[knotty panda]

Gee, a whole thread for that? You want to use this method when you have heavy beads but you want them to look as they are knotted on silk.

You string all the beads on one strand, like wire, Detolon, Beadsmith no-stretch, or whatever. Then come up through the beads again with your silk on a needle and make a larkshead knot in between each bead. You can vary your no stretch strand width, silk thread width, and needle size to accommodate your bead holes.

Beeswax: Fresh, pale in color, packaged to keep it from drying out. If it's old, yellow, sweaty, dry, crumbly, throw it away. Candle wax, chapstick, thread heaven, etc., doesn't work for me.

Press the beginning of the cut length of thread against the beeswax. Grab the beginning end of the thread with your chain nose pliers and pull it through the beeswax several times. It keeps the thread from becoming unruly and stretches it.

Thread has a true beginning and end. When working with threads, you always want to be mindful of how the thread comes off the spool or card. The leading edge should always be used to pull the thread through. Think of it as a sewing machine with the spool on top and use the leading edge of the thread.

[Pearl_dreams]

I've used silk for some strands and nylon for others but have not been knotting long enough to be able to judge the long term effect of the thread material on the pearl's drill hole.

Does anyone have observations on whether the non-silk threads erode or widen the outside edge of the drill hole over time?

[Caitlin]

I don't use wire anymore for any kind of pearls. One word of caution is that, for some reason or another, it always seems to expand the drill holes, and this happens in a rather short period of time. Then you have limited options if you decide to restring in silk.

I am just changing out the last of some 40" black strands I put on wire the summer of 2005. (It was the Softflex .014 diameter wire) I used the 30 lb strength green fishing line powerpro at .011 diameter to redo.
While there was a small amount of chalky powder left on the wire, it did not expand the holes noticeably and I had no trouble restringing. If wire really did expand drill holes, I would put a bunch of small pearls I like to use between and ream them out that way. No such luck.

[silverseajewelry]

Really? I must have made a wrong assumption.

I bought a tahitian pearl bracelet years ago on ebay that someone had put on accuflex or beadalon for some reason I don't understand. When I took it apart to restring, the holes were HUGE such that I had to use a griffin 7 to knot them properly with a single knot. I assumed it was the wire. Perhaps they were just drilled by someone who didn't know how. I also did a freshwater strand on wire 2 years ago and decided to go with silk later and found the drill holes stretched somewhat, but not like the tahitians. Since then, I have not used wire on any pearl designs.

I know you do a lot of work with freshwater pearls - so I trust your experiences as mine are limited with pearls.

[Caitlin]

Some pearls are more chalky than others, but Tahitians have a mother of pearl bead inside. MoP is strong stuff and I doubt it would abrade with nylon or PowerPro or plastic coated wire like Softflex or Beadalon.

[Caitlin]

No. I said I felt beeswax is cost-effective. It's in another thread.

Here it is:

knotty panda:
Retailers don't prep their silk. Hanging strands to stretch before knotting isn't cost effective. You'll have to ask them why they don't use beeswax. It's such a knotting time saver, I would think it would be very cost effective.

You are still saying the professionals don't use beeswax and therefore are not preparing the thread correctly. I am just trying to clarify your points about the proper preparation for silk and the fact that pros don't properly prepare the silk they advertise so proudly.

[silverseajewelry]

Here is how I currently do things.

It never occurred to me to use any thread but silk when I do work with pearls for myself and customers...other than pearls mixed with stones/metals that might tear or fray the silk (gemstone beads from India, in particular, are highly irregular and sometimes jagged inside). I use silk because, when I learned all this, I was told people expect silk under pearls. I have no good reason other than its the way I was taught and the way I always do it. I am open to trying nylon as I can't stand stretched out silk, but I wouldn't feel comfortable selling a piece done in nylon at this time because of the expectation that knotting is to be done on silk. Narrow-minded....yes.

I also believe there is something to be said for the proper preparation of the silk. I manually stretch mine twice. Then I run it through a cake of beeswax and then stretch it again. I also pull on it strongly as I knot. Ideally, this helps to prevent stretching out in the near future.

I also understand what someone said a while back about the feel of silk. Sure, you can't tell when you are wearing it. But, while you work with it, it feels nicer flowing through your fingers. More specifically, I absolutely love the feel of Gudebrod moving over my fingers. It's much softer than Griffin. Gudebrod seems to stretch out more, though and no needle! Griffin's disadvantage is that the knots look bulkier...especially the beginning and ending knots...bleck. It almost makes me wonder why many professionals insist that french wire is the only way to go. Precious metal end caps, to me look far more finished.

