Stringing Tutorial with photos: Stringing on Serafil, Beaders Secret & Power Pro

[sobellejanet]

Thanks for your interest. Pattye, my next project is these. I bought on ebay several years ago mainly because of the pearl and 14k gold clasp and the length (14 in.). Near round, 8mm, Akoyas with a decent luster and not many surface blemishes (to the eye they look round and clean). I wear them all the time.

Then I will rework some of these pearls from 2 matching strands I wore one day at the Pearl Ruckus in July. Both were given to me by a friend who once worked for a vintage jewelry store in San Clemente, CA. Small dyed FW baroques with lots of "birth marks" but the iridescence is lovely (doesn't show up so well in this photo) and presents many opportunites for creative strand-making. Will return with photos of the finished strand(s) in the future.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Update on sourcing thread: Beaders Secret brand thread is now available from PG member Bernadette's Etsy shop in Australia.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadersSecret

 

[coffeycat]

Thanks Pearl Dreams for your wonderful tutorial post. After reading 21 pages of discussion I have learnt so many tips and found out so many ways to improve my knotting. I have just ordered from Bernadette's website and the bonus was that she is in Australia! I have also ordered a Thread Zapper so can't wait for all the new gears and start re-stringing! Thanks again.

Update on sourcing thread: Beader's Secret is now available from PG member Bernadette's Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BeadersSecret

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I'm glad you're fining it useful, coffeycat! Welcome to the forum! I hope you will post photos of the pearls you string.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

JerseyPearl had a great tip for how she dealt with stringing tiny pearls-- by using only 2 of the 3 plies of #40 Beader's Secret.
5/30/22 Edit: sorry, the link to her post is broken and I have not been able to locate the post.

We can all learn so much from one another's experiences. I for one appreciate every tip. Keep them coming, folks!

 

[sobellejanet]

I finally restrung one of those necklaces pictured in post #301. I found a string of amethyst gemstone beads at the College of the Desert street fair in January and used Beader's Secret Grape to create a 50 inch rope. I love it and wear it all the time.

 

[coffeycat]

I'm glad you're fining it useful, coffeycat! Welcome to the forum! I hope you will post photos of the pearls you string.

Thanks, Pearl Dreams. I just received my Beaders Secret thread today from Bernadette. Although I am still waiting for the Thread Zapper, can’t wait applying what I have learnt so I re-stringed my FP bracelet. The knots are so neat now!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

That looks wonderful!

 

[pattye]

Coffeycat, excellent stringing work, pretty pearls!

Janet, your blue/purple amethyst rope is lovely; bet it's a "wow" in person! Don't we all love purple??!! The Akoya strand is a great size; special clasp with the 3 pearls! If you posted photos of it elsewhere, I may have missed them.

Jersey Pearl, what a great tip on splitting the thread! Thankfully, I haven't had to do that yet! Thanks so much for sharing!!

 

[coffeycat]

Thanks, Pattye! I love these freshwater pearls. I changed the clasp from the original white gold to yellow gold, thought it fits the tone of the pearls better.

 

[CricketBug]

When stringing small pearls (3mm-ish, in this instance), is five times the strand length still needed? The temp length is 16”, which should come out to 18”. It just seems like five times the length for thread is a tad long for such small pearls. Suggestions?

 

[pattye]

CricketBug,

It is a GREAT question! "Four times + a little more" is what I learned from our Sarah (Kojima Pearls). Remember, with smaller pearls you'll be making more knots. It's pretty disheartening to get towards the end and realize there isn't enough thread to finish.

What measurement does everyone else use?

 

[JerseyPearl]

Pattye is on the mark! Keep in mind, if the pearls are under 5mm, you may not want many knots on the necklace as they can begin to take away from the look. You can knot every 3 or 5 pearls or even just the last few on each of the ends. Experiment and see which look you prefer. Another thing to consider, thinner thread makes smaller knots; thicker thread makes larger knots. I absolutely agree with Pattye (who by the way is an expert stringer) that more is better than less.

 

[Charlotta]

Cricketbug, I always take 4 times the lenght on the strand and a little extra. I never have any problem with bigger pearls, like tahitians and south seas, to often I have lots of tread left. In a tahitian strand there might be about 40 knots or so (depending on the lenght of the strand of course). When I restring my vintage akoyas, with lots of small pearls I find that I have not that much tread left. I never had to little tread. Yes the pearls are smaller, but sometimes there are over 100 pearls in a strand (my triple akoyas has over 100/strand, yes I counted them to make sure it was even). That many knots take lots of tread. If you don't knot between every pearl then you could probably use less tread.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Here is my reasoning for using 5x the finished length of the necklace.

