How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

forestheart — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:04:33 GMT

an opportunity was missed here- there are real safety issues with beading, especially in groups or as a teacher.

A needle stick is a needle stick! Don't share needles. Seriously. If a teacher or friend needs to pick up someone else's beadwork (with their needle on it), swipe the needle through a little jar of bleach before using it.then swipe it again before handing it back. Or take the needle off and put your own on, then switch back to the original needle.

You know how often there's a little needle poke. That's a needle stick.

Because of my work with beads and glass beadmaking, and because I teach, I have gotten the three step hepatitis vaccine.

You DO need a first aid kit: all puncture wounds should be soaked (as long as you can stand it- 15 minutes if possible) in peroxide and covered. Bleach for needles and for wiping up any blood.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

Anna_Gray — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 07:53:15 GMT

I am a polymer clay artist. Consequently, I work with tissue blades and disposable scalpels to slice my clay. These things are made to cut off hands and fingers, and they do just that. I have at least 10 scars on every finger from working with them. Oftentimes, when I'm tired, I'll turn a tissue blade the wrong way and start pressing on the sharp edge, while trying to cut the clay with the dull one, being angry that blade "doesn't cut". Why, it cuts just fine, right through my fingers!

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

LeslieA@24 — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:03:38 GMT

A tip and a story...

Every first aid kit should have a tube of super glue to close paper and other small cuts painlessly. I don't know it works to eliminate the pain, but it does. You might need to re-apply it a couple of times before the cut heals completely.

About a week after our son and his way-too-curious cat moved in, the cat swallowed about an inch of tubular peyote, 5 feet of fireline and a beading needle. I had no idea until he began vomiting clear liquid a couple of days later. The x-ray showed the needle and beads in the small intestine. Total cost for emergency surgery plus our vet--$1500. The cat survived and is still as curious as ever. He and the others are now locked out of the room if I am beading and all supplies are put away before they can enter

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

Tameena — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:53:37 GMT

Love your articals they are humorous thanks.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

tkohara13 — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 03:50:52 GMT

When I was starting to learn to make closed loops and wrapped loops, I was using my round nose pliers. What I was doing was twisting my wrist around so much with out shift positions. When I woke up the next morning, my wrist was so sore! It took me a couple of minutes reviewing my previous day to realize what I had done, I had given myself a wrist strain not using the tools correctly! Now I don't over extend my wrists or hands.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

jgm3 — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:08:18 GMT

I was devastated when I looked at the x-rays of our sick dog, and saw at least 3 pieces of metal - probably the copper I use for making jewelry. There was at least one washer, and I know we don't use copper washers at our house for anything else. I hadn't been diligent about retrieving them when they shot off my beading table and under the craft room furniture, figuring that if I couldn't find them, what was there to worry about?

Fortunately, the vet reassured me that those things had likely been in there quite a while, and it was doubtful that they were making the dog sick. Good grief; if I couldn't find them, how did he???

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

StephanieL@40 — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:49:16 GMT

My husband has found a couple of my beading needles in the webbing between his toes. I tease him about "finding" my lost needles for me!

My four year old son, who is not wimpy at all, actually passed out when he gave himself a hairline cut with my Fiskars!

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

tolkienmithril — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:45:27 GMT

It was far from humorous but I was doing something with my pliers when I caught my finger and gave myself a good pinch. Had a tiny blister for several days as a reminder to be more careful with my tools.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

Susan Theron — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:57:40 GMT

I got a tip somewhere to cut off the tip of a beading needle and file it down. Then you cannot *** yourself and splitting of the thread is minimised.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

amberhaven2001 — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:41:50 GMT

I have a pair of bent-nose pliers that no matter how careful I am with them, they love to pinch the webbing between my thumb and pointer finger between the two little slivers of metal where the handles meet.

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

Shaktipaj — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 03:40:35 GMT

I can almost bet you that I have the most expensive beading/wire working tool story you ever heard. I needed beading needles and my personal preference is John James size 15. I generally buy them in packs of 25. My LBS carries them, so

one morning, I went in and grabbed an unmarked 25 ct package. While standing in line to pay, I started to open it. The package wasn't sealed - and the needles went everywhere! All over the silk skirt I had on. I stood stock still like a curly red-headed saguaro cactus while 3 ladies picked the needles off me.

