Taming My Bead Stash

re: Taming My Bead Stash

Patricia@197 — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 17:16:55 GMT

I always find organizing my beads an ongoing challenge. My husband and I live in a 1 bedroom appartment so space is crucial. I've found that organizing bins with drawers to be the best for my beads. I also use small clear containers that come 12 in a clear lidded box that I got from my local bead shop. They are great for tiny beads or when you only have a few beads left from a batch. I organize my beads by colour and my findings are in separate drawers. I organize them by head, eye and ball pins together along with bead caps, single metal chain loops and earring wires. The other drawer contains jump rings, chains clasps and spacers. In the third drawer I have a divider box with charms and metal pendants, a container holding wire and individual containers jolding metal beads. So far this seems to work and I use the top of one of the bins as a workstation - I've even glued down plastic drawer liner (the nubby kind) to prevent beads from rolling everywhere. For a small space, this seems to work for me. When not in use, I just push them against the wall so they're out of the way.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

betty in Texas — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:11:20 GMT

The credit for the acronym SABLE (stash accumulation beyond life expectancy) is not known to me, but I have been a lifelong member. My focus went from books (only half of which were paperback fiction ;-)) to fiber - mostly yarn. Lately I have begun to add beaded embellishment to knitted, crocheted and sewn items.

Beads magically multiplied in my storage area (downsized from a large house, to half of a walk in closet for ALL hobby items). What I learned about organizing supplies and tools happily applies to managing bead stash, but the tackle box/tubes combo, with a separate container for special tools and findings seems to be the best solution for me. I am allowing a total space of one bookshelf. Wish me luck!

p.s. As time and budget permits, I plan to cross over to CD's for pattern magazines.

Betty in Texas

re: Taming My Bead Stash

b.barth — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 11:42:20 GMT

All of the ideas are wonderful! My art room recently moved and I am still in the organizing stage, does any one have advice for someone with BADD (bead attentiion deficit disorder). When I start organizing inspiration strikes and I have to run with it!

re: Taming My Bead Stash

moira.beads — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:17:05 GMT

I am relatively new to the game, but it didn't take me long to realize that I needed organization! A "found" desk with roll-out printer shelf and file drawer came to the rescue--all of my beads are sorted into plastic containers (the kind used for embroidery floss bobbins). The boxes are stacked on the roll-out shelf and in addition to folders for receipts, the drawer holds zip-lock bags of seed bead tubes, threading materials, etc, all neatly separated. I used a Sharpie to add numbers to the bottom of each space and lettered the boxes. This corresponds to a spreadsheet I maintain that helps me track inventory and costs, since I have already turned my work into a business! The desk is huge, so it gives me a great workspace, too!

re: Taming My Bead Stash

ysusie02 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:10:15 GMT

I'm a stained glass crafter, have been for over 40 years. Needless to say I have the glass! But a part of my new designs include seed beads and glass beads! That has also been added to my 2 car garage studio. The seed beads I keep in the tubes and put them in clear plastic utensil carriers. I've labeled the sides so I can quickly see the right color, but I can easly pick up the carrier for traveling. I only wish that the loose beads were that easy. I purchased clear plastic boxes with 10 spaces, each having an individual lid, so I can easly pick just the ones I want. I've store them in a metal medical cabinet (yard sale find) by color. Worked great until recently, I've run out of room! My dream is to have something like type tray drawers that you can just pull out and see everything all at once, but then that requires more space than I have. (Also have a kiln, sandblaster and wood working tools along with the 6' glass rack filling the garage).

re: Taming My Bead Stash

JoAnnM@17 — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 08:28:25 GMT

Hi from JoAnn ABQ,NM I store my Delicas in silver dollar screw on coin tubes. I can get them at either Fire Mountain Gems or www.coingallery.com and they are quite inexpensive compared to other systems I have seen. I then use my label maker and put the DB# and the color on the tube. I hope that this helps anyone.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

Cbcompanies — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 05:13:40 GMT

I teach different jewelry-making techniques but began with beading in 1997 keeping beads, stringing materials & tools in a single tray Art Bin case. In 2000 when I was laid off, my husband bought me a large Plano fishing tackle box with 3 large tackle trays & room for smaller tackle trays, tools & stringing materials in the top portion. Today my studio/workshop is the attached 2-car garage of my home. I'm a bead hoarder. Glass beads reside in a 7'x3' IKEA wardrobe holding 8 Plano racks of large tackle trays (32 of them) sorted by color. Gemstone beads reside in an IKEA unit that has 30 shallow drawers and jewelry tray divided inserts. Metal pendants, findings and Swarovski crystals make their home in a 105 y/o 24-drawer Hamilton typeset case sorted by color & type. Seed beads are organized by color in plastic baggies stored in over about 20 more large tackle trays in a credenza next to the wardrobe. Beads for sale are in an 7 ft. tower created from multiple plastic drawer units bought off CraigsList, organized by type & by color. I also keep 6 empty tackle trays to fill & swap out in that fishing box when beading on the go. My secret organization weapon is my sister & her 2 daughters. We get together to sort, bag & tag beads into kits for my wire-wrapping, metal clay, found object and fused glass jewelry workshops, so organization is a must.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

JorieL — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:57:45 GMT

I store my beads in the little containers that rolls of photo film used to come in, and in tea tins. I have dozens of containers and am still lucky enough to be able to get them from a local photographers who willingly gives me a dozen at a time. I have a couple of icecram boxes filled with these containers, and a floral shaped divided box which I use for the ones I am actually working with.

