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Tuesday 3 February 2009

spring (stash) clean

after I bought a few more packets of mixed beads at our spinner's meeting on saturday, I decided to start my spring cleaning by sorting through my bead stash. I know I should have tackled the larger fibrey and yarney bits first, but somehow I felt like digging around at my leasure and the nice colourful beads looked so appealing! I do like the mixed bags I bought from Suzie, because even though each comes in one colour group, there are lots of sizes, shapes and shades in each bag. apart from yellow and orange (I like those colours in nature, but not necessarily in textiles, at least of the wearable kind that I mostly produce) I have all colours covered now - and I couldn't resist showing my new way of storing them. a while back I found "boards" (shrink wrapped layers) of small glass containers at the creative resource center - I think they are used in laboratories and hospitals for samples of some kind - but of course they were brand new - and I even found rubber stoppers that sit nice and snug. they could be slightly larger, but I took plenty of them, so I was able to fill a second one if one wasn't enough for each kind of bead.
when I had finished repacking all of them - I had a small army of grey-capped soldiers in front of me:
should I send this pic to one of those shows where participants are asked to identify an object shown in a photo?:))
this one shows a bit of the contents too, sorted into main colour groups. given that I am not usually a jewelry maker or someone who uses beads very regularly on all kinds of projects - I think this stash is large enough now! I did collect a mix of them for my harmonia's rings - which I am going to attach to the cast-off border tonight! I hope this is a good enough reason (or excuse?:)) why I just had to buy a few more beads - the other colours didn't fit the yarn well enough:))
back to a slightly more conservative way of (spring) cleaning - even though that's far less fun....

4 comments:

Kim said...

I too only use beads rather secondarily, and I am quite envious of your stash! Yours makes mine look very small indeed... thank you! Now for the fibery yarny things, and fabric, I am definately in the running for the mostest!

Julie said...

Thats alot of beads!

Leigh said...

I absolutely love the look of all those little bead jars! I love beads but rarely use them. But I keep them around just in case I need them.

Woolly Bits said...

Leigh, I am pretty much the same. I store all the beads in a box and put it away - and usually it only comes as an afterthought that I could have used a few beads in the finishing of a project... but I am trying to change this:)) and if you live "at the end of the world" - without textile craft shops, a nice stash is excusable (or so I hope...)
Kim - I read in your blog about silks and linings and organza - and I don't have a lot of those. maybe that makes up for more beads?:))