Dealing With Small Bead Holes

Sometimes when you start a project you get so excited that you just dive into it only to find out that your bead hole doesn’t fit the pin. This is especially true with pearls, fresh water pearls to be exact. And if you force it in, the layers peel away, that’s how delicate pearls are. So, here’s a little technique I learned to do when working with pearls, which I’m sharing with you. All you need are round nose pliers, flush cutter, a spool of .06 (or 22) gauge wire and basic wire wrapping skills.

Step 1: With your .06 wire, insert the bead straight from the spool to minimize wire waste. I leave about less than an inch of wire above then grasp the wire with your round nose pliers and then bend it to create a loop and wrap the tail wire once or twice around the stem, just enough to secure, you’ll be wrapping wire around this later. Cut as close to the stem as possible.

Step 2: Push the bead at the base of the finished loop. Position the tip of the pliers at the base of the other end of the wire then bend to create a loop. Wrap the wire around the stem 2-3 times.

Step 3: Bring the wire to the opposite loop with a slight cascade as part of the design.

Step 4: Start wrapping the wire stem from Step 1 to and cover the initial wrapped wire, this would take 2-3 wraps.

Step 5: Trim the wire as close as you can. Press any excess, protruding wire ends to the wire wrap so it won’t snag skin and/or fabric. If you find the ends of the wire too sharp, file it down with sandpaper.