But to tell the truth the fishing tackle boxes are a great idea, so are "electricians/carpenters " drawer units.

Daphne

re: Taming My Bead Stash

miracatta — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 20:18:46 GMT

My studio is the kitchen. It is set up/torn down in a few minutes. The beads are organized by color and are put in bags. The exception is the "sparkly" bag, with crystals, faceted beads, etc. There is a "drama bag" with very unusual things that could be focals or pendants.

The findings are sorted by metal type, in bags again. The stash is not that large and this works.

The seed beads are all in one large bag, all colors, and are always on the table when I'm working. All things that beads might be put on: cable, thread, chain, etc., are in another case.

Then, for the finished product, there are "done" boxes. It all works well.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

Creative Eclectica — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 16:13:14 GMT

Well, I guess technically I don't NEED and entire room for my beads and related paraphernalia and really my stash doesn't take a whole room, it shares the space with my paper-crafting, glass painting, crocheting, sewing supplies. All of this just mentioned happens to take up an 11' x 20' foot space.

I'm current;y in the throes of reorganizing and updating my storage system to better suit my current needs. I keep most of my beads in those round stack-able jars. Most of my seed beads are in their original tubes in SnapWare containers organized by color. All of them are on my workbench or on a shelf directly above my work area. I love that everything is now within my reach without really having to get up and walk across the room. I find that I'm more productive overall and that's always a good thing. :-)

re: Taming My Bead Stash

carolee1945 — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 13:35:34 GMT

The smartest thing I ever did was invest in some craft organizers that are advertised in bead magazines. www.bestcraftorganizer.com The company was great, although it did cost some money, well, it was so much fun to organize my beads by type and color. Using the fishing compartments became impossible for me; I had no idea what I had. Now I can just pull open one of the shallow drawers to see what is there.

If you are on the fence about this product, I can say it truly changed my beading life. And they really save space too. Even when I do not have time to bead, it is fun to just open the drawers and look at what I have.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

VeronicaTomlin — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:07:29 GMT

Hello from England. I used Tool boxes from B & Q. 4 trays with separate compartments in a box with a handle. The dividers in the trays are movable so you can sort the sizes really easily and the trays are clear plastic so you can see whats in them. I also give all my compartments bin numbers and have them all listed on an excel stock sheet so i can keep track of everything I have and the quantities.

re: Taming My Bead Stash

sewsweetpink — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 04:06:03 GMT

I've decided not to worry too much about being really organized anymore. The reason is that serendipity often happens when stuff that doesn't quite belong 'there' ends up with something 'here' that looks marvellous with it but I never would have thought of it if they hadn't 'congregated' accidentally. I often re-organize my beads and in doing this it sparks my creativity and I end up with another pile on my table for the next project. I do clean up regularly and put things back with their 'families' even though I am always creating new family groups. I also find this regular re-organizing keeps me familiar with what beads I have and re discovering some I have forgotten about

re: Taming My Bead Stash

AnitaAmyotte — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 00:56:48 GMT

I have a "studio" which is unfinished at the moment. It's supposed to have shelves on 2 walls. So at the moment my magazines, books and some supplies are on the floor in boxes or bags. I have some clear drawers and many many organizers from Dollarama (holla for $1 bead trays!).

My bead collection, fiber collection, magazine collection, and thrifted componants are just crazy and out of control. I would love to have an OCD friend visit and help me out. I just don't like to organize my stuff as I get distracted and have a million ideas and then I'm beading - not cleaning. ugh. No willpower when it comes to beads. :)

re: Taming My Bead Stash

ruthmac2560 — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 23:08:41 GMT

I love the newsletter thank you for all the effort put in to create it. I had a laugh when I read your article today though. I am 61 and have used beads on a minute scale over the years sewing, quilting, cake decorating, scrapbooking and cardmaking. Two years ago my daughter gave me a necklace she made in a one off jewellery class which was beautiful and I was really impressed by what she'd done. She decided jewellery making was not her thing at all, after her one class, but the seed had been planted in my mind. Eighteen months ago on a trip with friends we went to a craft village, there was a bead shop of course, and I decided to buy some beads and findings to make both my daughters a necklace and earrings each and the seed had germinated. What a Pandora's Box that turned out to be, I had already progressed to the second bedroom stage of your story with my cardmaking & scrapbooking (which I will do till I die) and then I added beading!! I don't cake decorate any more so my rollers and shape cutters have been transferred to my polymer clay stash, my seed bead stash has grown apace from when I first thought they'd be too fiddly for me (silly woman!) and are all neatly filed in clear plastic containers in clear plastic carry cases in size and shade order. All the rest of my beads are in colour order in colour coded, labelled sliding drawer cabinets. I have not yet solved the problem of returning to order after the chaos of creating especially if I am doing several projects at once but I'm sure that will come, lol.