Troll/Pandora

[mangobeads]

Can anyone help please- after a process of elimination I have decided that the troll beads need to be made on a 5/32-4mm mandrel drilled a tiny bit and cored with 5mm silver -this gives a bead hole of 4mm when finished .

I dont think this finished bead will fit the other styles can anyone tell me the dimensions of a pandora/other silver core thats with the silver in place - the bead hole size.
My bead measures 15mm x 9mm and the hole size complete is 4mm.
Please help!

[suzanne]

with silver in it you need to know how thick your silver is. Pandora beads have a 5 mm hole with silver in it. I always make them with 5 mm mandrels, and my beadrelease is fairly thick. The silver I am using is aprox 1 mm thick. After cleaning my beads the silver core fit's perfect

[mangobeads]

Thanks Suzanne - i struggle making the beads small enough with the 6mm mandrel - whatare the dimensions of your finished beads - hope you dont mind me asking?

[sandree]

I would be interested in final size of bead also. A customer told me she needed 8mm x 14mm. Does that sound right? How are you adding the silver core, mangobeads?

Thanks so much, Sandy

[suzanne]

my beads are aproximatly 15 mm high and 7 mm wide. It's very hard to make them as small as the mass produced beads but then again, I make them on a 5 mm mandrel, the mass produced beads are done on a smaller diameter mandrel and then drilled out. It's pretty difficult doing encased flowers on such a small bead ( there is so little glass around the mandrel ) but after lots of practicing it can be done.

Sandree, here in the Netherlands I buy silver rivets and glue them in. They look as if they are done in one piece but it's actually a top and bottom fixed in the beadhole.
You can find them here on www.ayutrade.nl, they have several different sizes.

[sandree]

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks so much for the specifics. Since mine are boro and are mostly encased, they tend to get a little large also. Do you know what size the commercial ones are? I would love to find a source for the rivets here in US. Anyone have any ideas? Suzanne...I couldn't find the rivets on the site you linked to...

Sandy

[suzanne]

I am not sure if they are available in the US. The commercial beads are aprox 5 mm wide and 10 mm tall, 12 at the most.

http://www.ayutrade.nl/webwinkel/zilveren-kern-binnenmaat-Ø-5-mm-p-535.html

here's a direct link to the pandora sized rivets. If you are interested just drop them an email through their contact button, and they will awnser all your questions. Their site is in dutch, but their english is excellent. If you need any help just let me know:)

Suzanne

[sandree]

Thanks, Suzanne. I will contact them and see how it goes. I think I will try to make mine a little smaller than I have been making them so they are a bit closer to the commercial size. You have been a great help!

Sandy