Half-Drilled Beads

Easily Making Loops for them

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Half-Drilled Beads only have a bore (drilled hole) that does not go all the way through the bead. They are very versatile and can be used for various applications. You can either glue them on or use a conventional peg-type setting (e.g. with stud pearl earrings).

But of even more use is when you make you own loops. You can then create multiple loops which will add your own unique, cumtomised look to your finished product.

 

half-drilled bead with self-made loops Simply use Head pins or eye pins. The longer the pins, the more loops you can make. Below are some samples of self-made loops.

half-drilled beads with self-made loops eyepin for half-drilled bead loops for half-drilled beads

Steps
  1. First with the pin you are going to use, you stick it into the half-drilled hole to gauge how much of the pin you can leave in there. Then you bend it at that point (you can bend it while it is in the hole).

  2. With  the balance of the pin (what didn't go into the hole), you can start making loops. You can use a pair of Round Nose pliers. I used the Wire Looping pliers which makes even round loops much easier.
    You can make standard one-hole loops: when you stick the original pin in the hole, you figure out how much is needed for the loop & stud (part that goes into the hole) and you cut off the rest using a Wire cutter plier.

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  3. Once you have the loops you want, then you stick the studs into the hole and secure it with some Jewellers Glue. When set, you can start making your very own unique masterpiece!

Some bores may be larger than others and one pin alone will not be sufficient. In that instance, you can truly let your imagination go "super wild & juicy" because you can stick multiple pins in there and each of them can have as many loops as you desire!!! AND you have have the additional loops either in front, behind, or by the sife of your bead - a truly 3-Dimensional creation!! The main picture above has 5 different pins in it and each has 1 or more loops. The one with the beaded pin was done using a Head pin and the rest with Eye pins (so I can hang other nic-nacs off them).

Below are a Necklace design and Earring design which makes use of half-drilled beads.
necklace with half-drilled beads
earring with half-drilled beads

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