Let me tell you a story about bead stops.

I was teaching a jewelry class and a student (who was probably way more advanced that I was) brought in a piece for me to look at. She put it around her neck to show me how it looked (Beautiful!) and got the beads caught in her hair.

Really caught.

She asked me to help her get untangled. Little did I know she was just HOLDING the beads on the wire with her fingers. So I get a section of the necklace, untangle it from her hair, and go to lift it from her neck only to have eleventyhundred beads fall all over the floor. OH NO!!

I felt terrible!

We picked them up as best we could but I know she had to have been missing a few. PLUS she had to re-string it. BUMMER!

Moral of the story? ALWAYS use bead stops on wire you aren’t actively beading on.

They come in different sizes depending on the size of wire you are working with and all you do is squeeze the little wire circles together to make the spring open up and then lay your wire in an release the spring. They actually hold very well.