Crimp your style

The smallest part of your necklace is the most important: Without a secure crimp, your risk losing everything, literally. It's important to use a good-quality crimp tube, and double-check your work to see that the crimp you've made is secure.

I usually use sterling silver components for my jewelry. Sure I could save a little money with plated or base metal head pins, crimps, or clasps, but I like knowing that everything down to the tiny crimp tube is of the highest quality. When I first started out, I made an investment in crimp tubes. I can't remember how many I bought, but this film canister was nearly full.

Lately, I've been branching out from sterling silver and using more copper and other metals in my work, such as when I made this necklace for my mom. Introducing copper accents means a copper clasp and copper crimps -- not exactly easy to find, and not something I keep on hand.

That's why I was happy to find this little sampler kit from Beadalon. It contains four vials of crimps in silver plate, gold plate, copper, and gunmetal. Each vial has 150 crimps -- plenty for experimenting. And the containers themselves are so cute, I'm sure I'll upcycle them into something when I've used up the crimps.