At my local jewelry store I recently saw a very expensive akoya necklace finished with open bead tips (not clamshell) and an ugly knot spilling out over it. Not that mine would look much better with that kind of ending. But I just wonder about the industry standards and if they are always right...kind of like Caitlyn was saying about "why silk."

Heavens...that's a lot to say about thread!!

[knotty panda]

The reason Griffin looks bulkier is it is beading cord, not thread.

[kojimapearl]

After a good laugh here, I have decided to share with the rest of you the thread strong enough to hang Josh. (Pearl gods forbid that by the way).

We call it "Ceramic" Thread, although I will have to ask Fuji again why that is.
It is not silk, it is a nylon. On the inside of the spool it reads: GUNZE
GPT.. H.P.E. 100% (Hyper Pearler Eradicator?)
The spool is 1000 meters of thread, I don't recall ever finishing a spool, usually I give them away or loose them first! I believe this peticular type of thread comes in three sizes, this being size 10. ( for a .9 or 1mm pearl hole, I will use two threads doubled).
I love this thread because it is so strong and easy to knot, the finished product is a supple necklace that does not stretch out like silk does.
The one and only draw back to this "Ceramic thread" is that I have only ever seen it in white! So for most black pearls and fun colored stringing projects.. I still use silk for that.

In response to the "no needle method" of pearl knotting (that Josh picked up so quickly). I think what he actually means is that I do not use a needle to tighten each knot? In fact I make a mess when I try any other method than the one I can do with my eyes closed. (lots and lots of practice!). I do however use recycled electric wire filaments doubled around the thread and twisted to string the pearls onto the thread. Easily found at any hardware store, for 30 cents a foot or so. A foot of electrical wire is enough needles for a very very long time. You can experiment with different thicknesses of wire, I prefer the thinnest.
On the last knot I use a dab of Hypo Tube cement (just to keep the cut thread from unraveling, never ever use cyanoacrilade (sp?) other wise known as super glue, as it will crack the thread with time.
The actual knotting is yet another skill I owe to Fuji, we still race sometimes. It is not really something I can explain in text. Maybe a video would be better.

I hope this is interesting and informative to you all. Please let me know if you have any questions. (and I'm sorry this maybe should be in the lowly beaders forum?)

Cheers and Happy Pearling!
Sarah

[Josh]

Originally Posted by kojimapearl

I have decided to share with the rest of you the thread strong enough to hang Josh.

Sarah of Kojimapearl showed me a pearl thread in Tucson I could hang myself with it was so strong. Luckily I had a good show. She also taught me to string pearls in the tried and true Japanese fashion (no needle). What a legend.
Oooh, wicked double entendre.
Yeah, I meant no needle to tighten the knots. The recycled electrical wire is brilliant.
Oh and impressive photo btw.

[jerin]

Hi Sarah,

would you be so kind to tell us a link where to order this thread?

I too use electrical wire if no needle will fit and I wrote about it on the Lowly Beaders Club but as far as I Know, no one ever replied even though I this was really something coming in handy when all needles hav too great an eye to slip through a tiny freshwater pearl

[kojimapearl]

Jerin,
We actually order this thread from Japan. Sorry I missed your past post about the use of electrical wire, there is so much information to process and read through here. I will ask Fuji, if he knows of a web link to the supplier. It's not cheap, but it lasts forever.
I will let you know if I find any more leads.
Thanks,

[jerin]

Hi Sarah

and thanks for your reply. It wasn´t meant against You, it is such a long time ago I posted but still it is nice to see that there are other members who have found out about the use of small copper wires,lol.

Look forward to the link for the thread.And I think Caitlin will be curious as well and wants to try some new thread.

[kojimapearl]

Jerin, I took a few minutes and searched around for Gunze thread on the internet this morning, only a few frustrating leads, but honestly I really only had a few minutes to devote to it.
Here's a link to a big huge thread supplier, in the interim you could maybe ask them? I liked their site.. the threads were plenty as were the jokes! Until I get more info.. good luck!
http://www.superiorthreads.com/index...200&Itemid=100

[knotty panda]

Jerin: You follow up on this and I'll check it out with the Bead Wrangler. She's a big thread reviewer/expert. At least the biggest one I know of.