hello its Emma at The Bead Shop in Nottingham and I'm going to be showing
you how to use Stretch Magic elastic. I'm going to show you two ways of
finishing it one which involves knotting and gluing and the other way which
involves using a size two crimp tube. I'm just going to be making some simple
bracelets in this instance I'm going to be using 6mm Swarovski xilion beads
these are a lovely blue zircon color I'm going to start off by showing you how to
use the knotting and gluing method and then I'll get onto the crimps So I've
cut myself about 25 to 30cms length of 0.7mm Stretch
Magic in clear. 0.7mm will go through the vast majority of beads
especially Swarovski ones, sometimes you might need to use the thinner 0.5mm
gauge if you're using something like semi-precious or freshwater pearls and
if you're using beads with a larger hole you might want to go up to the 1mm
but as a general rule, your 0.7mm and is a pretty good
standard option. One tip when you are threading beads onto elastic to stop and
coming off the ends is to use a bead stopper so I'm just going to open my
bead stopper and pop the end of my elastic and there and that's going to
hold it firmly and it means I can now start threading on my beads these are
6mm beads and I'm going to be using approximately 30 of them and but
depending on the size of your wrist and the size of the beads that you're using
the amount of beads that you'll need to use will vary. You don't need to use a
needle to thread Stretch Magic - it doesn't fray which makes it very easy to
thread once you've threaded on all of your beads you can check it around your
wrist to see whether you need add or remove any beads to get a really nice
fit and then you can take off your bead stopper and grab the two ends of
Stretch Magic and we're going to tie a double knot, one
on top of the other
okay and you want to pull it fairly tight it's quite tough stuff you can
kind of feel the change in tension once it's it's tightened and then just to
secure it because Stretch Magic is so slippery and they do recommend that you
use a small amount of glue just to secure that knot. So before I cut
off my tails I'm just going to go ahead and pop a little bit of glue on that
knot I'm going to be using the GS hypo cement but you can also use a thin super
glue or even a clear nail varnish to do this you only need a small amount and
then I'm just going to let that dry and then cut off these tails so the second
method of finishing off stretch magic is to use one of these crimp tubes this is
a Beadalon size 2 crimp tube which is perfect for the 0.7mm
Stretch Magic and we're just going to use that crimp tube in place of the knot
but first I'm going to pop my bead stopper on the end of my elastic again
I've got a piece of Stretch Magic that's about 25 to 30cm long and I'm
just going to start threading all my beads on so I've threaded on my beads in
this case I've used 6mm xilions again but this time the lovely ruby
colour and I've checked that it fits my wrist so I'm just going to go ahead and
take off my bead stopper and take my crimp tube and I'm going to take one end
of the Stretch Magic from right to left, and the other from left to right so they
cross over into the crimp tube and what I've done to make this job a little bit
easier to actually cut the ends of the stretch magic at a slight angle and it
just makes it a little bit easier to pass through the middle of the crimp
tube so that's one side through
and then the other side through. Okay and then I'm just going to pull that tight
and then with a pair of chain nose pliers I'm just going to gently, but firmly
squash the crimp tube down flat. There we go you can see it now flattened. Give it a
check just to make sure and then trim off the excess so this is the difference
between the two methods on the left with the blue zircon beads we've got the tiny
little knot which has been glued and the ends have now been cut off and then
on the right with the ruby beads you can see there is the flattened crimp tube
both of these are quite neat and discreet however both can be covered
using a crimp cover if you prefer but to be honest they're both pretty good as
they are so that's the two methods of finishing off Stretch Magic it's one of
the easiest ways to create a bracelet so why not give it a go!