Glass Bead Headpins

Let me tell you - those are a royal PITA to make!!  I started out wiring the pieces of wire that I wanted to make the headpins out of to a regular glass bead making mandrel. Well that doesn't work very well, because when you put them in the kiln they just slide out with the weight of the mandrel.  My kiln is very short from front to back, and is made so that the mandrel sticks out of the door.  Usually this is not a problem, as the beads I make are heavy enough to keep the mandrel inside the kiln - also there is a part of the mandrel sticking out in front of the bead that pokes through a perforated piece of metal in the back of the kiln.  So I decided to cut very long pieces of wire and just hold them.  Did you know it is nearly impossible to get 20 gauge wire to be absolutely straight?  So here I am trying to roll the wire around between my fingers, as you would a mandrel, and it is just waving all over the place - grrr!!!  It was a real comedy of errors to see.  I finally managed to get enough glass on the end of the wire withoug burning off the wire (which was realy easy to do), and get them into a rough semblance of a round.  I am not sure if I will take these to the bead show, or will just use them for myself - because I sure won't be making any more.  I now have a profound respect for those bead makers who are making these on a regular basis.