Tension is the opposite of the beads on your necklace sliding around with extra space between them.
When I first started making necklaces, I made some of them too tight. I made this mistake by pulling the cord too taut as it went through the crimp bead. When a necklace has too much tension, here's how you can tell.
- The necklace is shaped awkwardly: The bead are so crammed next to each other that the necklace begins to kink up.
- The beads make noises when scratching against each other.
- The necklace pinches skin when worn.
- The beads may even break from the strain!
How to keep this from happening? Once you've made your necklace, use small clamps on both sides to keep the beads on. Put on the crimp on one side (and the closure/extender chain if you don't want to do that later).
For the second side, first put something on the loop through the crimp bead to keep it from going all the way through the bead when you pull the necklace taut. Now start pulling the cord through the crimp bead and keep going until it seems like the progress stops. Move the necklace around, bending it to see if it has spaces in it or if it is too tight and the beads are pressing on each other too much. Adjust the tension, back and forth until the necklace has a nice, slinky movement with no extra gaps. This is the correct tension on your necklace that will give you best results, so go ahead and use the pliers to close and fold the crimp.
Hope this helps!
--Pam