Stringing Essentials

Creating strung necklaces and bracelets offers a world of design possibilities. Anything that you can imagine, you can make! But if you are new to stringing and jewelry design, it can be difficult to figure out exactly what you need to get started. Once you have your stringing basics and essentials figured out, you get to go play. You get to have the fun of picking out wonderful beads, bead caps, clasps, pendants, etc.—really whatever inspires you. Stringing them together in a pleasing pattern is so fun!

If you are new to stringing, a good place to start is by looking at our Stringing 101 page. This page was created as a road map to help people get started with stringing. It has videos, projects, and links to essential supplies. It's a really great resource. 

For a good starting video, you can see how to use a bead board along with all the essential supplies to create a strung necklace. This video is great because it walks you through the whole process. 

Featured Video: How to Use a Beading Board to Make a Strung Necklace from Start to Finish

There are some basic tools and supplies that you will need to get started. Some of these are must-haves and some are really handy extras. Let's start with the must-haves!

You will need a form of stringing material. Beading wire is a good easy choice as it is very strong and can easily be crimped with a crimp bead or tube. A very versatile size is .015 inch, 19 strand. You can go with fewer or more strands, but this one here is a good mid-range one that works for most projects. 

Your project will need some sort of clasp and there are so many to choose from! This is really a matter of personal preference and you can match your clasp metal finish to your beading wire and crimp tubes. If you are choosing a lobster clasp or spring ring clasp, don't forget to also pick out a closed jump ring to be the other half of your clasp. 

To secure your beading wire, crimps are a great and easy-to-use finding. To match the above stringing material, a 2 x 2 crimp tube works well. 

To crimp the crimp tube, a pair of crimping pliers is needed. Different crimping pliers are made for different size crimps. A nice basic pair that crimps 2 x 2 crimps is a great place to start. These can be used for most projects. 

A pair of cutters is needed to cut your beading wire. Something with a nice fine tip makes it easier to get in close to your crimp bead/tube and trim your wire. 

The above items mentioned are the essentials, but there are two other items that I love and that make stringing a lot easier. 

A beading board is nice because it not only lets you lay out your design ahead of time in nice grooves that keep your beads from sliding around, but it also has measurement markings to help you plan out the length of your design. 

Lastly, bead stoppers are so useful! These little spring stoppers allow you to slip your beading wire into their grooves and this acts as a stop so your beads don't slide off as you are stringing them. 

If you have been looking to start a stringing project and didn't know where to begin, I hope this helped! For design inspiration, browse our stringing beading projects. Have fun and happy beading!