I'm the featured studio this week

and since all the other guild folks will be promoting me and my Artfire studio, I thought I would take some time and blog about my creative process and show you my newly organized, ever growing bead/gemstone stash. So that's what I will be blogging about this week. I also hope that you will learn a little more about how the items in my shop came into being and that way, get to know me a little better.

I have been on an organizing binge the last few days. I had to. I recently recieved 2.5 pounds of seed beads in the mail (and I'm expecting approx. another pound in the next couple of days) and they were in zip lock bags. Seed beads and zip lock bags usually equal bags coming open and seed beads in the drawers, so I needed to re-do my beads. My son and his family moved in with us a couple of months ago. His family includes our year old grandson. One day, I noticed that my grandson was having some fruit out of this really cool little rectangular plastic box-with a resealable lid. I asked that those little Gerber fruit and veggie containers be saved for Grandma. I wasn't sure what I would do with them, but I knew I would find something-and I did. They now hold my gemstones, sorted by type. The containers that were holding part of my gemstone collection-the chips-are now holding a large part of the 2.5 pounds of beads.

This first picture is the overall view of my storage set up. One of these days, I'm going to have to get another one of those carts. LOL!

The tour will start with the 3 drawers in the small cabinet. the stuff sitting on the top of the carts is pieces that are finished, pieces the need to be cut up and re-used, and a couple of projects I stopped in the middle of because I needed to think about a little more. those will probably end up in the cut and reuse stack.
Anyhow... the first drawer contains the small beeds-the 15's and the 13 cut charlottes. I love charlottes. It amazes me that they can actually put a facet on a bead that small. They sparkle so pretty.


In the next drawer are the containers that used to house my gemstone chips-now holding size 6 and 8 seed beads.

Last on today's little tour is the drawer that houses the square beads, the dagger beads, the fringe beads and other shapes of glass beads that I don't have enough of yet for them to have their own drawer. Notice I said yet. A big thank you to the AFlessthan(10)guild.