Pin Perfection

During my early teenage years, I was very interested in doing my own little craft projects as my mom was big into things like that also. She even entered herself into craft shows to sell items she had made. Since I was growing up quickly but yet was too young to get a job, I thought this was the perfect thing for me to do to help me make a little extra spending money. Along with selling my bracelets and wall hangings, I also made pins out of seed beads and safety pins to sell for several different occasions. They are pretty easy to do, but take a little time and patience. I bought a book with several different patterns in it and I followed them to make pins of things ranging from flags, pumpkins, shamrocks, hearts, etc. to flowers, animals, and words.


Steps:


1. First you will need to buy seed beads, safety pins, 1 1/16 inches for the safety pins and a 2 inch safety pin to hang the others on.

2. Next you should find a pattern of whatever you wish to make either by buying a book with patterns inside or by finding a pattern on the internet.

3. Simply follow the pattern by adding seed beads of the correct color and amount onto the smaller size safety pins.

4. Keep the pins in order until you have done every row in the pattern.

5. Use a nail file or flat head screwdriver to stretch open the loop of the largest safety pin. Each smaller pin must then be wrapped around to the other side of the large pin to ensure that these pins will stay in order and not fall off.

Tips:

-The seed beads can vary in size so make sure to try to keep them all the same size as best as possible so the picture on the pins does not become distorted.

-Most designs have 10-15 safety pins hanging from their big safety pin to create the desired image, with anywhere from 9-12 beads per pin, which can vary depending on if you change the size pins you use.

-It helps to spread the beads out onto a paper plate so its easier to see what you have to work with.

-When looping the smaller safety pins onto the bigger one, start with the pin in the very last row on the right side of your pattern.

-Be patient! It takes time when working with such small items.

-Once you get good at this, you can begin to draw your own pictures, then turn them into color-coordinated patterns to use for more pins.