Stringing Pearls

[barbie biggs]

I'm always so amazed at how much there is to learn here and how much everybody knows!

Caitlin; I love those magnetic clasps!

Does anybody have advice about finishing a necklace made using a stringer, strung with silk, bullion on the ends? No glue. I have trouble turning that last corner and knotting off on the last two pearls. I can get everything very neet and workman like right up to that point but am sometimes unhappy with the bullion and the spacing at the end.
Also, what do you do with the stringer after the last turn. What's the best way to knot it off?
The videos never focus on the last few steps so of course that's what I have trouble with.
Thank you,
barbie

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Barbie
Are you talking about a carrier strand and a covering strand? As in a four strand design? We have so many overlapping threads going, I am confused.

I plan on taking some photos of my elder daughter, Kether, doing the final finish on a strand of pearls -- today, I hope.

 

[barbie biggs]

Thank you Caitlin:
I eagerly await your pictures.
barbie

 

[pearl-man]

I'm always so amazed at how much there is to learn here and how much everybody knows!

Caitlin; I love those magnetic clasps!

Does anybody have advice about finishing a necklace made using a stringer, strung with silk, bullion on the ends? No glue. I have trouble turning that last corner and knotting off on the last two pearls. I can get everything very neet and workman like right up to that point but am sometimes unhappy with the bullion and the spacing at the end.
Also, what do you do with the stringer after the last turn. What's the best way to knot it off?
The videos never focus on the last few steps so of course that's what I have trouble with.
Thank you,
barbie

Magnetic clasps are great until you sell one to someone with a pacemaker!
finishng is done by stop knotting two pearls from the end. go thru' the pearl...finding...and back thru' the pearl...[cutting out 1 or 2 fine threads] or slightly enlarging the hole with a reamer...then tie one overhand and a square knot [must be a square and not a granny] [right over left and left over right] snip with a
$30 sizzors [sp] used for crochet [sp] AND NOT ANY THING ELSE ! leaving 3-4mm ends between the pearls.
use only elmers glue to train these ends down.

 

[Mikeyy]

Maybe we should have a contest to see who is the knottiest. Talk is cheap. I want to see a race.

 

[Caitlin]

Wait a minute
I am left handed and knot just fine! I learned knitting, knotting and crochet by doing mirror image. I made my first knotted piece in 1968- a mere 40 years!

I also have a pacemaker and once when the company checked it I wore my 12mm necklace with the magnet. I asked the representatives of the company. They told me, it is no longer a problem to wear a pacemaker because magnet is so far away from it.

I have cont looking for the perfect clasp, because people have told me they lost bracelets with magnets. (I never did) Also sometimes one side of a magnet will come unglued. It usually stays attached to the other side and I glue them back in, but I wouldn't want that to happen to a friend or buyer.

I now favor ball and socket clasps in Sterling (Hip Chik beads has them.) the ball goes in a basket and a folder over the basket, locks it.
I use the same ending method as Pearl Man, but I change the weight of the thread to fit closely in the strand but be able to go back through two pearls.

Pearl man please tell us more about your scissors. I use a $2.49 thread cutter.

 

[knotty panda]

Maybe we should have a contest to see who is the knottiest. Talk is cheap. I want to see a race.

Do you really have to ask who the naughtiest is? Uh, knottiest? I'll never win a race unless it's against a newbie, all thumbs, male. But it holds tight and beautifully. Who wants to race through Zen moments?

Scissors? Don't use them. I ZAP!

 

[Mikeyy]

I do apologize Panda. You are truly knotty.

 

[Nerida]

I've come to believe that zapping is everything. Unless using powerpro, then it is easy to zap through everything, and you are left with 2 pearls and a clasp on one end in one hand, and well, the rest speaks for itself. Restrain when zapping is definitely the key.

 

[pearl-man]

stringing and scissors

stringing and scissors

Wait a minute
I am left handed and knot just fine!. I also have a pacemaker and once when the company checked it I wore my 12mm necklace with the magnet. I asked the representatives of the company. They told me, it is no longer a problem to wear a pacemaker and a magnet so far away from it.

I have cont looking for the perfect clasp, because people have told me they lost bracelets with magnets. (I never did) Also sometimes one side of a magnet will come unglued. It usually stays attached to the other side and I glue them back in, but I wouldn't want that to happen to a friend or buyer.

I now favor ball and socket clasps in Sterling (Hip Chik beads has them.) the ball goes in a basket and a folder over the basket, locks it.
I use the same ending method as Pearl Man, but I change the weight of the thread to fit closely in the strand but be able to go back through two pearls.

Pearl man please tell us more about your scissors. I use a $2.49 thread cutter.

Caitlin;
Good Morning
I bought a scissrs from Rio [pg 51 of 2007 catalog] who has very good
stringing supplies. I also bought a scissors that is a bit curved at the cutting area from [I think
Lee Valley tools...super garden and tools company!!!] I am sure in the sewing catalogs you will find fine Japanese or French made scissors. I learnt how to spell. DO NOT CUT PAPER with it only thread.
I use a leader also...fine thread AA...or real
fine blue monofilament [1 lb test] and Japanese steel needles . I have to get back to my mystery stringing so bye for now.

