Planned Chaos #1

This blog records my process of creating art jewelry, with adventures, examples, and techniques! Click on the image to enlarge.

Here is my bead table. I do all my work on a space roughly 5 feet by 3 feet, and believe it or not, it works. (This is because I already have an office for my web design business and the bead table must be relegated to a corner of that!)

It's sort of a mess, but that's the way beading is. You'll never see some of the most amazing combinations unless you mix up the beads a little. That said, you have to have some idea of where everything is stored, or you'll go mad.

I have a tool rack (salt/pepper/napkin caddy) to the left, out of the picture, but I do try to keep the tools I'm working with to the right, as I'm right-handed. That way I know they're there.

I have melamine containers and silicone mini-cupcake cups (you can see an orange one holding my wire scraps at the right) to catch odds and ends – at the end of the session most of this stuff ends up returned to the craft bins along the back of my table.

My most ingenious find was these colorful CD trays and they're great for controlling your wire. I was going bonkers trying to use plastic bags, because the wire kept poking out. Even if you're in a hurry, you can just sort of coil it up and shut the lid quick!

For some reason, it works for me that the steel bench block just sits in the lower left of the tray. Dunno why. But I've gotten used to it there.

I really love having a tray on the table. That way, if I want to bead while watching TV, or watching TV in the kitchen, or sitting with a bead buddy (CGail Designs) at the dining room table, I can take the project there.

What is that shelf, you ask? In the back sits an adjustable bathroom shelf I originally got for the bathroom sink which has a very small vanity. It didn't fit there, so it finally ended up here, holding some of my bead bins. It's nice not to have to take down a whole pile of bins to get at one on the bottom.

Come back for Planned Chaos II, and I'll show you my Ongoing Projects Box and my Take Along Bags.

To see my completed pieces, visit my Web Site or my Etsy Shop.