Clips for holding macro subject

I'm in need of some ideas for a clip to hold my macro subjects. Mostly small subjects. I bought a "extra hands" from amazon and they were so cheap the metal coating was flaking off all over my hands - would just love for that to get into my eye! So those are being returned. I do all my work in the center of a table so I don't have an edge to clamp anything onto. With my camera on a small tripod, it would need to hold the subject up in the air. Last I looked I saw the Manfrotto flex arm and that seems like it would have no excess movement as something thinner and lighter would take longer to settle out. It just seems difficult to adapt the Manfrotto adapters/ends to mount it say on a piece of wood. So still thinking about it atm..

Have you seen or heard of these?http://www.tripodhead.​com/products/plamp-main.cfm

You can DIY one for yourself. It's quite easy. This one was given to me by a friend though.

More info here:
http://orionmystery.bl​ogspot.com/2011/03/pla​mp.html

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/8s6c​kk

I find it easiest not to use a tripod at all but just use the camera on the table and use small sticks with blu-tac to hold the subject and hold the stick to the table. It's fairly easy to adjust heights/ angles using table mats or books and gives very stable shooting as both subject and camera are effectively mechanically linked.
Brian V.

Awesome guys and very appreciated! I like DIY projects so I'm going to try the plamp look-a-like and if I'm not using the tripod the blu-tac sounds spot on. Thanks!