Realms of the Raven

A fellow author asked me to write a blog post on how to make book thongs. Of course, once I started working on it, I realized I had a lot more to say than would fit on a single blog post. So here’s the long version.

A book thong is basically a thin string or fiber bookmark. I really like them because they are pretty and they last longer than a paper bookmark. Most readers seem to like them more than paper bookmarks but they are tricky because you don’t usually have the chance to put something on them that states your name or url. This means you need to give them out WITH something. I usually have them in individual bags in my stash of promo items and I either staple the bag to a paper bookmark or I put a sticker on the bag.

There are also multiple ways of doing some of this but I’m going to focus on the way I have found makes the best wearing book thongs for the least expense.

Ingredients

• Stringing Material

  I use 60 lb test clear fishing line because it’s both inexpensive and it doesn’t kink or tend to cut the pages of books. I have several nice book thongs made with bead stringing wire but it can get expensive and it kinks. I don’t recommend actually thread or yarn because it doesn’t wear well at all.

  Decide on what length you want your book thong to be and cut a piece of material that length. If you are going to knot the beads in place, add about an inch to account for four knots of material. I like to make my book thongs 14-15 inches long – that’s long enough for trade paperbacks and hardbacks but not so long that it is unwieldy for mass market paperbacks.

  If you start doing a lot of these, you can cut your material in advance. I have a Ziploc of pre-cut fishing line, just waiting for beads.




• Beads
  You don’t need expensive beads. Really. Especially if you make a lot of thongs. I haunt the various remainder stores and discount stores and will often buy glass bead kits with beads in one color family for very little money but these can produce a LOT of book thongs. You do want colorful beads and reasonable size ones because these are the pretty factor and the weights that make the book thongs easy to insert and remove.

  I use bigger beads on one end and lighter ones on the other so there’s a big end (bottom) and a smaller end (top), but that’s not a rule nor required.

  I also keep a couple of tubes of small seed beads (usually #8) that I use next to beads with big holes to make sure they don’t come off the book thong. Silver is a great choice if you are using silver crimp beads.




• Crimp Beads
  These are what I use to keep the beads on the string. If you are not someone who does beading, these are small metal beads that you feed onto your stringing material to keep the beads secured. I buy inexpensive base metal ones, usually in a silver color. They are easy to use and secure.

  I have received some thongs that are tied but I don’t recommend it. The knots come undone or, if done on thread, they have a tendency to tighten so much they eventually pass through the beads. I think the little bit of extra expense for the crimp beads is worth it.




• Tools
  If you are going to use crimp beads, you need a small pair of needle nose or chain nose pliers. You will also need some method to cut your stringing material – scissors for string or fishing line, wire cutters if you are using beading wire.

Making the Thongs
Here’s my bead board as I start to make a thong:

The metal container is what I store my crimp beads in. The small silver beads at the lower left are inexpensive silver colored #8 seed beads. The pile of green beads is from a package of mixed beads I found for $.49 on a clearance rack. You can almost see the 15 inches of fishing line. And, of course, it’s a pair of pliers. You don’t need ones this fancy.

• Step 1: Attach a Crimp Bead
  The first thing is to put a single crimp bead on the very end of the fishing line. This will allow you to put the beads on without anything sliding off.
  1. Feed the crimp onto the fishing line.
  2. Grasp the crimp bead in the pliers’ jaws and position it at the very end of the fishing line.
  3. Squash the crimp flat onto the fishing line with the pliers.

  Here’s the bead on the fishing line. Don’t worry if you don’t get it perfectly at the end. It’s better to have a little fishing line showing at the end than to have the crimp bead fall off later.

  




• Step 2: Feed on Beads for One End
  Now you need to feed on the beads for one end of the thong. I am used to always doing the larger end first but that’s just a habit. There’s no rule. I use enough beads for about an inch, maybe a tiny bit longer than an inch.
  Make a pretty pattern you like but be sure that the bead that will be next to the crimp bead can’t go over the crimp bead. If you have any doubt (people do tug on the beads), put one of the small seed beads between the crimp and the rest of the beads.




• Step 3: Crimp that End’s Beads into a Set
  Put another crimp bead onto the fishing line, slide it all the way down to the beads you strung in Step 2 and crimp it to hold all the other beads in place. It’s a good idea to use your pliers to snug the crimp against the other beads so you eliminate extra spaces.

  Here’s my larger end with the beads on and crimped.

  

  You can see the flattened starting crimp on the far left, then a seed bead and the decorate beads, then another seed bead and the crimp put on in Step 3.




• Step 4: String Another Crimp
  Put another crimp onto the fishing line but DO NOT crimp it yet. This will become the interior crimp to hold the smaller end in place but won’t be crimped down until the last step.




• Step 5: String Beads for the Other End
  Now string the beads you want to have on the other end. I make this set slightly smaller in diameter and only string ½ to ¾ inches of beads.

  You can see in this picture that I have an uncrimped crimp bead on the fishing line and then the beads for the second end. They aren’t secured so they’re down near the first end.

  

  Sorry for the bit of blur.




• Step 6: Attach Another Crimp Bead
  Now you should repeat Step 1 on this other end of the fishing line. This secures the second set of beads from coming off the fishing line.




• Step 7: Slide Beads to End and Flatten Crimp
  Now you need to slide the second set of beads you added to this far end of the thong and flatten the crimp bead to hold them in place. You can see that this is far easier to do now than it would have been if you were trying to do the end crimp bead last. Nothing falls off and it’s just a matter of using the pliers to snug the crimp bead down to the decorative beads and flattening it.
  Here’s a picture of the finished smaller end.

  

Finished Product
Here’s a picture of the finished book thong.

And here’s a picture of it in a book (one of my all time favorite books).