Okay, I am not talking about "strands". but only for individual applications. They are so tiny they slip out of my fingers. I made the pearls (one by one) then tried to apply them to a cake but they kept slipping out the tip of my fingers besides getting messed up with my fingerprints. I have the cartridge to make the strands (very expensive by the way) but I like them i individually with a quilt pattern. Thanks.

The strategy I used, just yesterday in fact, was Tweezers and royal icing. I bought a 3 pack of tweezers at the store, which was a good idea, because the first size was to small, then too big... etc. Until I found one that was perfect. I was using dragees and my dumb fingers kept leaving impressions around the pearl when I was trying to attach it.

So I dolloped about a teaspoon of royal icing onto a paper towel in front of me. Then put the dragees in a little bowl. Then I got into a "groove" by picking up the pearl with the tweezers, then dipping one side into the icing, attatching it, then going to the next.

That's what worked for me, I would love to hear if anyone else had some ideas.

Instead of putting the royal icing on a paper towel I would have kept it in a piping bag, that would have been a little neater. I love pearls on cakes they look so elegant. Do you have any pictures Jackie?