How to Keep your Needles in a Row

Some of my summer break was spent cleaning and organizing my home, specifically our storage room. Like many other art teachers I know, I am a pack rat. I keep a lot of random items because I “might” use them for an art project in the future. (I finally got to use one of these random items for this project.) In addition to the random items I keep, I also have all of my binders and textbooks from college.

One of the totes contained all my book making supplies and coursework. As I was going through the tote, I remembered how much I loved book making. I asked myself, “Why haven’t I taught bookmaking to my students?”

I knew exactly how I could incorporate book making into my curriculum. I teach art history to my students at the beginning of each class. I decided this year; my students were going to talk and about art in their handmade books.

My students sewed their books together using tapestry needles. At the end of each class I count the needles to make sure that all 30 are there. Then one class period I forgot to count them and mysteriously four needles were missing the next hour. I decided I needed to come up with a way to visually display the needles so they were easy to count.

My solution? A custom made needle board!

The numbered foam allows for me and my students to visually see how many needles are missing.

Here are the supplies you need to keep your needles in a row:

• Foam
• Needles
• Permanent Marker
• Ruler

Easy Step by Step Directions:

1. Cut the foam to the size you want. (I used a box cutter.)
2. Divide the foam into squares. (Or rectangles. I wanted to be sure I had enough needles for each student and I wanted to be sure I had extra needles left over to replace in case there was one lost. I currently own over 30 needles.)
3. Write a number in each square.
4. Put a needle inside each square.

Voila, you’ve created your own needle board!
Hint: Keep the needle board close to you so you can remember to count them at the end of class. I sit the board on my desk.
If you have extra foam, you can create additional boards to organize other sharp supplies such as awls for book making.

How do you keep track of your needles for weaving or bookmaking?

Any other good suggestions for those special supplies that tend to mysteriously “disappear”?