Craft wire in a dozen lively colors: red, pink, burgundy, teal, medium blue, navy blue, violet, forest green, black, silver, copper and brass. You get (9) feet of each, all in 26-gauge. Jewelers, scrapbookers and crafters in general love this stuff. You think black isn't a lively color? It's what they use to make jewelry for merry widows!

Actually, it's a set of (36) different little polished gemstones and minerals from around the world, all identical sizes (1/2" x 3/8" x 1/8" thick), mounted and identified by name and origin on an 8" x 10" card. Super nice at a super price, for teachers, designers or jewelry makers. The set includes amazonite, amethyst, aventurine, black obsidian, blue lace agate, buttermilk jasper, carnelian, Dalmatian dacite, dumortierite, fancy jasper, fluorite, gold stone, hematite, howlite, jadeite, lapis, leopard skin jasper, mahogany,obsidian, moss agate, nephrite, Picasso jasper, orange calcite, picture jasper, rainbow jasper, rose quartz, rhodonite, rock crystal, rhyolite, red jasper, snowflake obsidian, sodalite, serpentine, tiger eye stone, turquoise and unakite.

Riffler files are most prized by sculptors, wood carvers, model makers and similar fashioners of precision objects. They come in a variety of flat, round and triangular shapes. They are usually pointed and always have a delicate curve toward the point which makes them particularly useful for working in tight and curvy spots. We have a set of (10) in an attractive red plastic case. They are 3 x 180 mm size (about 7"), and were made in China for the King Manufacturing Co. Very nice quality at a very nice price. They can cost as much as $4.00-$5.00 apiece in regular outlets.

A big step up from the basic soldering iron, and much safer, our soldering station features continuously variable power between 5-40W, a 1.5mm pointed tip thin enough to use on surface-mounted components, a 4-foot cord, padded grip, iron holder, built-in cleaning sponge, and a stand-alone controller with a 5-1/2" x 4-1/2" footprint and a power switch. Grip is padded with a 3/16" dia shank. From Stahl Tools" for hobbyists, do-it-yourselfers and students.

Call it Joseph tape. Or technicolor tape. From Duck®, this striped plastic tape is 1-7/8” wide on a 22-yard roll with a 1-1/2” core. Stripes are purple, red, blue, yellow and green with some narrow intervening white stripes, not to be confused with the band of the same name. Feels like that “Do Not Break Seal” tape, but more festive.

Our humongotweezer special is a twofer: (1) pair of straight steel tweezers at 12" long and another pair, the same, but with a 30-degree curve at the business end--both with smooth, un-grooved tips. Great for lab work or delicate grilling operations.

Crystals are for pointing toward you or away from you, depending on what you believe or want, or for polishing, or just for looking at. You get a 3-pack of quartz point crystals, approx 1" to 2-1/2" long, ready for psychic healing, jewelry, or plain old-fashioned lapidarian fascination. Your hunks of point crystal might have an actual point, might not: nature's like that.

Sort of like kleenex, because cellophane used to be trademarked but isn’t any longer so you can now say cellophane all you like. Cellophane, cellophane, cellophane. You’ll get (48) sheets of 12” square cellophane, a dozen each in red, yellow, green and blue, for teaching kids color mixing. But feel free to use them for anything. Includes instructions for making your own color paddle.

You’re not Sloopy? Hang on anyway. Use this 3-pack of 6” steel crosslock tweezers to get a grip on your work. All are approx 6” long with wood-like fiber grips, and you’ll get (1) each with 3/4” long circular, oval and straight upright ends to hold a variety of shapes. Business ends have slight serrations, the better to hold stuff. The round one is approx 3/4” closed and opens to 1-1/2”; the oval is approx 3/4” closed and opens to 1-3/8”; the straight one is 7/8” closed and opens to 1-3/4”. Don’t make jewelry without them.

Our best and prettiest-ever slices of polished agate, showing concentric rings of natural and dyed colors. The slices range from 3" to 4-1/2" across and from 1/8" to 3/16" thick. We've seen samples from milky white to blue, purple, red, yellow and brown. No two alike, by definition. We'll choose. Think scientific specimens, framed art, coasters, trivets, paperweights, or skipping stones for rich kids who don't want to search the beach for flat stones.

It's officially a watch-case holder, and indispensable for jewelers and watch collectors, but it's equally useful for holding anything small and squirrely while you work on it. A pair of 1-3/4" long x 15/16" tall brackets have (4) sets of (6) holes that take (4) movable posts. Spring-loaded jaws dial open to a max of 1".

Trying to cut back on hobby expenditures? This incredibly priced utility knife set is x-actly what you need. Standard interchangeable blades and holders, the largest of which has an easy-grip, screwdriver-type handle. Everything is lined up in a fitted plastic box with extra blades magnetically anchored. The 13–piece set has (3) holders, plus assorted blades. The 48–piece set has (7) holders, a wide assortment of blades, (1) tube of glue, and (1) sharpening stone. Very nicely priced. Very sharp.

This clever little artist's brush holder/cleaner will keep those oil or watercolor brushes standing up (or down) straight with their little heads under water or paint thinner, clean and un-bent until you need them. A 4" dia x 2" deep aluminum cup is topped by a 6" tall U-shaped handle with a brush-holding spring across the top. Inside the cup is a mesh screen (with its own handle) for to clean the paint off and let it settle to the bottom, away from the bristles. The handle is removable for storage or travel.

The secret is ceramics. This 5-1/2" long precision cutter has a ceramic point that's as sharp as an X-actly knife, stays sharp longer, is easier to maneuver in intricate cutting patterns, and is nearly impossible to cut yourself with. Cuts paper and card stock easily. Pencil-style, with a cap. A boon for crafters, and a blessing for junior crafters.

These're pleasing tweezers, these are. They're clever cross-lock tweezers, 6" long with wood-grain grips and 1/2" long, serrated 90° jaws that grip tightly. The handy cross-locks will lay flat on their backs to hold stuff, like wires, while you solder.

Hemostats are the clamplike devices dangling from veins and arteries in melodramatic operating scenes. Our particular collection are Pakistani surgical-grade instruments made of magnetic stainless steel. As such we rate them pretty good, but not fantastic. Hemostats look like little pliers. The jaws are relatively fine, with rounded tips. The inside faces are lightly serrated to get a grip on tubing or body plumbing. And the handles are much longer than the jaws. Now the heavenly part. Great hobby clamps that can be worked into small areas. Fine heat sinks for electronics. Good hook extractors for trout fisherpeople. Excellent tubing clamps for flow-sensitive chemistry experiments. Sizes are approximate length.

You pick from our straight or curved locking-jaw forceps, both with rubber-dipped handles and jaws for extra-gentle applications. Measure 5-1/2" long with 1-1/4" long jaws.

If I Could Put Glue In a Bottle Crafts and repairs are made much easier with an applicator bottle. This translucent 20ml/.68-oz plastic bottle with a screw-cap that has a 1-1/2" long x 1/32" dia dispenser needle with a protective cap.