Do you ever sit and look at your bead stash and go...wow?

[Former_Member]

Hi ya'll! Well, last night I spent a good 4+ hours cleaning and organizing my beading table in my studio. Wowzers! I'm not done, lol!

I was transferring beads from one organizer to a new, 60 drawer organizer my mom got me for my birthday. I managed to clear a lot of space, but I had no idea I own that many beads! They won't even fit in the organizer...

I'm a bad one for buying all new beads every time I make something new. I really need to stop buying....but likely, I won't.

So wow! I'm sure I'm not alone here. Mine are scattered throughout the house and last night I pretty much condensed it to beads I take to my classes for the students to use (I have a large picnic basket I use) and the beads in my studio.

How often do you clean your beading area and do you ever just think about the quantity of glass, crystal and stone you have? Tonight I hope to tackle my metal findings and the gazillion sizes and gauges of jump rings I have from chainmaille projects. Wish me luck!

Val~

[Former_Member]

I did a clean sweep 2 weeks ago. I found beads I forgot I had.

Good luck!

[Former_Member]

i've got everything pretty much organized in plastic sectioned containers with like type items together..that all goes to hell when i buy new stuff but i find when i try to "re-roganize" i do something stupid like I did a few weeks ago....
had a container with about 30 different types of beads all nice and organized by size and color. i made the mistake of putting it open on top of something else, whacked the corner of it and they ALL went flying all over the room. Sadly it was all really small stuff like little 5mm daisy spacers, 2 and 3mm silver balls and assorted little spacer beads. i was NOT too thrilled about THAT little adventure!! it took about 1 1/2 hours to clean up that mess.....

[Former_Member]

lol- I am always amazed at how many beads I have around my house. Over the last 4 years I have been a lampworker I have made thousands and thousands of beads-they are everywere and I love it! :) Organizing them is not on my priority list! :)

[Former_Member]

Oh boy! I feel really sick now. I have over 500 square feet of studio walls covered in beads hanging from custom wooden dowel rods. I have over 10' of small drawer space and several shelving units and large drawer units FULL. I do a major reorganization about once a year because I keep adding new inventory. I stay very organized because I would never find anything if I didn't.

I am still just as obsessed as I was when I started collection over 11 years ago. If anything I am worse.

Oh well, there are worse addictions!

[Former_Member]

Wow, lol that's a lot of beads! I have a large bag of beads that I add to every time I go through my stash. I plan to send it to a friend who is just starting out but I keep finding new things to add to them!

Last year when I hit a slump and couldn't find my motivation for all this bother, a good friend sent me a box that was literally packed to the top with beads of every shape and size! Lampworked beads, crystals, you name it! It was such a nice gesture that I thought it would be good to pay it forward.

[Former_Member]

What a lovely idea - paying beads forward. I'm not in the same league as some of you, but my problem is that I make my own beads - sometimes I have to just have them a while before I can even think about selling them or creating jewellery from them. All my 'bad beads' go to the school I work in for our jewellery club so that's a bit like paying them forward I suppose - is it mean to save the best for me?

[Former_Member]

Lol I don't think it's mean to save the best for you! I'm a semi hoarder of beads so I always save the best for myself. :)

[Former_Member]

ABSOLUTELY! I usually find many singles and twos and threes which is a bit frustrating because it's hard to use those. I put all of those in a bag and pull it out when my creativity is at it's absolute nil and the variety in the bag helps with some interesting designs! My bead collection isn't that huge and I organize mine by color in separate bags, and separate materials in each drawer. I do my sorting every couple of weeks since I'm a bit of a neat freak!

[wildwomanbeads]

We all have a form of bead addiction! ;o)

I have all the same problems. I'm about to organize again tonight. Every time the mail comes, something new has to be added somewhere. Mostly, it's a "beads everywhere" world at my house!

I use plastic storage containers, insert little cards at the ends with a description of what's inside. That helps, but I still can't find all my raku beads when I need them. Sigh.

I like the idea of paying it forward too. There's also an organization somewhere to donate beads to kids dealing with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. They make necklaces with the beads marking every big milestone they reach. That's an idea I could really get behind IF I could just find them place I last left all my stray and orphan beads!

[Former_Member]

You don't even want to know how many beads I have. Not only do I make them, but I also do bead weaving, wire wrapping, and some lapidary. And I am thinking about pulling out the polymer clay again. Sooooo......

[Former_Member]

Meredith, are you talking about the Beads of Courage Program? I donate to them regularly. I have a jar on my beading desk (spaghetti jar I think lol) that I fill. Once its full, off it goes. Its a great program!

[Former_Member]

Oh, I'll have to look that up! It sounds like an awesome cause!!!

[Former_Member]

I buy a lot of beads when there are good sales (like last year's 70% off swarovskis at fireMountainGems).

I have a considerable amount, but if I had a studio paper-walled with them, I wouldn't complain :-)

I don't think I can help with the Beads for Courage Program, but I'm occasionally donating stuff to my girls' classes, and to a after-hours care center for kids with mental disabilities, in my town...

any way you look at them, the beads are a miracle :-)

[Former_Member]

Yep, I'm OCD about beads. When I recently looked at my stash of beads (just the ones that I have made ... not including the other commercial beads I have accumulated) I realized that I had waaaaaaaaaaaay too many to try and organize ... so ... I packed 'em up and shipped them to Beads of Courage ... OMG ... 12.85 POUNDS of my lampwork beads were sent to the kids who will put them to better use.

It felt really good to not only clean out my stash ... but ... just knowing they will make a little one smile ... meant alot to me.

[SashaSi]

I think I should make my husband read this discussion, he thinks I am the only one addicted! 500 square feet of beads? haha my stash is TINY compared to that!

[Former_Member]

I went through my beads during Sept./October months. I tried to really be analytical about which ones I'd ever really use. Then I packaged the others up and am selling them at the artists' co-op where I sell my beaded jewelry. It is VERY easy to over buy, since beads become an addiction and we all want the best!

[Former_Member]

Even after a huge studio clean up last month I still find beads on every flat surface in my house! Luckily my hubby doesn't mind. He's so cute about my bead addiction - wants to see my beads as soon as they come out of the kiln, and if we leave town he maps out the bead stores ahead of time :) (He actually has his own stash now, so maybe it's contagious!)

[Former_Member]

Ahhh, I really feel like I belong with you all. I am so in love with my beads...I would seriously hate to know exactly how much money I have invested in them all over the last 12 years or so... I do keep an excel spreadsheet where I catalog all the beads I buy, with a description, the price and where I got it, etc. so I can figure pricing for my work. I'm afraid to add it all up though and see what the total is! I organize my beads by color families...they outgrew plastic containers years ago. I am a bit of a bead hoarder myself and always hate to use ALL of a strand of a certain type of bead because what if I need some for another project... I'm trying to get better about that though and use some of my special beads even if it's hard to part with them! I feel like I'm in heaven when I walk into a bead show and see rows and rows of sparkling treasure waiting for me to just discover it!

[OneSolarDay]

i kind of have everything in its place, but its a messy everything in its place right now. some things are in general areas....leaving me about 8 inches to work on. its spilled over way too much. i have no place left to store things.

[ParadiseChicJewelry]

Right now my table is a mess, have containers and beads everywhere and I dropped a case of little ones into my carpet the other day and couldn't get them all out. :(

[Former_Member]

I look at my collection all the time!! I get mesmerized with my bowl of crystals I love how they sparkle!!
But I too recently went through all my beads and got my best ones condensed into four plastic storage containers. I had to make one of them for my metal findings. I got tired of going thru all the little baggies to find what I was looking for. And I totally agree about being addicted. Every time I go to the store I have to stop by the bead aisle(even though i know its the same)and nine times out of ten I buy at least one new package of beads or bead supply. Now that's addicted!! But I'm sure most of you do the same!! I just wish I had a studio or even an area just for my jewelry making like most of you guys do.

[SassafrasBeadWorks]

Those of you who are organized put me to shame! I am so clueless on how to organize. I begin, but it is just bigger than me. I start off sorting them by color and then I think well, glass and stones need to be separated, and then I give up and just make something!

[TissysTreasures]

LOL what a great thread!! I left my job in August (I know it's bad, but after 9 years at "THAT place", I physically could not walk in one more time without being ill) and, well, yes it was a national Arts and Crafts store...and I was the known Bead-a-Holic there. You should have seen me on truck day, putting out merchandise..."OH! I HAVE to get this one today!" It ended up so bad, I actually tell people I don't have a bedroom, I have a beadroom, it just happens to have a twin bed in it! An ex roomie told me I don't have a hobby, I have an addiction. In fact, my subscription to Bead and Button I called my PREscription...
I use the newer storage boxes with the slightly rounded bottoms, SO much easier on the fingers when getting size 11* beads out! But I have them lined up onto 3 bookcases, short ends facing out, with labels on them stating what they are.
My 26 year old daughter moved in with me this year, and she beads...and I can tell when she's hit my beads! The boxes have moved lol.
I've been going thru my bead stash, and will be putting some in my shop soon, hopefully enough will sell to pay next month's etsy bill!

[Former_Member]

I just went through and sorted all my metal findings from the round screw together jars into the flat multi compartment container. I needed four of them and still could use another two I think. Sorted by copper, silver, brass etc. I really like the screw together containers for the beads but it wasn't working for the findings.

Oh and all of my beads are sorted by color *ducks and hides*