Phat Hemp Jewelry Blog » Make Hemp Jewelry

Types of Big Hole Beads to Make Hemp Jewelry – Part 1

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:32:37 +0000

One of the biggest difficulties for me as a hemp jewlery maker is finding beads with holes big enough to fit through hemp. Although there is some hemp that is .5mm (Hemptique from Fire Mountain Gems is the most common of this type) you’re usually dealing with 1mm at a min. So that does present certain difficulties when it comes to finding something stunning that is also drilled big enough.

My top pick for big holed beads are Eleanor’s fiber beads. These have a hole that’s big enough for even 170 lb hemp, and well – I’m in love with these beads to begin with. They are inexpensive yet still very well made, and the variety of colors and textures really gives you a lot of different styles to work with.

Lampwork made on a 3/32, 1/16, or 1/8 mandrel will work as well, which most of them are. Lampworking is another type of bead that I am in love with, and well – there are a ton of lampworkers, so I can’t really link to just one of them haha. Here is the etsy store that I have gotten lampwork from, however.

Polymer beads tend to be more than large enough, and if not it’s actually pretty easy to make the bead hole the proper size. One of my favorite types of polymer beads are from Happy Lime.

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Ecolution Hemp Twine Review

admin — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:12:04 +0000

So I got in my hemp today from Primitive Earth Beads. I also had a bit of a review on them, but I will get to them in another review post. Let’s talk about this hemp that they have. The manufacturer is Ecolution, and it seems to be imported Hungarian hemp. I absolutely loved the 20 lb. It is the cleanest, smoothest, most beautiful 20lb natural hemp I think I have ever seen in my life. It was definitely waxed and polished, and it had a nice little bite that many waxed hemp types just don’t have – there is no slippage like there is in other types of hemp.

I also got 100 lb, 170 lb, and rasta rainbow 20lb. These were waxed but not polished, so there was an interesting soft texture without the scratchiness – this is seriously some of the least skin irritating hemp I think I have ever had.

The 20lb’s in both natural and rasta rainbow had no bunk that I have encountered at all – the 100 has a little bit, and I haven’t worked with the 170 yet.

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Different Types of Hemp Twine

admin — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:33:20 +0000

The different type of hemp is mostly desginated by the lb number. This is the amount of pounds of weight it can take before snapping. The most common is the 20 lb hemp, which is the type you’ll see in 90% of hemp jewelry. This type has a 1 mm diameter. The step smaller than this is 4-10 lb hemp, which is hard to find but great for beading, as it has a diameter of .5 mm. The next common weight is 48 lbs, which is great for guy necklaces and thicker, more solid patterns. The next is 100 lb and is a pain to find, then after that is the giant 170 – 180 lb that is used in ‘phat’ hemp necklaces.

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Good Beads for Hemp Jewelry

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 07:07:45 +0000

When it comes to making hemp jewelry, I just love using a variety of beads to add color and fun into the pieces. However, due to the size of the hemp cord, it can often be a giant issue as to what sizes you can even pull off for your beads. I ran into this over the past week, making me pass over plenty of beautiful beads that I would have loved to have used – but they were too small.

If you’re using a typical two beader strands for your project, then you’re probably looking at a 2 mm requirement with standard 20 lb hemp. There is 10 lb out there, but it’s harder to find. I usually just work beads into the piece off of one stringer instead of two, but that requires adjustments I’d rather not have to make. The smallest you can usually work with is .5 mm, which is the size of 10 lb hemp. I’ve tried working other materials into my projects as the stringing strands, but they’ve never really worked out too well.

Polymer beads are probably my most favorite of all of the bead materials – the holes are usually a perfect size, and even if they aren’t it’s not a total pain in the ass to fix things up. Plus they come in so many different varieties that it would make your head spin. I’ve seen some that look just like lampwork, and others that are all sorts of crazy shapes.

Lampwork beads, while usually sticking around on the expensive side, do tend to have bigger holes due to the way they are made on the rod the lampworkers use. The name escapes me at the moment, but it does make a great size.

Furnace Glass is beautiful and I want to get some of them added to my collecton post haste – and they also seem to have a pretty decently sized hole. This is one type of bead that I need to learn more about, to be honest.

8mm + Gemstones work great, although you always want to get a shot of the hole size prior to purchasing. Some suppliers default with a very small hole, while others give a great standard. At 8 mm you are probably going to be restricted to one beading strand, although that all depends on where you get it from.

Paper beads – I just saw these for the first time EVER at the Intergalactic Bead Show, and I have to say that they are just awesome. I had a few issues with varying hole size, but on the whole (hah) they worked out pretty well.

Focals are very rarely an issue, no matter what they are. When in doubt, add a jump ring seems to work out pretty well, and I honestly don’t think I’ve ever run into one that I’ve had an issue with.

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