Monday, July 22, 2013

Tools and material you need

Besides the material listed for each design, the tools you need are
         jewelry or needle nose pliers
         metal nail scissors
You could cut the wires just with ordinary scissors but the metal nail scissors lets you cut with its tip real close (so you don't have a sharp end sticking out) and they cost only about 2 ½ dollars.

Pearls or beads come in bags or on strings. I prefer the strings. You can slide the beads from the string right onto the wire. They also come in different qualities. A good source for these is Rufty’s Chrismon Shop.   If you are only making a few ornaments you can find most material at Hobby Lobby, Michael's or A.C.Moore.

Make sure you keep each size pearl or bead in its own plastic container. I like freezer bags marked with sharpie. Take care to return leftover beads into the right one. It is so easy to mix up for example 2 and 2 ½ mm size beads which makes it so much more difficult later. I am speaking from experience, sigh!

When you work you might want to use a blue washcloth as your place mat. You can see pearls and beads well on this and the terry texture keeps the beads from rolling away.

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