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Crimp Covers
Use crimp covers to attractively hide crimped crimp beads and professionally cover scratchy cable ends on finished jewelry. When possible, run the end of your beading wire back through the last few beads of the strung design before crimping. When that's not possible, the exposed cut end next to the crimp can poke or scratch the person wearing your jewelry. A crimp cover nicely protects the wrist or neck from these stray ends, and makes your jewelry more enjoyable to wear.
Gently close crimp covers with nylon-jaw pliers or Mighty crimping pliers, creating a nearly-round bead with slightly visible seam.
Which size cover to use? If in doubt, get a larger size, to make sure it fits over your crimp beads. Flattened crimps require a larger cover than tightly rounded crimps.
Notes about the materials:
Sterling silver and raw (unplated) copper and brass crimp covers will patina naturally over time. If you prefer to antique them in advance, we recommend oxidizing before adding to a finished piece of jewelry, so it's easier to rinse excess oxidizing solution out of the hollow "bead", and avoid reactions with the stringing cable.
Gold fill (also called gold overlay or gold-filled) is 50 to 100,000x longer lasting than gold plate. It's made by using heat and pressure to apply a layer of karat gold to a base of less costly metal (usually brass). This produces a surface with karat gold. The minimum layer of karat gold must equal at least 1/20 of the total weight of the item. See illustration for more info.
