The Bead Spot

Yay! I received my order from Fusion Beads in the mail yesterday. I now have plenty of size D thread, some beads in pink hues for my children's bracelets, some blue beads and some size 15 black beads (far right) for a fringe on a bracelet I have in mind. I also got a notice that the Fusion Beads website (should debut tomorrow) was being revamped and a coupon code for 10 percent off my next order from the new site. I'm curious to see what changes will be made. I haven't had much time for beading over the past couple of days, but I should be able to make some headway on the herringbone bracelet during my lunch break at work today.

I saw an ad for a site called Tophatter while I was online yesterday. It caught my attention because it mentioned auctions for craft supplies. So I followed the link and registered to see what it's about. I expected something similar to eBay, but it isn't because the auctions are live. It has more than just supplies, too. It has some finished work, such as knitted headbands, bracelets, earrings, handbags, rings, etc. I'm not sure everything on the site is handmade, like on Etsy , but I do think it's kind of interesting. It might be a better place for winnowing down some of my bead stash.

When I first became a beader, all of my supplies fit in a shoe box. Since then, it's grown to fill 10 drawers of varying sizes. My husband and I have been considering the space available within our tiny home lately as our daughter grows. He's been selling off some of his collection of comic books, and following his example, I've been thinking lately about selling some of my extra beads, too. Now that I've spent a little time working on my Etsy shop, I've been thinking some about listing some of the extra beads, findings and other stuff there, but I'm just not sure how I'd like to package them for sale. By color? By style? It would be nice to be able to compact my beading supplies into fewer drawers; I'm just not sure if I can part with enough to make a difference.

For any beaders, myself included, who love to look at bead books but can't afford to buy them, here is a little tip. Many public libraries participate in interlibrary loan, a program through which patrons have access to books that their local library might not carry. I'm not sure how many people are aware of that service; until I worked in libraries myself in my 20s, I had no idea the program existed. My husband didn't know it existed until he met me and I told him about it, and it's really come in handy for both of us because our local library is small, has a rather dated selection of craft books and doesn't get new books in very often. If there's a bead book (or a book on any other topic in which you have an interest) that your local library doesn't have, it's worth the time to ask the staff if you can get it through interlibrary loan. I've worked in three different libraries, all of which offered the service and none of them charged for it...

When I first started beading, I used wider needles than I do now. Quite often, the string I had would work just fine until I had to pass the string through a bead a second time or third time. The thick string I had in combination with the thickness of the needle would just kind of get the bead stuck right at the eye. Since then, I've become a big fan of wide-eye needles (example here ) and have amassed quite a pile of thin string in sizes 00, 0 and B. Well, since the time I bought all of that string, I've found that yes, it passes through the thinnest of barrels quite nicely, but it isn't very strong. I started to notice that most seed-bead projects in Bead & Button and other magazines I've purchased recommend D-size thread. I have a few spools of that, but the 00, 0 and B sizes far outnumber the D. Just last night, I got a little tired of making several extra passes through a bead with the thin threads to make up for their lack of strength and I put in an ord...

As I mentioned in Friday's post , quite a few ideas for future projects have come to me lately. I think it's because I've been working on things a lot more often lately. It's almost like a dam breaks sometimes. The hard thing now is figuring out what I work on next. Because I was in the middle of my green bracelet  when I started thinking of other projects, it's been hard to stay on course. I've started a second green bracelet already to try out one of the ideas I have, and I've been fighting the urge to start on a black one to see if my idea will work. I know I better enjoy the flood of ideas while it lasts. All too quickly, it passes and I'm left scrounging for ideas again.

"Designer Beadwork: Beaded Crochet Designs" by Ann Benson The baby sitter my siblings and I had when I was about 8 years old spent a lot of time watching prime time soap operas such as "Dallas" (the original) while she crocheted blanket after blanket. Sometimes, she'd switch it up and work on a doily instead, but for the most part, she made blankets. I don't know where she put them all. To keep my older sister and I occupied, they gave each of us about half a skein of yarn and showed us how to crochet, too. We'd make mini-blankets and unravel them only to start all over again. I never learned to do anything more than a basic stitch, but that's all I need to know how to do to make the beautiful necklaces, bracelets, etc., in this book. I like that author Benson explains how to incorporate patterns into what you're creating, too. This book is well worth the money for anyone who has an interest in both crocheting and beading.