Braided polyester cord typically comes either waxed, to prevent fraying as you work, or unwaxed. It's strong, colorfast and durable. Because it comes in so many colors you can easily coordinate it with your bead design. The type we feature is 0.8 mm in diameter, so it can't be used to string pearls or tiny gemstone or metal beads, but it works well for many of our glass bead mixes and larger gemstone and metal beads. The wax wears off in time without affecting the color. To permanently prevent fraying, you can melt the ends of the cord.

When finishing jewelry made from cord, inexpensive clasps can simply be tied on the cord ends and knotted. For a more finished look, you may want to crimp a tube over the loose ends that extend beyond the knots to hide them. Due to the diameter of the cord, you'll probably need a seamless tube with a diameter of about 3mm to fit two thicknesses within the tube. Another idea involves creating a necklace 'toggle' using a loop on one end of the design and knotting a medium to large sized bead or button on the other end. The weight of the necklace will cause a properly sized loop to pull down and around the bead to secure the necklace. This bead and loop technique may also work on bracelets if the loop fits tightly enough around the bead so it can't work itself free and come undone. This idea also works especially well when multiple strands of poly cord are used in a design. The cords can be woven together and interspersed with beads. Macramé knotting techniques can be used to create the loop at the end of the design.