In this post, I talked about how I store my beads. I use them to make jewelry and to embellish quilts and other projects. My Eternity quilt, that I talked about is this post, uses beads as the major stars in the galaxy.

The image shows two hammers and several pairs of pliers and a small hand drill laid out on a felt mat.
The major tools, laid out on a bead mat: ball peen hammer and leather head hammer; a pin-drill and reamers; diagonal cutters, round-nose pliers, needle-nose pliers, metal flat-nose pliers and plastic flat-nose pliers.

Here, I plan to discuss some of the tools I use when working with beads for jewelry making. The image above show many of the tools I use. The two hammers are used to flatten wire and metals. One is a small ball peen hammer that can be used to add texture to metal or wire. The other is wrapped leather. This will flatten items without leaving tool marks on the surface,

Reamers

The small blue and silver item in the picture is a pin vise. It can be used to hold small items, but is more often used as a holder for very fine drill bits or reamers. The three reamers that you see next to it are used to file rough edges on glass beads so they do not cut the thread or string you are using for your beading work.

Pliers

I have several small pliers that I use in my work. None of them have any texture on the surface on the jaws to prevent marking the . I have a set of diagonal cutters to cut wire. There are round-nose pliers to produce small loops in a piece of wire. I have needle-nosed pliers for small spaces.

There are two sets of flat nosed pliers, one metal and one with plastic covers. The plastic tips are good for use with soft metals that dent easily.

Work surfaces

The tools in the picture are laid out on a bead mat. It is a textured surface that help prevent the beads from rolling or bouncing if they are dropped. You can also get bead mats that are slightly sticky, which does the same thing.

The image shows a grey tray with several small sections in it for placing beads with working and layout lines with measurements.
A bead board.

The other work surface I often use is a bead board. The board has a number of small areas where you can place the beads for the project you are working on. It also has layout lines for placing the beads in while you are working on a design.

The layout lines have measurements along the sides so you can determine how long your design is and also balance designs like the necklace in this picture. (I didn’t make this necklace. It was a gift from a former director at work. She did a lot of jewelry design and creation.)

The image shows a bund of blue beads on a tan felt surface.
The bead mat keeps the beads from rolling around

Magnification & Light

The image shows a headband with a built in magnifier.
A magnifying headband

When you are working with fine beads, It is often very helpful to have something to magnify the work. This headband style is one option. You can change out the lenses to adjust the magnification. I use this for fine painting on miniatures as well.

There are also ones that clip onto your glasses or are attached to a light. Good light is also vital when you are working on fine details. I like natural daylight lamps for my crafting as they help with color selection. The bulbs in my overhead light fixture are of this type, as are the task lights I have have in the studio.

A peek ahead

So what are some of the things I make with these tools? Tune in next time to see what I do with these beads:

Image shows some black, white and brass beads of various shapes on a grey bead tray.
Some black, white and brass colored beads for a project.