Taking a deep breath and thinking the crisis had been averted, I sat down to start beading. Everything was great until I got up to go home - I experience the most searing pain in my thigh that you could imagine - I thought I had been stung by a wasp or bitten by a spider. I found the reality worse: we had missed one of the needles, and I sat on it..

Size 15 needles are so thin that I hadn't felt it pierce my skin and embed itself in my outer thigh muscle. It was completely underneath my skin. Long story short, I spent all the rest of the day in doctor's offices and emergency rooms trying to find a way to get it out that didn't involve major surgery. No such luck. The surgeon had to use an x-ray machine to remove it - it could not be seen with their naked eyes.

Funny, I can thread them, just fine...........LOL

Final cost of a 25 pack of size 15 beading needles: $12,000

I now have a beading battle scar about an inch and a half long in my leg.......and a really cool war story to tell. LOLOLOL

Aside from that, I regularly use a fat darning needle in a pin vise as an awl - I slip and jab myself with it every couple of weeks - it just happens...

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

MultibeadiaLaura — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:46:04 GMT

In the late '90's we had a German Shephard/Elkhound mix dog named Sam. My beading project was laying on the living room coffee table with the needle & thread on top of the beads. My husband threw Sam a milkbone which of course landed on the table. I noticed a little while later a thread hanging from Sam's mouth, when he got the milkbone he must have picked it up with the needle. My husband took Sam to the emergency vet. The x-ray showed a very thin piece of metal in his stomach, luckily it went straight down without nicking anything. Sam was OK, the needle passed naturally & since then I've been very careful where I leave my needle & thread!

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

bead-bug — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:41:29 GMT

I do a lot of work with polymer clay and copper so I use things like sandpaper and my Dremel.

One time, I was sanding a piece of clay flat by rubbing it back and forth on a fine sandpaper while I watched TV. At one point I looked down and there was blood everywhere. I had sanded part of my thumbnail and the tip of my thumb off. I couldn't feel a thing because of the constant motion taking out the nerves as they were exposed. It took a few weeks to heal and you can bet it hurt later that day.

More often...in fact, rather frequently, I hurt myself with my Dremel. Usually when using either cutting discs that have a tendency to snap and go flying or using the stainless steel brushes. I cannot emphasize using safety glasses with a Dremel enough. The stainless steel brushes, for example, throw bristles (i.e., thin pieces of steel wire) when being used, even at lower speeds and even with goggles on you'll feel them hitting bits of uncovered skin. I've found them days later splintered into my neck. I wouldn't want those hitting my eyes.

I've hit my fingertips occasionally with cutting discs, stainless brush discs and sanding discs and probably tend to cut myself with my Dremel once or twice a week.

My students tend to be most afraid of the wire cutters. I use a lot of thick wire and I dislike the tiny flush cutters and wire snips that go blunt so quickly so I tend to use the bigger hardware store cutters. They don't wear down!

I teach my students that one of the easiest ways to make a loop is to make the right angle bend and then to cut the wire, using the width of your fingertip to gauge length. You do this by pressing your fingertip up against the back of the angled wire cutters. This makes many of my students nervous but because of the slight angle before the blades, it's actually rather difficult to cut yourself.

The tools much more likely to injure you are the ones that you don't give as much respect to because you don't see them as dangerous!

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

Kylie@6 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 23:50:07 GMT

SO FUNNY! I agree with everything. Even the yelling at my husband after he decided to use my GOOD scissors to trim a bush. I found out about this by the kids, who had stood there looking stunned as Dad used MUms GOOD scissors on a bush. THEY KNOW BETTER!

But the most damage that has been done in this house by beading, is to the vaccum cleaner. Those beads are incredibly noisy when sucked up in the vaccum cleaner and I am sure that the inside of my vacuum has some serious scars!

re: How Safe Are Your Beading Tools...Really?

kpmartin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:34:35 GMT

This so LOL funny, but true. :)