Here are a few things you might look for when buying  jewelry making tools:

• #1. PRICE – Makes no difference what a tool cost if you cannot afford it what’s the point. Don’t go broke just so you have some fancy over priced tool. Go to a forum where people make jewelry for a living! Not talk about making jewelry but actually do it and ask around.
• #2. SIZE – If you are a 4 ft tall female and 6 inch long tool might not be good for your hand nor will it feel well, so if you are small get tools that are small and fit your hand well.
• #3. CUTTING EDGE —as the owner of a jewelry making Tool Company I see tools come and go and some look very cool, especially wire cutting pliers! They look so shiny and sleek and now they have stripped handles, purple handles and even handles that have glitter in them! But none of this means they can actually cut a small piece of wire! So when you get your wire cutters you need to see how much of a struggle there is to cut a small piece of copper wire or gold filled wire, silver wire or whatever wire you are trying to cut. NOTE; you can’t cut steel wire with these cutters unless they are memory wire cutters or some type of heave duty electricians tool.

The Scandinavian culture is rich with bead making secrets and creations. The Vikings desired beads made of lavish, bright colors and construction. They are famous for producing delicate, handmade glass beads and often added lead oxide in order to give the beads “extra sparkle”. The Scandinavian people used a pontil rod to pick up a glob of hot, molten glass from a crucible. They would then use tongs or other tools to form the globular bead into the desired shape. Sometimes the bead would be rolled on a smooth marble block while soft in order to obtain the shape wanted. Some of the beads were left colorless while others were decorated with trails of different colored glass. Other beads were created in a mosaic pattern called ‘millefori’ which is thousands of flowers applied to the surface of the glass. The Vikings also were able to create foiled glass beads, a highly advanced technique in which the addition of gold or silver foil was applied to a clear glass bead. They also enjoyed special necklaces called “treasure necklaces” much like the modern day charm bracelet.

Since ancient times, amber pendants, buttons and beads have been made, as well as more complex items. Amber has been widely used to make religious artifacts. It is not known exactly when people started using amber in the manufacture of adornments and amulets and started conferring magic powers. It is known that it was processed using flint knifes, cutters, scraping tools, whetstones and sand. The oldest known amber article dates back to the end of the Stone Age. It is an amber plate found in a reindeer hunters’ camp near Hamburg. European museums have many works of art made of amber.