Mission Impossible: Organizing My Beads
Posted by Ali on November 11 at 03:09 pm
This past weekend, I found myself going through my now out-of-control bead room with Payton. I thought it would be an easy project to gather all of my favorite finds and organize them while she was playing with some fabric beads. There can’t be too many favorites, right? Well, as it turns out I have a lot of favorites and a lot of beads in general. Then I thought, at least I can thin out my bead stash by donating or reselling. The problem with that is that my favorite beads change with the seasons, my mood, etc. What am I supposed to do? This is my mission for November: Get my stash together before I start jamming on Christmas jewelry for gifts.
This is what I’ve tried in the past that worked at the time:
- Dixie cups: Works for holding head pins and eye pins
- Big red “keg” cups or a box: Works great for holding tools (these were always on hand in college
) - Tackle boxes: traveling with beads. They have great little compartments for taking beads on the go. The only problem is that I now have too many beads to choose from and the tackle box I would need is the size of a small piece of luggage. I will say though that this also worked great when Kevin and I lived in a small apartment and I had to bead at the dining table. Tackle boxes are also great for storing glass or cz beads.
Plastic storage drawers on wheels: This worked in my apartment when I didn’t have a permanent beading spot. What I didn’t like about this storage method is that if you make the drawers heavy with too many beads, they don’t pull out very easily.- Beads in baggies inside of Tupperware bins with lids: This option worked great for the last year and I think that concept behind it could still work if I could find a better storage option. I used to store all my gemstones together, all my pearls together, all my vintage together, all my glass together…you get the drift. The problem then became that I would miss out on using a cool red bead because I had only been looking in my gemstone bin. I then decided that the best way to organize my beads because of the way I design was to do it based on color, regardless of material. For instance, I take all of my red beads no matter the type, put each in a Ziploc bag and put it in the bin labeled RED.
The last option is by far my favorite for actual bead storage. The only remaining issue is that Payton likes to play with beads almost as much as I do. Our house is not huge, so her playroom doubles as my beading room. There are two problems with this. First, I have a limited amount of space to work with. Second, every time I go in the room, my beads are pulled out of their containers and strewn across the floor, because my little designer has been hard at work when I wasn’t looking I think what’ll happen is that I will find an amazingly perfect desk and come up with a fantastic wall storage for above. Sounds realistic right?
I would love to see pictures of your bead storage and/or studios. Not necessarily your beading desk or table, but the place where you store the beads and supplies you’re not actively working with.
What you think the best method for organizing your beads, tools, and projects is?
What special circumstances have you had to work with?
Please help!
Each year on the third Wednesday in July, the Ann Arbor art fair begins. This fair is one of the largest in North America and brings more than 500,000 people through our small town in 4 days. For the past 50 years, Ann Arbor has played host to talented artists from around the globe as well as our own local talent. These artists show a massive body of work, including: beaded, sculpted, and fine jewelry, multi-media to oil paintings, fiber arts, wood, blow glass, photography, clay, furniture, carvings, etc.
I also take a special interest in the way these artists display their work. You can always tell when someone is truly creative – it even extends to their booth design!
Normally, my new year’s resolution is something like: “go out to eat less and use that YMCA membership more often” — but, every year these things fail. This year, I’m going to try doing those things as part of my normal life and not necessarily a resolution and see if they last longer. My actual resolution this year is going to be focusing on my family and my creative aspirations, so I hope to:
