Most of us wind up acquiring a nice stash of various jewelry tools over time.
Some of the things we use are “real” tools – pliers, cutters, reamers, files, crimpers, etc.
But do you also have a variety of odds and ends that you use as jewelry making tools?
A few of my favorite “unofficial” tools that I use in making my jewelry are:
Colorful mini-clothespins that I clip onto the far end of my beading wire to keep my beads from sliding off while I’m stringing.
Wooden popsicle sticks, marked with a Sharpie pen, which I use as template guides for marking where to bind wire bundles for common cabochon sizes.
Bone beads with various sizes of holes, which I pull leather cord through several times to soften and “weather” the cord and take the curl out of it.
A knife-sharpening stone, which I rub across the cut ends of wire to file off any sharp edges; it’s especially handy for heavier gauges of wire.
A leather-worker’s awl, for poking the holes in my earring cards (I used to use an icepick with equally good results).
There might be “official” jewelry tools that would do these jobs just as well as the odds and ends I use.
But I’m fond of these adapted devices, and I store them right alongside my pliers and other tools. They’ve become part of the gang.
And I’m interested to know -
What unofficial jewelry tools do you use?
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I love to use the black plastic lids from the small ice cream containers (i.e. Ben & Jerry’s) to sort my beads (by size and color), and the spoon to scoop them around my bead board or putting the beads into small plastic baggies. I keep my beads in usually 3″ x 5″ baggies (or smaller or larger as needed) with the shipping label and manufacturer labels attached or inside with individual bead pricing right on the labels. Then these go into my Sterilite three-drawer containers I get at Target (I have at least 20 of these stacked up). I sort my beads by color and by type (glass, acrylic, silver, gold, copper colors). I keep my tools on/in a easy-carry wooden container that is meant for silverware and napkins for a table. My bead boards are placed in a one-inch baking sheet with sides that I also buy (a two-pack) at Target. I line them with shelf liner as the liner doesn’t slip around like a bead mat and the bead boards also don’t slip around. I have six of these made up and often with projects in progress stacked up on my table ready to work on whenever I have time.
One great tool was recommended to me by my local bead store when I went looking for a bead reamer. They use a spark-plug file from the automotive supply store, which has multiple heads in different sizes. The heads all fold inside the handle, making it compact and travel-friendly. My darling husband got me one for my Christmas stocking so I don’t know how much it cost, but it must have been less than $10 and will have many uses for years to come.
alligator clips crazy glued to party stiks with color beads used to stop beads from falling off my bead wire….:)
I buy small pliers at flea markets for very little cost. I have a flat nose pair that I glued a piece of leather to on to the inside of each side of the pliers. I use this to straighten wire and it works great.
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