A lot of people see velveteen tube and say…. ‘What is this and how on earth do i use it??‘.
Well, here is your guide to everything velveteen tube and why it’s so fantastic!
So What Is it?
Velveteen tubing, as the name suggests, is a hollow tubing! This flexible, waterproof tube is coated in a soft and durable velveteen coating to give it that rich luxurious look and feel.
It comes in several colours but being quite a hard to find material, with very few factories able to produce it, the most commonly found colours are the ever popular, and most useful black finish and dark brown finish. It has also been known to come in cream colours, olive green, red and purple but these are usually a rare find and regularly sell out quickly.
How Do I Use It?
Using velveteen is extremely simple! Being a hollow tube, all you need do is slide it directly over the wire or thread you are using and ‘Hey Presto!’, it’s done! All you need do is work out the length you want and with a pair of standard scissors, give it a little snip and its ready to thread on.
It’s as easy as that!
Why do I use it and what for?
The best way to understand velveteen tube is learning about why you would want to use it. It is genuinely a jewellery maker’s miracle product that looks great and can even save you money! No wonder it’s the best selling product across the whole Bead Spider website!
It is essentially a cover for your base material – jewellery wire, thread, memory wire, head pins etc – that looks and feels like velvet cord, giving your jewellery a professional and more luxurious look while still having the strength of your base rather than cord.
The overview
- It saves you money
- It makes your beads go further
- It looks and feels like velvet but costs a fraction of the price
- It can be cut to any length
- It is water proof
- its very soft and comfortable to wear
- It allows you to make your jewellery lighter
- It helps give a more professional finish
- It makes your jewellery look more expensive
- It can hide your work
- It protects your skin from the wire if you have metal allergies
Some Examples
Got a beautiful strand of semi precious gemstones that you want to make into a necklace? Why make it into just a necklace and not have a matching bracelet too? Usually that means buying an extra strand but covering the sides of your necklace with rich velveteen tube and creating a central feature with your gemstones, you will easily have enough beads left over to make yourself a matching bracelet and a pair of simple earrings from just a single strand.
Not bothered to take your bracelet off when you wash your hands? No problem! The rubber inner tubing is waterproof, so if it gets a little wet, unlike a regular cord bracelet, it won’t be soaked through and will dry quickly.
Want to make a long lariat necklace that goes all the way over your head without having a clasp? No problems, make it with jewellery wire and thread on in a single, flexible piece of velveteen tubing that goes all the way around the back that looks classy but much softer and more comfortable to wear than chain or beads.
Got some left over off cuts of velveteen tubing? They are great as small spacers in memory wire bracelets or for making luxurious velvet earrings.
Using large, heavy beads that you want to be a focal? Since velveteen tube is hollow, its very light, meaning that you can save excess weight in the rest of your jewellery preventing it from being too heavy to wear comfortably.
