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| This is what the most common spinners look like |
When I first heard about bead spinners, a contraption that
helps you speedily string up long strands of seed beads, my first response was,
“Wow, what an awesome idea!
When I looked them up, my second response was, “They cost
HOW much?!?!” Yeah, I wasn’t having that...
Then one day I was stringing up a bunch of seed beads for a
project, probably one of my beaded flowers, and the bead spinner popped into my
mind. I had already gotten tons of Pringles caps from people because I asked
for them to use as trays for beads that I was working with stuck something
through the middle of it to use as a spinner handle.
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| Hey, it works for me! :-D |
I’ve used many things as the handle but I have settled on
using a large nail. The cool thing about
the nail is that not only is it removable, like most things I've used, but you
can heat the tip of the nail to make it go through the plastic cap easier.
Speaking of heat, if the hole in the cap gets too big or doesn't fit around the
nail snugly, I just take the nail out, and pass the hole in the cap over a
lighter flame. That warms the plastic enough to be more malleable so you
can push the plastic down to make the hole smaller. Much of the time, just
holding it over the flame is enough to make the plastic snug up the hole on it’s
own.
The Pringles caps work for me now but if I ever need to do
much more beads than I normally use, I’ll probably find a new container. Maybe a yogurt cup, not the Yoplait type but
the short wide Chobani type. One day, I’ll probably even try getting the long
curved needle to see if that makes it work even easier.
Lastly, here’s a hilarious video of someone trying to use
one of the pricier, electronic bead spinners:
I'm glad I didn't shell out the money for THAT gem lol
"Thank you, bead spinner!" LOL. I've never seen these before either, but I assume in the video that she was coming at the beads at the wrong angle. They should just design it like a salad spinner with a pump handle. Who wants to listen to that horrible motor whine?
ReplyDeleteAnd do people really still eat Pringles?
Exactly! The motor sound was what really turned me off. As for the Pringles, lets just say that I haven't gotten a lid in quite a long time, not that I really need any new ones.
DeleteI was thinking about having my husband make me something out of wood but I like how my lids and nails don't take up very much space and I can have one for every color that I'm using without it costing much.
You know what I made mine with, a small cream cheese container, a dowel and hot glue gun. I still have it and works great with my beading needles, it's very comfortable.
ReplyDeleteI didn't leave the dowel flat but left it sticking out a bit so i could spin it better, like a top. A THEN, with the lid, I poked another hole and was able to close the container of beads for when I needed more.
But great job!
Thanks! I like your idea too. I just never use THAT many beads so my little shallow cap has always been fine for me. What's also cool is that it's flexible enough to bend and pour the beads back into their containers, even if it's a bead tube.
Delete