Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Beautiful Beads

 Welcome to Day Two of  The A to Z Blogging Challenge! Today's post focuses on something that starts with B!

 As a crafter, one of my biggest passions is for making jewelry. And you know what you can make a lot of jewelry out of? That's right, beads! Beautiful beads, and there are so many different ones to choose from!  

I have been actively making jewelry as gifts and to sell for my business for five years now, and I used to make jewelry long before that. Some of the beads in my collection I've had since I was 13 or 14 years old, and some since I was maybe 8 or 9! I have made a lot of jewelry in those years, but I still have a LOT of beads to work with.

My beads are all in containers on shelves above a tv, since we moved to Virginia I have had to get creative with storage.
Yes, those are all mostly full, and they're all mine! My precious precious beads. Want to take a peek at what's inside?



Two of those cases have some of my jumprings as well, for making chainmaille jewelry, but those don't start with B! My cases are various styles and sizes from buying them at different times, and the small ones are great for taking along for mobile crafting. Below is my 'mobile crafting unit', a plastic shoebox full of jewelry making supplies, and lots of beads! Great for long car rides, especially moving from the Midwest to the East Coast, y'know?
So many beads I have great ideas for, and some I haven't thought of ideas for yet, just waiting for it to happen. But I only have so much time to work with! I still have a lot of green beads, intended for St. Patrick's Day jewelry, but I didn't make those again this year. I hear Emerald is a big color for the year though!
Here are a few special beads - I just love the crystalline briolettes in the top left, and the rainbow iridescent cubes and rondelles and hemetite hearts and stars below. Then on the right I have a lot of Swarovski crystal bicone beads, for birthstone jewelry and other pretties.

And just in case you were wondering, yes I am crazy enough to let my three year old have her own beads too!

There's a full alphabet in there, though she has mixed it up a little...

Do you like beads too? What are your favorite kinds? Join me tomorrow for C! (Hopefully I'll get the post up earlier on day 3...)

And if you want to see some of the stuff I make with beads, head over to my etsy shop, there's a button on the right for it ;) And my facebook page has more photos of things I have made not currently available.

6 comments:

  1. Hello from a fellow bead lover! Karin of BellasBeadHabit on Etsy :)

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  2. My my that's a lot of beads! I wish I knew how to make jewelry too, I like them a lot as well.

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    1. Making jewelry is a lot of fun! You could try with just a few beads from a craft store, I even have two simple necklace make-it-yourself guides I might share later from mom group crafts =)

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  3. Holy smokes that's a lot of beads!

    Kudos to you for seeing the potential in all these shapes and colors. I think after the first few, I'd be remaking the same things time and again.

    Nicely done!

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    1. I do sometimes come up with a favorite design, then remake it with different colors =) But I do some jewelry designs once only. So many ideas! Thanks for visiting!

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