Bead Spinner Video
The Beads In The Spinner Go Round And Around ~
I purchased this bead spinner about 3 or 4 years ago. I wasn’t sure when I would use it, I just knew I would…Sooner or later. This is so often the case with many tools I own. I see them and know they’ll come in handy. Since I didn’t need it immediately, I was able to wait until I had a good coupon for it. So, I bought it cheap and tucked it away for safe keeping. Of course, this meant packing it, moving it and unpacking it again when I relocated.
I found a nice project, a Chatelaine bag that’s worked in beaded crochet. All the beads are the same color and this gave me the opportunity to use my bead spinner. The beads are loaded onto the crochet cotton several grams at a time. The bag is constructed with single crochet and beaded single crochet, with increases and decreases thrown in for shaping. There are too many beads to load one at a time for this project, which calls for 40 grams of beads.
The beads are size 11/0 seed beads, quite small. The thread is crochet cotton size 10, about the size of the hole of the beads. I chose DMC Cebelia for its tight twist, saturated color, and quality manufacture. The thread is too large to fit through the beads doubled with a wire needle, so I’m using a length of looped Nymo to thread the beads from the needle and then onto the DMC.
The bead spinner comes with a curved big eye needle. The needle is actually two wires welded together at both ends to thread easily. The needle bends out of shape quite easy, but replacements are cheap. The bead spinner works best when the bowl is filled half way full. The beads stay put in the bowl for the most part until the needle is pointed at the wrong angle and that’s when you notice beads jumping out. When the bowl is half full and the needle is held at the proper angle, it loads the beads quickly. They nearly jump onto the needle to fill it. This is great for when you want to string beads of the same color or when you’re making use of a “bead soup”. I hope this video helps take away any mystery of using the bead spinner.
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Fascinating. But I need to see this in real life.
Yes, it really is quite a tool. The beads just jump onto the needle. It’s only good for when you want to load a lot of the same color bead or you’re making use of a “bead soup”. If you’re bead weaving with a pattern then you still need to pick up the beads one at a time. I’ll have to bring it along with me to a weaving group. I may miss this Friday.