IвЂ™ve also watched a lot of movies while working on the Knot-A-Bead in my Lazy Girl chair. I actually found myself day dreaming about chocolate (which IвЂ™m trying to back off of) and enjoying the crisp air. Like this! Now, go into Zen mode and repeat, repeat, repeat. The awl tapers down the knot and slides it up next to the last bead perfectly. Place the long tail into the yoke/hook and pull snug.Д¬ontinue to pull snug while sliding the lever on the left to the left. Pull the strung end tight and push the short clasp end back over the top of the awl. Lay the clasp end over the awl so it drops behind.Д¬ross the clasp in front of the long tail/string of beads and through the loop. See my next mistake? Three orange beads in a row!?!Д«efore I forget, put a tiny jump ring (which will serve as a marker) before the last bead at the end of the strandвЂ“you will not knot between these two beads.

AinвЂ™t no way those knots were budging! Made me sick to cut it apart, but I did. Can I just tell you it took me THREE times to get these beads right?! I first knotted the whole strand and realized I missed a bead. Now string the rest of your beads in the desired order onto the silk. Leave the tail long until you are done knotting. Knot the silk just below the orange bead and dot with G-S Hypo-cement. Thread the needle end of silk back through the first bead so the bullion wire makes a loop and the clasp sits in the middle. The silk has a needle pre-attached to it so stringing is extra easy! String one bead, bullion wire, and clasp end onto the silk. Make sure to get the corresponding bullion wire to your silk size. This is essentially a tiny, tiny, tiny coil of wire that protects your silk where the clasp will rub. The gray silk made for a perfectly vintage and modern fusion which I found to be super appealing.Д¬ut two pieces of French bullion wire. I opted to keep the pattern on the crystal strand, removing the plastic pearls and replacing them with the salmon colored glass beads. Unwind your silk from the card and pull to remove kinks and tighten the silk. These beads have larger holes, so I can get away with using this heavier silk. IвЂ™m also using a sparkly Upper Clasp from Beadalon and #10 Griffin Silk. My first attempts with the Knot-A-Bead came out awesome on the other hand and now IвЂ™m a believer and am ready to knot every bead in sight!! However, after gaining some confidence with this tool, I may give it a go again. I put the hand knotter in a box and havenвЂ™t played with it since. My first attempts with hand knotting were scary and disgusting with big spaces between the knots and beads. In the past, IвЂ™ve tried knotting with the traditional wooden hand knotter tool. IвЂ™m always amazed at how shiny and pretty they look after a good bath.ДЇor this makeover, IвЂ™m using BeadalonвЂ™s Knot-A-Bead tool. Here is one idea for making over vintage jewelry and giving it new life!Д«efore I forget, I like to clean beads like this with a soft toothbrush and Dawn dish soap. Stunning, heavy glass and crystal beads topped off with a tiredВ clasp that is about to fall off because the original stringing job has done itвЂ™s time and then some. Confession: I have a hoard of old necklaces with great intentions of re-doing each and every one of them.

Bead tool 4 tutorial