GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: Silly me, I thought it would be easy to re-string some uncut gemstones onto bead cord and knot between each one. Is there an easy way?

A: I am taking a beading class currently and we just learned how to knot pearls, etc. Here are some of the basics: 1. Tape stringing thread to the table. 2. Pull string out in front of you, on an angle, flat on the table. Bring the needle around and under the thread to start knot. Gently pull knot, keeping the loop as large as you can until you get near the spot you want the knot to lay. 3. Use very thin needled tweezers as a guide for your knots. Put tweezers through the loop you've made for knotting. Place tips of tweezers where you want the knot to be. Slide the tread down the tines of the tweezers to the point, pull taut and remove the tweezers. Tighten the knot further. That's how we did it and it works beautifully. I'm sure there are many long time beaders here who might have other hints for you. There is a very simple way to knot between beads, other than the one strand of thread method. Use a thinner strand of thread, so you can double the thread as you string on the beads. So test a piece of thread, by doubling it, and see if you can get the smallest holed bead strung on the sample. I will not go into crimping method here, I assume you know how to do that, I will focus on the knotting method. String on your first bead. Divide the two strands in half. Do a knot with the thread...pretty much the type of knot you use when tying your shoe lace...the first part before the bow on the shoe lace. String on another bead and continue to knot this way between your beads. You can experiment with macrame knots too. I use what is called a single half hitch for this kind of knotting between threads. I like this method a lot because you don't have to deal with the tension stuff with a single strand of thread. It goes very fast too.