1. Knots use up a lot of thread.
Number of knots. The more knots you make, the more thread is needed. For a necklace of any given length, there will be more pearls if the pearls are small than if they are large. If you knot between each pearl, a necklace of small pearls will have more knots than a necklace of large pearls. So you'd need more thread, not less, if you knot between every pearl and the pearls are small.

Type / size of knots. Jeweler's knots, being larger, use more thread than regular overhand knots. Sometimes I find I have to make a jeweler's knot when a pearl has a larger than usual drill hole, and a regular knot would slip into the drill hole. (To make a jeweler's knot, you pass the thread one more time through the loop before tightening the knot.)

2. The "tail" of thread that you cut off after the initial back-knotting uses up about 3 inches of thread, also.

3. It is harder to maneuver the needle when finishing up the strand if there is only a small amount of thread left. (Same goes for sewing; it's easier to make a final knot if there's around 6 inches of doubled thread left over, which is 12 inches not doubled.)

4. Thread is cheap, and time is precious. It is a huge nuisance to run out of thread and have to start over.

For all these reasons I err on the side of using more thread, even though it means throwing away a bit of thread when I'm done.

 

[JerseyPearl]

Here is my reasoning for using 5x the finished length of the necklace.

1. Knots use up a lot of thread.
Number of knots. The more knots you make, the more thread is needed. For a necklace of any given length, there will be more pearls if the pearls are small than if they are large. If you knot between each pearl, a necklace of small pearls will have more knots than a necklace of large pearls. So you'd need more thread, not less, if you knot between every pearl and the pearls are small.

Type / size of knots. Jeweler's knots, being larger, use more thread than regular overhand knots. Sometimes I find I have to make a jeweler's knot when a pearl has a larger than usual drill hole, and a regular knot would slip into the drill hole. (To make a jeweler's knot, you pass the thread one more time through the loop before tightening the knot.)

2. The "tail" of thread that you cut off after the initial back-knotting uses up about 3 inches of thread, also.

3. It is harder to maneuver the needle when finishing up the strand if there is only a small amount of thread left. (Same goes for sewing; it's easier to make a final knot if there's around 6 inches of doubled thread left over, which is 12 inches not doubled.)

4. Thread is cheap, and time is precious. It is a huge nuisance to run out of thread and have to start over.

For all these reasons I err on the side of using more thread, even though it means throwing away a bit of thread when I'm done.

Of course I agree with each number on this list...#4 is #1 in my book!

 

[CricketBug]

Wonderful—your thread length explanations are so helpful! Thank you, Patteye, JP, Charlotta and PD!

I purchased some wee 3 mm Akoya keshis (which are gorgeous!) from Cees, and am experimenting with leftover pieces of Beaders Secret as to which might look best—all knotted, or just every few pearls knotted, or just the beginning/ending knotted. Decisions!

 

[Katbran]

I don't care for the look of knotted small pearls... the darn knots just stand out . One possibility is to knot every few inches and hide the knot under a 3mm or 2.5mm gold bead. That way if it breaks you won't lose many.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

My new favorite way to cut through the old knots when restringing a necklace is to use my Swanstrom super-flush cutters. These come in different sizes but this is the one I have:
https://www.riogrande.com/product/swanstrom-double-ergo-super-flush-cutters-size-4/111712

I used this to cut apart three necklaces this week, all strung with Pattye's Serafil. My old cutters weren't quite sharp enough for this task but the Swanstroms cut like a dream, even better than the razor craft knife I was using previously.

This reduces the risk of a knot getting pulled into a drill hole and having to be drilled out.

 

[Katbran]

My new favorite way to cut through the old knots when restringing a necklace is to use my Swanstrom super-flush cutters. These come in different sizes but this is the one I have:
https://www.riogrande.com/product/swanstrom-double-ergo-super-flush-cutters-size-4/111712

I used this to cut apart three necklaces this week, all strung with Beaders Secret. My old cutters weren't quite sharp enough for this task but the Swanstroms cut like a dream, even better than the razor craft knife I was using previously.

This reduces the risk of a knot getting pulled into a drill hole and having to be drilled out.

Totally agree... I've always used flush cutters to cut through the knots. Everything else seems too wide and scrapes the pearls.