As any lampworker will attest to, getting new tools rivals Christmas morning! I just made the plunge and bought 3 Beadrollers from Donna Felkner at CGBeads. I’ve only worked with them for a couple of days, but I love them already and I think the new shapes are going to be very popular!
I got the Garden Variety Pandora Style, the Quad Squad Pandora Style, and the brand new Ribbed Quints. (which is for smaller holed beads, but still very cool!)
Ribbed:
For the large hole beads, the first two tools add 4 new shapes to my bracelet sized bead repertoire: barrel, disc, stubby bicone, and round. I love the way the barrel shape looks with sterling caps!
stubby bicone: round:
Round beads (on large hole mandrels) are actually hard to shape by hand. I usually just use gravity to shape my beads, and they are usually donut shaped. For bigger focals I can now make bicones and ovals. The nice thing about these tools is that they help you keep bead sizes consistent-great for earrings. I am really looking forward to playing more with these cool tools!
Amy, I love Donna's tools too, I started with the small rounds, and before this I couldn't do a round bead to save my life. Love your beads, esp. the silver core and capped ones.
Very nice beads Amy! I have been wondering about buying some of these myself and so this was a timely post for me. I was wondering if they would be helpful in rounding the shape and certainly I can see the use in creating consistent sizes! I may just take the plunge! Thanks!