When you get your foil, be sure you have enough to wrap it around the pen a few times.

In this case, the foil acts as a conductor for that electricity to and from your finger, sending it through the head of the q-tip. This means that if you are not touching the foil, or the foil is not touching the q-tip, your stylus will not work.

Wetting the end of the q-tip will increase its conductivity, making your stylus more easily recognizable by your iPad.

Before you begin, make sure you are not using insulated wire. To act as a proper conductor, the wire must be stripped.

As mentioned in the previous method, the wire serves as a conductor between the iPad, the foam, and your hand, so you have to be touching the wire when using the stylus.