Basic Techniques

MAKING A BASIC LOOP

Uses

to finish the top of headpins or eyepins when making earrings or beaded charms
to make your own eyepins
to make a beaded chain

MAKING A BASIC LOOP

	1. Hold your wire with the very tips of your round nose pliers and bend the wire so that it is at right angles to the beaded wire.
	2. Reposition your pliers so that they are vertical.
	3. Hold the long length of wire and bring it around the top of the plier’s nose to form a loop.
	4. Keeping your pliers in the loop, turn your pliers ninety degrees so that they are horizontal. This will reposition your loop. Remove the pliers from the loop.
	5. Using wire cutters, cut the extra wire off just inside your loop. Be careful not to cut the wrong piece of wire!

MAKING A LOOP FLUSH TO A BEAD

	1. To make this basic loop so that it is flush with your bead, bend the wire directly above the bead.
	2. Place the pliers a few millimetres from the right angle bend.
	3. Grip the wire tightly and turn the wire to make the loop.
	4. Using wire cutters, cut the extra wire off just inside your loop. You may have to make some adjustments to your loop in order to recover your right angle bend.

MAKING A BEADED CHAIN

	1. Make a loop at either end of the bead using the basic loop technique.
	2. Open one loop (see below for the correct method) and link it to another loop. Close the loop.

OPENING AND CLOSING YOUR LOOP

To open the basic loop, hold the side of the loop closest to the cut end with your pliers and push the pliers away from you until you have an opening large enough to attach. Close by reversing this procedure.