How to Customize your Hooks

You might have seen a while ago I made this handle for my 4.25mm hook:

And I thought I'd show you how to do that. Here's what you're gonna need:

A profile-free underground (like a translucent document-sleeve and some ustensils you can use to bend, cut, roll out or shape in any other way.

Handleless metal-hooks (as many as you want/need). (I recommend using at least a 3mm hook or bigger)

And last but not least: FIMO or any other polymer clay. FIMO is modelling clay that hardens when baked.

First you're gonna roll a long string of FIMO. If you use lots of FIMO, you could use left-overs for this step. I used some translucent FIMO that was bought for us by accident and that we can't really use for anything...

I always try to get a string roughly as large as the hook itself.

Next you want to wrap it around your hook's handle starting at the flat bit labelled with the hook's size (maybe try and leave the size visible). We want to use that flat bit to make sure our handle isn't gonna slip off the hook.

 Now you need to roll the whole hook on your sleeve until it's all straight like here:

You want to choose the base-color of your handle and roll out a piece of FIMO large enough to cover up the whole handle. I went for glow-in-the-dark FIMO.
You just wrap it aroung the handle and cut off the excess at the top. You can hide the seem by smudging it with your thumb.
Now start adding whatever decoration you want to put on it. I decided I want to attach a Pokéball to the end:

To attach a Pokéball, I start by wrapping a large string of white around the tip. (This is glow-in-the-dark again) Then I smudge the edges until it has the shape of a half-sphere after which I push a half-sphere of red FIMO on top of it. No need to smudge that edge, We're gonna hide it with a thin string of black FIMO. The seem between the two ends of that string is gonna disappear behind the Pokéball's button.
I thought the handle looked a bit naked just like that, so I added some swirls in black and blue. This is what I ended up with:

All you need to do now is bake it according to the instruction on the packaging (for Staedtler FIMO it's 110°C for 30 minutes), let it cool down and then you have your unique crochet hook!

One last little tip for you all. If you have a baking-oven at home that works with wood, don't use it. Even if it's saving electricity or whatever. Because a fire isn't controllable. You can't possibly control the temperature of a fire. You'r egonna end up with something very much like this... 

 I had to surgically seperate them with a clamp and a very sharp knife...

It looks quite funny from the inside... At least I learnt something... Never bake anything important in a fire-powered oven...

x Evelyn