Just a big old tweeze

LO done at the Wight Craft Circle Crop last weekend - the nearest to grpahic you'll ever get from me...and way, way too much handwriting!!

Up to a handful of years ago, I eschewed the use of anything but my fingers for applying foam pads, gems , fiddly bits, or when holding the sticky backed item above the card while I eye-ball the often jaunty angled location. Now I use tweezers. I think as a result of age-onset-crappy-eyesight. But whatever - now I love 'em and wouldn't cope well without them - specially in a fast moving workshop environment!

In terms of every day tools, I think they're a bit unsung. I think also that loads of us use them and so none of us notice them particularly, which is probably a sign of their success. And they say a lot about us too. There is a group who use the sort of tweezers that might make you shudder. Yes - all of you who are, or have worked in some medical professional capacity. Slipper Lady for example, has a large pair of tweezers that she accidentally (and often) calls 'forceps'. She is an ex theatre nurse. Lady Nurse has a pair almost as long as her pencil case and very angled at the end - you can so imagine her using them to hold 'bits' of people. Seriously!

There are tweezers that disappear to a point - anything I try to pick up with this type just pings across the table and makes me say rude things. But they are favoured by many - in my experience, the 'many' in this case are the crafters who do precision and stitching and exercise care and caution with every move.

Then there are the left brainers - you know the ones - they do perfect graphic stuff and like clean neat lines and can get their heads around any puzzle. They use the tweezers that work the opposite way - the 'squeeze to release' type. I have never coped with these at all. Imagine!

There are the crafters who have more than one pair and have tied a cheerful ribbon round the top to identify them at workshops - generous and not too worried about tweezer intimacy. And see, you can get that. Tweezer intimacy. The tweezers I use are metal, about 4" long and have a rounded angle at the 'picking' end. Not an outstanding piece of design, but they do a great job for me. And just like a good fountain pen, they have become mine and I know the best way to hold them and angle them and blahdy blah. So I'm the one that has two pairs - you can borrow my other pair, but I won't be in a hurry to share the silver ones. I know what is says about me. But I'm more interested in what your tweezers say about you.