Big beads mean more divider pins!
These oversized pins are used for holding lace bobbins in place on the lace making pillow. I just had to make myself another two after finding these huge, delightful beads on a market stall.
To make my divider pins, I sacrificed two 3 inch long needles. Needles are best to make these due to the way the steel is tempered to make it take the flex of hand sewing, where long pins tend to bend or snap.
The hole in the dotty one was so wide, I had to increase the size of the needle at the eye end. I threaded button thread, a nice thick black cotton, and wound it closely, working downward from the eye end of the needle for the same length of the bead.
A careful application of Cyanoacrylate glue (which we refer to in the UK as 'super glue') along the wound thread holds the thread in place. The wide hole in the dotty bead took two layers of wound thread to fill the gap. When it was a nice fit, a final blob of glue and the needle was twisted in till it felt secure, then left to set. If you don't want to have to unglue your scissor blades, wait till the glue has set before trying to trim close to the bead!
Thankfully, the second bead had a hole just about perfect size and it only took one winding of standard sewing cotton to make a snug fit.
I have made a selection of divider pins from beads I felt were too nice to languish in a craft drawer and they go well with the 'proper' divider pins.
