Poor man’s bead spinner
Lately, I’m crazy about bead crochet and started digging more information about it. One of pre-requisite of bead crocheting is to have all the seed beads strung on the thread. Yes, all hundreds or thousands of those tiny round thingies and I really don’t enjoy doing it. Some people say it’s relaxing and therapeutic but it’s just driving me nuts.
So a bead spinner would be very welcome and a real life saver if not for the cost. Including shipping charge, the mini spinner will cost me $70. That’s in US dollars so multiply that by 1.6 and I can get 5 big packs of Matsuno beads with the same amount of money. There is a DIY version using a margarine tub and a wooden stick but it just look unconvincing and I don’t know how it can spin without toppling over and spill the tiny beads all over the place.
Then I came across another version which looks MUCH better and it gave me an idea. As long as I can make the bowl spins, it should work. The principle is to dip the needle against the rotation direction and hope that it will catch the beads. So I bought a wooden lazy susan from IKEA, pour some beads into a soup bowl, and put the bowl in the middle. Then I realised I didn’t have the twisted needle to test the spinner *duh* and it’s 10.30pm. No choice, I had to improvise using 24ga wire and make a twisted needle out of it. To my surprise, it works! And it works quite well I’d say 
Ikea lazy susan:
My bead spinner in action:
Voila!
Crocheted beads:
great idea, thanks. it’s 11:15pm. . . will try it tomorrow. 24 ga wire was a terrific substitute.
suze
You are a genius! Seriously, if I knew of that possibility (I do have an IKEA Lazy Susan…), I wouldn’t have ordered the bead spinner (due to arrive tomorrow morning). - Anyway, I will try your invention. It sounds great! -
Thanks Reggie! Frankly I borrowed the idea from several people
Although the original bead spinner is rather expensive, it does look much cooler than the DIY version 
Good idea, unfortunately, like Reggie, it’s come too late as I recently bought a bead spinner. Can you please publish instructions for crotchet - I’m a newbie. However, I will make your version as a backup, will come in handy when I have got 2 projects on the go.
Thanks.