And here's where knowing how to use wire comes in. You have unlimited hook and eye options. You can even make fun swirly hooks if you want that look like art on your art.
Now lets look at me. I'm smart but not crafty smart. So when I figure something out craftwise, you guys better friggin act like I'm a genius or I quit! Just kidding but honestly I just assume you all think I'm the greatest.
So here's a tutorial on something that has probably been done time and time before, but I've never seen it: Hook and eye with paper bead.
For this, you need
1-2 beads with a wide hole. It depends on if you're doing both the hook and the eye.
20g wire
Wire cutters
Round nose pliers (Optional are the multiuse 4in1 kinds. They're very much worth the investment)
For the Hook
Grab your spool of wire. Depending on the size of your bead, you're going to probably need about 5 inches, but don't cut that much off yet. Just put the bead on it and the spool will hold it on there so you don't have to worry about where you set it.
Take the top inch and bend it over the top round part of your round nose pliers. When bending, make sure you bend so that you are losing length on the coil, not on the inch you're bending. This should make a loop and the end of your wire should be pointing down towards your spool of wire now. If you have the 4 in 1 round nose pliers, use the tiny wire slot to crimp this loop together, all the way to the top. If you don't have the 4 in 1's you can do this by hand. But it turns out better with using the wire guide on the 4in1. You can also twist this part to kind of make it interesting. The main focus is that you have a very very small loop at the top instead of a wide open one.
Slide your bead up towards the hook. It should be sliding over two wires now. If after sliding the bead up you still see two ends of wire, slide the bead back down and trim off some of the wire you had initially bent down. You want the bead to be over it but you don't want it showing out the bottom of the bead.
Now you get to cut all of this off the spool. Measure about a pinky tip length under the bead and cut there. Using this extra wire, roll it on the round nose pliers (I start about midway up on the pliers) and roll it till this loop is closed. This is where the rest of the necklace attaches. If that loop is too big or it doesn't touch the edge of the bead you can cut a little off the end of the loop and continue rolling. But when you measure and cut this, make sure the bead is not up so far on the hook that you can't slide something in the opening of the hook.
Optional: You an use pliers to tip this loop to make the whole thing a straight line or you can leave it rolled in... I added pictures because I know what I just wrote made no sense.Mine are straightened, the other ones will look like it's literally just curled at the edge of a straight line.
For the eye:
Slide your bead up over both wires, making sure the end of the two inches initially bent down doesn't come out from under it. Trim it if needed.
Cut about a pinky tip extra under the bead and roll it with your round nose pliers like you did with the hook. Where this becomes optional is if you want this loop opening to be in the same direction as the eye or twisted.
For my project, I only needed hooks.
That's what inspired this one.
This a hook multi-use.
It is sold on Etsy as a set of 50 hook beads and a pair of earring hooks.
The set is 20$ here!
Great tutorial!!!
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