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Essential Guide to Jewellery Findings


Droppers, beads, bezels and pendants.


When it comes to creating beautiful earrings these findings form the basis for every design. From Pins, Pegs and Posts we explain which the best findings for your earrings project is.


10 Tools of the trade...


Dropper Wires, also known as Head Pins: Dropper wires are commonly used to display beads and consist of a small section of wire with an open loop at one end. These are multi-functional items which are useful for linking as well as creating dropper attachments for earrings and pendants. They are usually sold in multi packs.


Cups: Cups are shallow, domed circles of metal which are often pierced through the centre to facilitate threading. They are used to house a secondary, spherical component, most often a bead, stone or pearl. Some cups are supplied with a post protruding from the centre and these can be used with pre- drilled pearls which are cemented into place using a specialist pearl adhesive.


Tip: Take care when soldering with meta beads as they have a thin wall construct which can melt extremely easily. Also remember that when soldering any hollo item you will always need a hole of some sort to allow expanding hot air to escape Failure to do this will result in the item in question exploding.


Bead Findings: As well as being decorative, metal beads can also be functional and are often used as spacers in many different types of jewellery such as earrings, bracelets and necklaces. Sizes range from 2.5mm upwards and many styles can be purchased with either one hole or two. Shapes and finishes vary tremendously, but popular examples include; laser cut, highly polished and stone set.


Bezel: A bezel is a straight sided stone setting suitable for stones with a flat back. These types of setting are most commonly used with cabochon cut stones i.e. stones which are not faceted and generally have a convex profile. The thin metal edges of the bezel are gently pushed over with a setting tool until they meet the surface of the stone, which will secure it in place.


Tip: Make sure you check the size of you chain fittings before choosing your penda bail to ensure that one will easily pass through the other.


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