A Book report of a sort.

I often buy books to learn more techniques. This book was suggested by someone and it turned out to be well written and had an interesting group of projects within its pages. My way of testing a books value is to follow one of the projects and see how easy or hard that project goes together. I saw a pearl ball described and what follows is how I created my own take on that design.

The basic materials are ball pins and two sizes of beads. I also used a looping pliers to create each element. To complete this I made 24 elements and a large jump ring.

Place the beads on the ball pin with the larger on second.

Pass The ball pin through the hole in the looping pliers and begin to squeeze the handle.

Complete the squeeze and the excess wire is clipped off leaving a tight loop

I left some room on the wire for the beads to move which makes following steps easier.

Make up as many elements as you wish . I used 24. You could use other methods to make a loop and wrap to hold the beads.

Fine flexible beading wire makes a strong base for the construction. I used about 6 inches.

To create a bail a length of half round copper wire was soldered together. The beading wire is passed through.

Next all the segments were added on both sides of the ring.

Pass both ends of the beading wire  through a round crimp of your choice. One wire through each direction.

Then pull the ends of both wires to close up the structure. Next when you have the structure somewhat tight crimp with the appropriate tool and trim the ends of the fine wire close to the crimp. I applied a tiny drop of superglue on each end of the crimp.

This is the result. This project was designed by Kate Mckinnon.  I added my own style by choosing Spectra beads from B'sueboutiques and Rollo chain with a copper hook closure. Try the project or buy the book you will be happy with both.