Most beaders and jewelry makers keep several pairs of
tweezers in their toolboxes. In today’s Beading Lesson, we will
show you a variety of tweezers and tell you some tips and tricks for using
them.
The most
basic type of tweezers has straight tips. They’re good for general
use: picking up beads, holding a knot while you tie it or removing metal
parts from a chemical solution. Some straight tweezers have a shovel on
the other end, which makes them two tools in one. The shovel is a convenient
tool for scooping beads out of their containers or for moving beads off
of your workspace.
Notice the difference between the straight tips of these tweezers. One
is a standard bent tip and one has a precision tip. A precision tip can
be helpful when tying knots or doing other very fine work.
Bent
tweezers are also good for general use. The bent tips have the added advantage
of more visibility and control when picking up smaller beads and tying
knots. To use tweezers when tying a knot, grasp the top part of the knot
loop and slide it along the cord.
Fiber-tip tweezers are perfectly suited to working with pearls and other
delicate beads. The fiber tips prevent marring the surface of the bead
and there is a half-circle indentation in the tip that helps grip the
bead. You can also use fiber-tip tweezers with delicate findings or other
metal components whose surface might be marred by regular tweezers.
In the
same way that tweezers can act like an extra hand while you’re beading,
squeeze scissors allow you to make cuts without setting your beadwork
down. You don’t have to place your fingers through the handle, so
you can make cuts as you’re working. The tips are specially engineered
to make a close cut. Choose straight tips or bent tips depending on your
project.
|