My creating and storing with seed beads-pt.3

The tour today will start with the second storage cart. I'm not sure what those things are "officially" called-rolling carts with drawers, I guess. It didn't take me long to find out that those carts don't roll too well when the drawers have pounds of beads in them. LOL!

This is a picture of Matsuno seed beads. Matsuno is the 3rd largest of the Japanese bead manufacturers, with Miyuki and TOHO in front of them. I like them because they are quality beads, come in an incredible range of colors and finishes and are reasonably priced. FireMountainGems sells them under the name DynaMite.

The open spaces are for beads that are going to be used in a couple of projects this week. One of the things my muse did while "we" were organizing is come up with things to create. Since I knew it would be a few days before I got to working on those projects, I set the beads-and everything else-for those 3 projects aside. Yep, 3 projects-sometimes I think my muse thinks I can bead at the speed of light. Notice the first drawer.I don't like beads stacked up like that because it makes it hard for me to open the drawers and "cruise for color" when I want to do something. See, I told you it will soon be time for another cart.

The last drawer today has crystals and bi-cones-all pretty and sparkly. I love the facets on these and how they reflect the light. I always try to catch that when I am photographing a finished piece, but it isn't easy.

Thanks for hanging in there with me and a HUGE thanks to the AFlessthan(10) guild.

Creating and stash showing-pt.2

On today's tour, we will see how the things in the first 3 drawers of the cabinet the small organizer sits on, live and are stored. I organize my beads by size, brand and when I can, color. Every beader I know organizes their beads according to how it works for them and we all have different ways of doing it.

This first drawer has all my Czech beads in it. They are Ornela Czech beads. Ornela has been making beads for many decades, if not longer, and they make great beads. The colors are really intense and rich. For the pinks and reds, they use gold in the color-just like in ruby glass-which is another of my glass loves.


The second drawer holds the wonderful beads of TOHO. This Japanese bead company has been in business forever. They make wonderful seed beads-in all sizes and finishes and have an outstanding reputation in the beading world. The different containers are because different suppliers package their the way they want. The small rectangular-tictac-containers-I have gotten from a couple of different places. They are a handy size for many types of beads.


The last drawer opening on today's tour is my gemstones, agates and other rocks. LOL! If you peek toward the middle back of the drawer, you will see those baby food containers I mentioned yesterday.

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.

Selling for a cause

Today's post is going to be about people who are making things to donate to the AGLF. That's the legal fund that is being set up to fight the slander that someone has been blogging about on the internet. I will also post links to those who have been wrongly accused of fraud by this very same blog.
I have a Copper Seed Bead Choker I made that will go to the fund when it sells.Yes, those are real copper seed beads.


Now, on to the links of other goodies for sale for the fund.
First on the list is Gothic Glass on artfire.http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=25153
Here is a smashable blogger which can be found in munkinartsshop on etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5529439b I've been informed that this has sold already.
HiloBeads on etsy has some Job's Tears http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29167354
Valentine Photograhpy on etsy has a beautiful print for sale for the fund. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29186042

Bad Moon Beads on etsy has this beautiful Pandora style egg Bead http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=29171032
Another beautiful lampwork bead is from Tracidawn on etsy for the fund http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28983156
This Chintz Heart bead by Aricketts on etsy is really neat. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=28564879

Christmas in July Sale on Artfire

There are a lot of sellers on artfire who have joined in a Christmas in July Sale. I am one of them. http://www.artfire.com/users/DancingWindDesigns I am including a pair of earrings if you purchase a beaded swag necklace like the one pictured below. It's up to the sellers what they are offering, so check out artfire and look for tiems tagged CIJS or under the Christmas in July section.