Bead Spinners

Awhile back I got into doing some beaded knitting with little tiny beads. I loaded the thread for the very first bag by hand with the scoop method. Oh what a long time that took. I was at it for days loading that 1500+ beads onto size 10 DMC tatting thread. My hands hurt so bad.

I started looking at the bead spinners that are available for sale but they were kind of expensive and the husband, Shaun, said he could make me a couple of those if he had the right materials. I jumped at that one. He has made or modified several other things for me so I know he can do it.

I searched for a couple of weeks for the right sized pots to use. I finally bought several sizes at the Salvation Army and brought them home. I had a metal tin, the gold colored one you see in the picture, a plastic bowl with pretty flowers around it, and a little crock pot, also in the picture.

He said the plastic wouldn't hold up that well as it was a little to brittle so it is now a hanging pot for cut flowers. He said the other two would be great to use. The only trouble he saw was that the crock material could crack when being drilled but he would give it a try. He had me pick up epoxy, the putty kind and a section of dowel in the size I wanted.

He then drilled the bottom center of the two bowls to place the dowel into and used the epoxy to seal the dowel in. He did the epoxy inside and outside. We had thought about using hot glue but he said the epoxy would not allow the beads to cling to it after it was dried and he was right. That epoxy dried hard and smooth and the beads just sling around it.

I was going to just throw the little crock lid away but he said no, he wanted to try drilling a hole in the top so I could use it on the crock. It just slides right over the top of that dowel and down to sit as it did in the beginning. I found that I can leave the beads in this and set it on an old duck tape tube and it works perfectly to hold till I can get back to spinning the beads.

Well, the result is that it takes a lot time, days less of time, to get those tiny seed beads onto thread. I went to the local bead store and purchased a couple of very long thin beading needles and worked with them till I bent them in such a way as to make it easier for the beads to climb the needle and onto the thread (I use nymo thread for the needle attached to the tatting thread). I can now load 1500+ beads in an hour or two. Too bad the beaded purses take so much longer to do.