Organizing Beads and Embellishments
April 19, 2009 by Mary Emma Allen
Filed under Home & Living
How do you organize your beads and buttons for your artwork so you can find them easily? Do you have great organization? Or are yours scattered here and there in containers, in drawers, and on shelves?
Image:sxc.hu
What’s a good way to organize?
- By size
- By color
- By color and size
- By design
- By artist
- By era
My daughter has separated the small beads she uses for her embellishing into containers. They are organized by color, then by size and design. She puts these into small clear plastic containers she can see through. Then she stores the smaller ones into a larger clear plastic box. Thus they’re easy to find and grab.
I purchased some slightly larger beads. They came in a clear plastic container with dividers. Within each compartment, the beads were separated according to color and shape. So they’re easy to see and grab. However, I do have to be careful they don’t tip over and the cover comes open!
Some artists with many more beads and buttons and embellishments than Beth and I, organize theirs in several drawers or compartments in a rolling organizer.
What method works for you?
When I first started, we didnt have a lot of spare money so buying a lot of new containers was out of the question. We were on the Atkins diet at the time so we ate a lot of eggs. I had a ton of the two dozen egg containers laying around and it turns out to be the perfect containers. I arranged each tray color. They stacked on top of each other easily so it helped out with space. When I took a class at the college and needed to transport my stuff, I borrowed my sons tackle bag which had 3 lure storage trays. Those worked great also. We have moved several times and each time I put cotton balls to fill the gaps and then wrap the whole thing with saran wrap. A few beads sneak out but everything is mostly in tact and organized each time we unpack.
How do I organize? I am crazy almost OCD… I have one large container with dividers for odds and ends (since I do altered art) then bins with my mix of electronics and special parts to make my altered clocks.
Then I have seed beads in zipper lock bags, by color, and then the larger beads that I re-use from other jewelry I separate by size, and then color.
I have a bead station, where the small drawers of an organizer have all the baggies of seed beads, and then shoe box size plastic boxes hold the baggies of LARGE re-cycled beads are stacked beside it.
I also have a beading tray, and a beading purse.. where I carry my beading around and sneek in some bead work when it is slow at work… ssshhhhh….
Thank you, Shawnery and Debe, for sharing with us your methods of organizing your beads and craft embellishments. You also have a great many inexpensive methods which people are looking for today.