Well known art and craft jewelry supplier Rings & Things has added an interesting new line to their findings lines: metal bobby pins with 10 mm diameter smooth round pads. They advertise them for soldering and gluing but I had the idea of using them for a bead weaving base. I contacted the company via twitter and after I made my suggestion they excitedly asked me if I’d like to try this out if they sent me some to play with.

Of course I said yes and as soon as they arrived I marveled at their beauty and then started bead weaving. These findings come in six finishes (antiqued brass plate, antiqued copper plate, gold plate, silver plate, black gunmetal, and white metal) and they sent me a few of each. I’m still playing but I have devised a nice method (and a variation) for weaving a very versatile pad cover using a combination of Peyote and 3-bead netting.

My first finished piece is the pad cover under a Russian style flower with a Czech druk bead at the center.

I’ve even created a tutorial which I am offering free with every subscription to my monthly newsletter. I’ve set up the program to start up the download dialogue, but if you have any problems, please let me know.

Now we can have ornate and opulent hair accessories that slide right in one’s locks.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 12:13 AM and is filed under Artist at Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.