Tidying up

In preparation for teaching next month, I made some mandala-style earrings, but I plan on teaching other seed bead crafting techniques as well. The round earrings and the fringed woven earrings both can be made with flexible wire needles, which I have in spades, but I cannot find my “sharps,” the stiff, extremely sharp needles that are thin enough to fit into seed beads but sturdy enough to sew into leather. Last night, I sorted through as much of my bead stuff as I possibly could to see whether I could unearth them (I bought at least one full package when I started making seed bead jewelry, and even accounting for breaking and losing them, I should have several left!). No luck on the package, but I found four or so scattered through the various bags and containers of planned or half-finished projects that have accumulated over the years. As much as it makes me cringe to reveal the craziness in my craft room, for the sake of journalistic integrity, here’s what it looks like when I take out most of my beads and rearrange them:

I sat on my little milk crate with some podcasts playing, going through the dregs of my bead collection to consolidate what I could. I really do have much of my materials organized, but there are a few boxes/bags/tins/Tupperware containers of jumbled things that either never got organized or were used briefly and then didn’t get put away. I found many “finished projects with issues” (things I made when I was just a baby crafter that used really lovely materials in what I would now classify as an irresponsible way) and unfinished projects that ran out of materials or steam. I took apart a few, and sorted out a fair number of beads that I haven’t seen in a decade or so- I have a LOT of beads. Working in a bead store on and off for a couple years certainly didn’t help with this. An employee discount is a dangerous thing!