[speedingpullet]

I've never been good at 'hand-made' loops - no matter how hard I try they tend to end up being misshapen or crooked.
So, seeing as I have a gazillion mandrels - of varying thicknesses - from bead making, I do the spacer bead on a mandrel method, which works well for me.

I tend to make mine from scratch while I'm working, rather than make them beforehand and garage them. Spacer beads only take about a minute to make and I can go with the colors of the piece, and can decide on the size on the fly - rather than having to plan it all beforehand.