I really love to make glass jewelry components, beads, cabs, frit balls, pendants, you name it. I’m not such a huge fan of actually assembling the jewelry. End result? I’m sitting with a giant pile of shiny glass bits like a dragon. Time to do some work with these things! I thought it would be a quick win to make stud earrings with frit balls. Not so much. They need to be clamped to really get the glue to adhere, and they are slippery. After some futzing around and a couple tries, I came up with this solution: A wooden clothes pin with holes in it. Hear me out.
Granted it’s not a super strong clamp, but it will do the trick. Total materials needed here:
-clothespin(s)
-drill
I had an 1/8″ drill bit already in the drill, so I used that. I drilled the hole all the way through, so the ear wire will fit through one of the holes, and the other hole makes a divot to hold a round piece of glass in place, like so:
Hole through clothespin
stud earring finding
frit ball for earring
view from bottom
That worked SO WELL I thought ‘what other problems can I solve with a clothespin and a drill? World peace is out, but how about another jewelry kinda thing?’ I make a lot of double sided bezel elements, which are a pain to make because it’s a two step process, glue one side, come back tomorrow and glue the other side. (I get these findings from Fire Mountain Gems in Oregon if you want to make some). But, by changing the placement of the drilled hole, I can cut that time in half and do both sides at once. Like so:
Double sided Bezel Clamp
Action Shot
Double sized bezel side view
Double sided bezel component
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