Patricia made me laugh out loud when I received this picture from her!  She is an avid reader of my blog which inspires her creativity to no end - she calls my blog dangerous!  She also attends some of my jewelry making classes at Iguana Beads in Cambridge, Ontario including my Viking Knit bracelet class last Saturday. As it was held on the same day as the store's grand opening in its new location, draw plates were soon sold out!


That clearly didn't stop Patricia from using items around the house to do her next Viking Knit necklace project!  I often tell wire jewelry class students to try and find something appropriate in the house especially for round mandrels but I underestimated her resourcefulness while waiting for the shop to restock draw plates!

You do need a variety of hole sizes for drawing Viking Knit or wire crochet/knit to make them progressively smaller and neater looking.

What should you look for in a draw plate? It depends on how large your starting tubes are.  If you make the wire tubes larger as when you use wooden dowels, then make sure your draw plate has the larger sizes as well.  I have two draw plates pictured below - the one on the left is from Yoola Design which has these larger sizes. I use it all the time.  The one on the right was not that useful - it didn't have big enough holes and I would never really draw down as small as some of the smaller holes :


I like  Beadsmith's 2 piece Drawplate Set  which goes from 1.5 to 14.5 mm holes sizes.  This covers a large range of sizes so you can draw down to fit any kind of end caps.


You can certainly make your own draw plate from wood. Just make sure that you do sand the edges of the bored holes well for smooth drawing.  Someone told me her husband made her a metal one. It may not have been filed smooth because she said her work would catch.

Here are some of the student projects from the class.  This was the first time any of them had attempted Viking Knit.  Patricia called them "process" pieces created during the learning process.


She said, "Perhaps chocolate will be required for this process, as well!" I totally agree!

During the class, we did have some chocolate in the form of delicious geode cakes - one of which was chocolate - for the store's celebration! It was made by Taylor who works at the store and who was a pastry chef in a past life.



Disclosure
I do receive a small fee for any products purchased through affiliate links. This goes towards the support of this blog and to provide resource information to readers. The opinions expressed are solely my own. They would be the same whether or not I receive any compensation.

Before You Go:
______________________________
Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
Jewelry Making Tips - Wire JewelryTips  -Jewelry Business Tips