The needles are made of dowel lengths from a hardware store, brought to a point in a pencil sharpener and then smoothed with fine grit sandpaper. A large, 0blong bead has been glued to top of each one to provide an end and also as a place to display/record wool used in past projects. (Of course you will make sure to take a photo or two or three of each thing you knit as it is finished!) Then they were painted black and needle part waxed with a piece of waxed paper. I painted a bird on each bead. They are meant for slow, thoughtful knitting.