Using a Wire Guardian to Protect Your Beading Wire

Many of us use beading wire for our projects. My favorite beading wire is from Beadalon and is 49 strands. This is a perfect go-to wire for any project. When the finished piece is something that is going to we worn often you want to make sure to protect the bead wire. By using a wire guardian to protect your beading wire you can lengthen the life of your jewelry.

Spring cleaning was at the top of my list the other week and I was going through my TV projects that I had left over. A little secrete between you and me is that most of the time when I create a design for a TV show the piece is not finished in the back. When the show is over I have a pile of projects that are designed and just shy of being finished and ready to sell or wear. I found this great piece that I designed for kits on JTV with Dakota Stones. Having never finished this piece I wanted to turn it into a great over the head necklace, my favorite.

To finish off the necklace I will be adding some Lipstick Ranch chain to give it the extra length that I want. Rather than just using a regular jump ring to connect my chain I will be using a decorative bail as my connector. Since there will be movement of the beading wire through this connector I will be using a wire guardian to protect the beading wire and extend the life of my necklace.

A wire guardian is a horseshoe shaped finding that had two tunnels at each end and a channel across the top. Your beading wire will go through the tunnel, over the track and back through the other tunnel. Before you attach your wire guardian be sure to add a crimp tube. To find the size crimp tube you need be sure to look at the packaging, it will tell you on the front. If you are new to beading wire you can see my post about choosing the right beading wire that I did for you. Once you string your wire through the wire guardian and your bail then you will crimp your wire as normal.

After I crimped the beading wire to hold the bail on I decided that I wanted to cover the crimp tube to clean up the design a little more. You can use any color crimp cover that you like for your piece. The crimp cover adds finishes the piece off just one step more.

You can see the Facebook Live show that I did showing how to use wire guardians and how I created this project on my Facebook page or below in this post. I always recommend using wire guardians when the piece will be worn often or in a high traffic area, like a bracelet.

Post your pictures on my Facebook page of any projects that you create that use these techniques. Join me each weekday at 2:30pm EST for a Facebook Live video with a new project.

Using a Wire Guardian Facebook Live Video: