Sorry for such a late night Studio Saturday post, we had a little technical difficulty today.
Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner.
Susan Z has won a medieval style hand cast pewter ornament from Lynn Davis! Susan please email Lynn with your address to collect your ornament.
Your back in the studio tonight with Heather from Humblebeads. I’m doing a show this weekend, so my studio has been a flurry of last minute jewelry-making activity. Now being the founder of the Art Bead Scene, you may guess my love for all art beads. And even in my own jewelry I use beads from artists across the globe. I love shopping for art beads just as much as you guys, even though I make them every day! Pictured above, a pendant from Spirited Earth (my new favorite), a ceramic round from Elaine Ray and one of my disk beads.
I love to work in multiples, varying a design slightly. Here is a series of necklaces in progress using the same basic elements in different color schemes. I added in pearls and stones to each focal bead set. I love those little square bowls – they were from my Bead & Button booth. Now they inhabit every nook and cranny in my studio, holding projects, orders and random bits. I can stack them in trays for easy clean up. They were a steal at Target for $1.00 a piece.
And here, they are doing double duty as displays for my jewelry. I filled them with Styrofoam and hot glued moss on top. The Styrofoam lifts out of the bowl so they can go back to their utilitarian purposes here in the studio.
So my question for today – what’s your favorite storage secret for your beads? Love working with muffin trays? Would you be lost without tiny pieces of velor as beading boards? I’d love to hear your little tricks. Leave a comment and one lucky winner will receive a set of 6 polymer clay disk beads from Humblebeads.
Alice
December 5, 2010 at 3:03 amHeather, I absolutely adore the little bowls filled with moss as a display! I'm totally stealing that idea!!!
Our house sits on a corner of two gravel roads and dust is a constant irratant. I can't leave anything out in the open, including beads. I keep them in clear plastic tackle boxes sorted by color and/or metal type. I just love that they are stackable and can be moved at a moments notice, since my studio doubles as our dining room–or maybe its the other way around.
Gorgeous beads!
rockcreekcreations
December 5, 2010 at 3:57 amI have to/love to use the little 1.5 x 3" storage boxes that close and lock shut. Have to because of my 3.5yo will crawl on my lap while beading and thse close quickly and easily. and they are long enough to hold my needle.
For My Sweet Daughter
December 5, 2010 at 4:02 amI have the standard plastic bead/floss storage trays organized by color. For my Swarovski's I have these clear trays with jars with lids. For my Art beads I use an old printers drawer. I have several projects going at a time all laid out on tiny bead mats on my beading table or should I say Kitchen Island. Thank God we don't have company!
Shannon C
Linda Starr
December 5, 2010 at 4:26 amThose moss bowls are beautiful the beads look like precious jewels growing in them.
I use those plastic bins with all the dividers, can't leave them out otherwise my cats would have a hayday with them.
Linda
December 5, 2010 at 4:46 amThe little bowls is a great idea! Also like the idea of clear plastic tackle boxes!!
Heather Powers
December 5, 2010 at 6:31 amI love those plastic floss containers too. I have beads sorted by color or materials. I used a sharpie to label the sides of them so I can find them quickly when they are stacked on my shelves.
rosebud101
December 5, 2010 at 11:58 amI use tackle box compartments. They really work well.
EB Bead and Metal Works
December 5, 2010 at 1:19 pmI love the bowls that you use for double duty – display and work. Mom and I use the standard plastic containers with multiple slots to put our beads. When we work we use the baking trays you get for a dollar at the Dollar Store and then put down a mat inside. You can stack the trays for storage while you are working on something else. Very handy.
Kristi Bowman
December 5, 2010 at 2:06 pmLove storage, almost as fun as beads! Mine is still evolving so I have lots of different stuff going on. I have a number of different sizes of those stackable storage units with different size drawers from the really small to quite a bit larger.
I also have printer drawers and a cabinet but haven't used those much yet, still getting them cleaned up. But I do sometimes go around to all my various drawers and pull out beads that I think will go with a particular idea and fill half a printer drawer so they are all out there in front of me so I can see how they play together.
Higgins Design Studio
December 5, 2010 at 2:17 pmI have sliding top boxes from ArtBin that are crystal clear so I can see everything nicely. For headpins I have crystal clear hinged lid boxes from ArtBin that have 6 sections to keep sizes & finishes separate.
Your display is beautiful!
Diana P.
December 5, 2010 at 2:52 pmSince my studio is in an antiques district the dealers bring me printers cabinet trays all the time. I have quite the collection of them in various sizes.
balanced.
December 5, 2010 at 4:39 pmThis might sound strange, but aside from my usual plastic organisers, I also keep (after cleaning, of course) old jelly belly boxes. The kind that are large for assortments. They work really great when working with many different seed beads.
KeRobinson
December 5, 2010 at 4:56 pmOooohhh! I love all the little bowls of beads! My bead collection is just starting to grow, so currently, I like the clear plastic divider boxes (easy to stack in carrying cases)…and I have the 18×18" fishing tackle one for store bought beads so I can run my hands all around the little bags…. 4 now, I just like looking at the beads!
Love that owl bead and snowflake! 🙂
Anne Yang
December 5, 2010 at 5:45 pmMy storage secret for beads and miscellaneous jewelry tools are the storage benches we use as the window seat in our family room, which is also the room I use for my jewelry making. It works out quite well, since no one can see all the supplies I have hidden in the benches!
maneki
December 5, 2010 at 6:24 pmThose moss bowl look lovely — what a great idea!
I keep most of my beads in a couple of Raaco Handy Boxes. Like how the inner boxes/containers are moveable, which makes the storage very "adaptable" and you can take out the little boxes as well as one whole "drawer" if you don't want to take the whole thing with you. And secure as each "drawer" is a tool box in its own with a safe clear plastic lid and handle for transportation.
I do keep beads for current projects in little bowls and open tins, but I tend to keep them in the bead room only as the cats are too curious for the bowls to be safe in any other room where I keep my beads. There, it's safe to keep the project beads in zip bags or organza pouches…
My sis don't own as much beads as I do. When there was a sale on Gütermann beads, she bought a bunch of them, as usual sold in plastic tubes. Now she keeps them in a cat/dog bowl.
I like my storage solutions, but I do wish I could find a better way to store my seed beads — they're overflowing! And I have so many different containers since different shops use different systems: zip-lock bags, flip-top boxes or tubes.
Elizabeth
December 5, 2010 at 6:25 pmAs for storage, I went to Lowes and bought some nuts and bolts storage containers with little drawers that are upright. My plan (a year ago, ahem) was to hang them on the wall. That is still my plan.
For my beading I like working on a clean dishcloth. They roll up well and the beads stay put when open.
I love your square bowls though, very cute.
Erin S
December 5, 2010 at 7:43 pmI buy the plastic storage boxes with removable dividers from harbor freight, which seem to work well for both big and small items.
Erin S
Brandi
December 5, 2010 at 8:38 pmI had to chuckle when I saw this post today, because I'm a little obsessed with Target's little white bowls! I use them all the time – for my photos and for projects.
Beyond that, each set of beads goes into plastic baggies, then into drawers. It's not elegant, but it works for me!
Kinderhook
December 5, 2010 at 9:26 pmI bought from bestcraftstorage.com a cabinet (not very big) that has 10 1-inch drawers and 3 2-inch drawers. You can get any configuration you want but I thought this would work best for me (and it does). They were great and I LOVE this little cabinet w/ bead drawers by color or drawers for findings. Great! –SallyA
Sabine
December 5, 2010 at 11:37 pmI use bowls, too, on my desk to hold projects. They are all shapes and sizes so they don't stack, but that is fine. I would lose track of what I had if they did. I also have a great heavy slide cabinet that has deep drawers. I cleared out the dividers to hold the slides and they now hold tools and bead tubes. It is massively heavy, so I hate moving it, but it is indispensable.
Ann
mycriticaleye.com
Holly
December 6, 2010 at 3:15 amWell, let's see….my beads are stored by color in the ubiquitous bead storage containers/tackle box inserts that so many seem to use. My wire is kept in plastic baggies, and then placed in a hanging file folder with type of wire & gauge written on it. My metal is piled up next to my bench block & anvil, not organized in any fashion. My soldering stuff is in a small plastic container with drawers. My "current projects" and bead soup containers are actually dim sum bowls, placed on a shelf in my work area/office. Those same dim sum bowls double as candy holders and card holders when needed at shows too! Multi-tasking is important 😉
CreekHiker / HollysFolly
December 6, 2010 at 4:39 amI bead in lunch trays like from a school cafeteria. it allows me to sort several elements and yet still see them all together. The trays are atavistic too. If I want to take a project with me, I cover the tray with press and seal plastic wrap and place it in an oversize purse
Anonymous
December 6, 2010 at 5:31 amI just got some clear tackle boxes to handle my new bead collection but love those little bowls for current products!
Megan V
Deborah
December 6, 2010 at 5:34 amRemovable styrofoam w/moss – such a NIFTY idea to use those darling bowls as display!
I have SO MANY beads and components – SO MANY different storage systems, too!
My favorites are the types of cabinets with numerous sizes of tilt-out drawers/bins in clear plastic. They're often used in hardware stores and they're very efficient for organizing and seeing different categories of beads and components.
In my studio, Swarovski takes up one whole cabinet – different colors/finishes of bicones, rounds, rondelles, squaredelles, etc., are organized by sizes first.
Examples: 2 small drawers contain all 4mm bicones (inside each drawer, they're clear-bagged & sorted by color/finish). It takes another 6 drawers to organize the roundelles (3 are silver-plate – in different sizes, 3 are gold-plate in different sizes).
I've also got a similar set-up for findings in another cabinet. The top row across of drawers is earwires, organized by metal. Going down the cabinet are horizontal rows dedicated to other findings, organized by metal, also. It works out well to have the rows across dedicated to one type of finding, the rows down dedicated to one metal.
Sounds confusing, but it's kind of like a crossword puzzle. Imagine that the 3rd drawer, top row across, is gunmetal earwires. That means that all gunmetal components (headpins, eyepins, clasps, etc.) are lined up under that same drawer – the 3rd drawer of every row across is gunmetal.
If sterling earwires are the 1st drawer, top row across, every 1st drawer going down the cabinet is going to be other sterling components.
I've found that this has speeded up my jewelry-making quite a bit. It's SO EFFICIENT AND FAST to grab matching components when they're all lined up in one row like this.
I discovered that it also speeded up my mixed-metal pieces.
Thanks SO much for this giveaway!
Linda Landig
December 6, 2010 at 6:23 amI have a few types of oragnizing going on in my studio. I have my art beads stored in a gorgeous armoir that I found at a garage sale for only $35!!! The rest of my beads are in Ikea wooden box drawer units that I assembled. They are mostly oraginzed by color. But I also have drawers for sterling silver findings, clasps, etc, crystals, and pearls. of all colors. I labled the drawers using one of those label makers.
My Life Under the Bus
December 6, 2010 at 1:41 pmLove those bowls! DOn't laugh but I love working on top of my kids old puzzle boards. They had a bunch of wooden puzzles the consignment shop wouldn't take. I then realized once you remove the puzzle there was a pretty awesome tray with a low lip surrounding it! I can work on various trays at the same time and the beads don't roll off the sides! : ) Thanks for showing the table set up – it looks great!
Janea aka Naya
December 6, 2010 at 5:29 pmAll of my beads are in frosted boxes that have smaller 1"x1", 2"x2"x1/2" and 2 larger 6"x3"x1" clear boxes inside to separate (they are NOT the tic tac style box, the lid is hinged and opens up completely). The little boxes lift out, so I will just go and grab the boxes that I need and place them in front of me. If I have a project I am working on (or several as is usually the case) I have these separated by these really cute lipped coasters with a Parisian theme. They are cream with black so that it's not distracting. I love my boxes so much, I have one for each color of beads and one for each type of metal for my findings. They can be found at Walmart or Target for under $10.00 for the box of boxes.
Heather Powers
December 6, 2010 at 8:24 pmWow, you guys are so creative when it comes to working with those beads and finding a place for them!
I love the puzzle organizers – great way to upcycle, beading and being green – very cool!
A special armoire for art beads, Linda are you trying to melt my heart?
Maneki – my mom has these bead tower things for seed beads and she loves them. Stores those tubes very nicely, easy to find and you can fit quite a bit in them and they travel well! http://noeasybeads.blogspot.com/2010/02/bead-tube-tower.html
quiltingjewel39
December 6, 2010 at 9:45 pmI love your display and the double duty use for the white bowls. I love little bowls!! I have stackables – really for scrapbook paper but work well for me now. I have them sorted by color and metal. Wire is in plastic bags labeled with gauge and type. Art beeds are in a small seperate drawer cabinet.
Imaginative Jewelry
December 7, 2010 at 2:39 pmI am pretty conservative when it comes to storage. I use the plastic jewelry boxes. Thanks for sharing. I love your work!
Susan
December 7, 2010 at 9:38 pmI use the nuts and bolts plastic drawer units sold in the hardware department. They work great and are stackable!
When I have projects sitting out, I like to toss them in small empty glass candle jars.
I love the white bowls with the "moss" on top! Fun and cute!
sundownbeaddesigns
December 9, 2010 at 12:53 amYou gals have some really creative ideas for storage! My beads are a tangled mess! They are organized chaos in drawers. Thanks for all the great ideas!
Rebecca Noel
May 31, 2012 at 7:40 pmI have a great cabinet called the Alex drawers from Ikea. It is the tall one with 9 skinny drawers. Inside, I have a lot of ways I organize, but one favorite that I use for jump rings is something like a Sun-Sat pill organizer with a little lock that you have to push in to open each compartment.