 

[pearl-man]

magnetic clasp

magnetic clasp

Wait a minute
I am left handed and knot just fine!. I also have a pacemaker and once when the company checked it I wore my 12mm necklace with the magnet. I asked the representatives of the company. They told me, it is no longer a problem to wear a pacemaker and a magnet so far away from it.

I have cont looking for the perfect clasp, because people have told me they lost bracelets with magnets. (I never did) Also sometimes one side of a magnet will come unglued. It usually stays attached to the other side and I glue them back in, but I wouldn't want that to happen to a friend or buyer.

I now favor ball and socket clasps in Sterling (Hip Chik beads has them.) the ball goes in a basket and a folder over the basket, locks it.
I use the same ending method as Pearl Man, but I change the weight of the thread to fit closely in the strand but be able to go back through two pearls. I'll cut out 2 threads after the last knot and finish with the orig. threads thined out. Hard to describe.

Pearl man please tell us more about your scissors. I use a $2.49 thread cutter.

GOOD TO HEAR ABOUT THE MAG CLASPS.
I like fold over magnetic clasps...but alas they are not in 14k.
N

 

[pearl-man]

stringing

stringing

Maybe we should have a contest to see who is the knottiest. Talk is cheap. I want to see a race.

Easy to knot but 60-80 knots quickly but all done the same and finished off neatly is another matter.

PD

 

[Mikeyy]

Easy to knot but 60-80 knots quickly but all done the same and finished off neatly is another matter.

PD

So when we organize this contest we will have to judge speed and quality? I think what pearl man is saying is. "Sure your fast, But are you good?" Man if that isn't a challange I don't know what one is. I don't know if I'd stand for it.

Keep in mind that my knotting skills would likely leave me dead on the floor strangled in my own thread. But I don't have to be a boxer to enjoy a good fight.

In the immortal words of Mills Lane "Lets get it on"

 

[knotty panda]

I do apologize Panda. You are truly knotty.

You are totally forgiven!

 

[pearl-man]

I agree also...unfortunatley stringing provides some extra income and they may not want to loose a customer....
First thing to master is knotting. When I or my Mother would teach she have them knot all day, with breaks, and once mastered or gotten the hang of tieing off etc was just skills added to the [sp] reptoir. The handiest skill is to repair a half knotted strand, which sometimes will break for all kind of reasons, and continue on with out starting over.

PM
N

 

[knotty panda]

The handiest skill is to repair a half knotted strand, which sometimes will break for all kind of reasons, and continue on with out starting over.

Here comes another of my infamous stupid questions. Why would you want to do a "lick and a promise" repair? Is time the determining factor? How much time do you save? Ten miuntes? A chain is only as strong as its weakest link and that sort of repair sounds as though it sacrifices quality.

 

[flycatcher]

Knotty,

I can see use for it. When I was restringing a set of pearls for my wife about an hour before she was to wear them the string broke with about 6-10 pearls left to knot. I had to quickly start all over and was literally knotting them up while she drove us to the event. I had to finish them up at the table while we sat. Since I did not have time to properly prepare the silk I ended up restringing them yet again (using powerpro). Being able to do this kind of repair job might have saved me a lot of work. I would love to know how that is done. It sounds like a good, last minute, make them wearable again repair job. I would consider it temporary but at least they can be worn for a while.

--Stephen

 

[knotty panda]

And I think you hit on the right word, Fly, temporary. I don't know any stringers who sell repaired stands in that fashion. Its nice that your wife has her own, resident, stringer available on short notice for any occasion. But my point is, if they have enough time to get the strand to me, they certainly have enough time to wait the extra few minutes it takes to do a proper job.

Actually, I think your example is the exception rather than rule. Most people put restringing on the back burner and the strand sits broken for months. Then, when the holidays come around, they remember.

 

[flycatcher]

And I think you hit on the right word, Fly, temporary. I don't know any stringers who sell repaired stands in that fashion.

I hope they would not sell such a strand but these days you never really know unless you know the stringer and their work really well.

Actually, I think your example is the exception rather than rule. Most people put restringing on the back burner and the strand sits broken for months. Then, when the holidays come around, they remember.

Uuummmm... guilty as charged. Only for me it was the approaching of her birthday and I did not know what to get her. I decided to have her pearls restrung and then decided to try it myself.
That's how I wound up here.

I still want to know how to do that quick repair job though. Does anybody know where I can find out? I know that several people have recommended to others a couple of different books but I have to confess that I have been lazy and have not bought any of them. If such techniques are described in them then perhaps I should just RTFM (Read The Friendly Manual).

--Stephen

 

[knotty panda]

I've never seen it described and while I wouldn't use it on a full strand, it might have other applications, if someone does know how to do it.

A birthday is a holiday. Ambitious little cuss, aren't you! No hooks involved. I wonder how a strand of pearls decorated with those little feather fishing thingys would look. Hmmmmm, new design challenge!