you reply quickly. Thank you. NICE post.
August 12th, 2008 at 6:02 am
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August 12th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
wow, cool! tnx for your post! very interesting!