I drill after baking if I'm worried about deforming the shape,
especially on smaller beads; and I use a hand-held pin vise. You can
get them with multiple sizes of drill bits. I'll make an indentation on
the bead before baking so I know where to start drilling.

It only takes a minute or two. The downside, for me anyway, is I've
also broken beads that way (happened more often with Sculpey than with
Premo).

Cheers,
Carla

wrote:
What are the reasons one would drill a bead after baking instead of piercing
it while soft? How do you drill a squirming, rolling bead, (i.e. what
drill, how do you keep it still, etc?)

Many thanks from a real newbie!