Pam Turner, inventor of the Spiral eye side threading sewing needle


	My mission: Change the world. How can I really think a needle is going to do that? My little needle is going to be of no interest to a large majority of the world, but for those who need it, the Spiral Eye Needle is going to matter. A lot. Maybe it means a savings of a few seconds threading a needle to some people, but to others it represents independence because they will be able to mend their clothes without help. It means the baby-boomer who can barely thread a needle herself won't have to pre-thread needles for her mother when she visits. It means the soldier that came back from Iraq with one less arm or only one eye will be able to sew on his own button. Even blind people sew, and this needle makes it easier for them. It means the stroke victim can retain some dignity and a little more independence. For crafters, the Spiral eye needle means they can spend more time enjoying the part of sewing they enjoy. For anyone who has a snag in their shirt and can't get it back through the material, the Spiral Eye Needle, allows them to catch the stray thread and sew it back in effortlessly. To those women in third world countries, without electricity or optical care insurance, whose hand needle work is under appreciated by the world, it means their job will be just a little easier, just a little more efficient, and they will be able to do it a little longer, bringing in more money for their families, thus giving them a stronger sense of self-worth. On a larger level, because I will only manufacture my product in the USA, it will mean people here will have a job. It means my customers will know the product they are buying isn't going to show up on the news as being tainted with lead or mercury. And, hopefully it will encourage other startups to stay in America for their manufacturing needs. If some child sees my needle and realizes simple little inventions are just important as big complicated ones, and that there is nothing that can't be done...I will have changed the future.

				I'm an impatient person who got tired of the minor inconvenience of threading a needle. Putting an opening on the side seemed so obvious to me. Why hadn't it been done? My stubborn streak intensified each and every time I was told it couldn't be done. When I went to the hardware store and discovered innovative tools and screws, I got just a little more angry, a little more determined. I'm not a metallurgist or an engineer. It took me years of frustrated conversations with tool and die makers, and others in the metal manufacturing industry to learn the "why" it hadn't been done before. Along the way, I learned some history too. Making sewing needles was an art lost to Americans in the colonial days because the only person who knew how to do it, refused to share his knowledge. Today, needle making is a very protected process, done mostly in China and India, with some needles made in England and Germany. I have yet to find a company in America that actually manufactures hand sewing needles. In June 2008, I exhibited at the Minnesota Inventor's Congress Invention and Ideas Show in Redwood Falls, MN. I knew I had a great product, but had struggled so hard to get them made that I often questioned my sanity. Why did it seem so obvious to me, but not to others? But at the show, I was among a room full of inventors. It was like I had spent my whole life an ugly duckling and suddenly found my flock. That was why I had never felt like I fit into the world. I am an inventor, I just didn't know it.




					Left: I made thousands of points on needles using this slow wet grinder I set up on my kitchen table. I actually wore grooves into the grinding stone from all the sharpining.

		As seen on ABC NightLine

Spiral Eye needles were featured on August 8, 2008 segment called The Father of Invention



	Also featured in multiple magazines, including the current SQE Professionals magazine.


		As seen on Discovery Channel show, Pitchmen



	Anthony Sullivan tested out my needle with some clowns on the show, Pitchmen.




	In 2010, Telebrands licensed the rights to make my needle design in China, under the name One Second Needle. As seen on TV all around the world, the One Second Needle is an affordable side threading needle.




In 2013 I was one of the top ten semifinalist in the MN Cup.

I remember laughing as my mom struggled to thread a needle. Glasses resting on her nose, she trimmed the end of the thread,
sucked on it, failed to get it through the eye of the needle and re-trimmed it. Some times she would curse, "Why can't someone invent
a better needle? We've been to the moon for goodness sake."

Eventually she would break down and ask one of us kids to thread it for her.

Then, just a few years ago, I realized it was me that couldn't get a limp piece of thread through a hole I couldn't see. And it wasn't so
funny. My mom died in 1976, but .I could hear her laughter as I struggled to get that needle threaded.

Surely someone had invented a better needle by now. So I went shopping for one. I found an open eye needle called the calyx needle
(it has an opening at the top.) It was easy to thread, but the thread came out every time I used it. I tossed the needle in the trash.
Obviously no one was ever going to invent a better needle.

Forty years is long enough to wait for someone else to do something. I decided it was up to me. So I did it. I did it for Mom. I did it for
all the moms.

Pam Turner invented the Spiral Eye needle in memory of her mother.



		Spiral Eye(R) Side Threading Needles patent # US 8,151,720 B2 Patents pending in Canada, Europe, and China

Never struggle to thread a needle again!

	Order online or print off a Mail O rder form

This is an email I received after Night Line featured my needles. It brought me to tears.

It's past midnight, I can't sleep, and I flipped on the TV and decided to watch Nightline. So glad I did! I've been sewing since my early teen years, and have reached that age where threading a needle,
(heck even cutting an onion,) has become a nearly impossible task without glasses. My question for you: will there be a version of your needle produced for sewing machines? I would be ever so
grateful if you said one is in the works!

Geez -- where were you three years ago? I had surgery and instead of sewing me up with an amazing needle and fine silk thread, someone decided that stapling my belly was the way to fly. Maybe I
should have offered to close myself up before they knocked me out, I'd have done a better job, of that I am sure. Live and learn. I'm glad hospitals everywhere will now have the opportunity to
purchase your needles; and if there is a next time, I'll insist that my staple guy brings one into the O R!

Thanks for your dedication and persistence. You go girl! You really do. I live in eastern Massachusetts and will try to get out to the Big E in September, I'd love to meet you. I wish my grandmother
was alive to come and meet you too. She was simply amazing with a needle and thread.

Sincerely,
Cheri Keches