Tools of the Trade
Day Six: Needle Storage
A few years ago, I spent each day in January writing about a different tool I use in my maskmaking. As I am currently redesigning my entire website in the new year, I thought it might be nice to revisit this project. Each day in January 2021, I’ll share a different item that I use in my studio. I hope some of these can help other people who are interested in making wrestling masks.
I try to buy a bunch of needles whenever they go on sale. I use a couple of different kinds of needles for different materials, as well as a few different sizes, so I can have a bunch of packs of needles on hand at any given time. I originally found these storage boxes at JoAnn’s, and they’re perfectly sized for the packaging that Groz-Beckert uses for their needles. (You can also fit Schmidt needles in there, but you need to angle them a bit.) This one is the Craft Mates Lockables 7 Compartment 3XL, but they come in a few other sizes as well. They’re also pretty good for beads, gems, grommets, or any other small items you need to store. The compartments lock, so you can toss the whole thing in a drawer and not really worry about the contents spilling all over the place.
While I’m on the subject of needle storage, I thought I’d share another little gimmick I came up with. I tend to use three types of needles frequently, but there are times where I may not be able to sew for a couple of days or more. Industrial needles aren’t colour-coded like some home machine needles are, so I had this problem where I would forget what type of needle I had in the machine. I came up with a simple solution to this problem: I got some wooden Scrabble tiles and glued a small neodymium magnet to the back of each one. Each tile represents a different type of needle: R for regular point, B for ballpoint, and L for leather. I put the tile for the needle I’m currently using on the front of my machine, so at a glance I know I have (in the picture) a regular point needle installed. The other tiles live on top of the machine, and their associated needles are attached to them by the magnets. This system has helped me so much!!!