Busy Busy Beads!

 I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been posting much lately... I don't know if you recall but I love to make jewelry. Over the last year I have bought a couple lots of beads and stuff off of Ebay/Marketplace which I just piled in my room and basically ignored. 

Well recently I bought 2 additional lots of lovely beads very close to home and decided that the pile of beads was getting dangerously tall threatening to crush me under an avalanche of organizers. I have been putting off incorporating them into my stash because I have a touch of OCD about things like that.... I DO NOT like colors to be mixed up - that goes for my paper crafts, stamping AND beads!! It drives me crazy when I find a red bead mixed in with blue beads, no pearls in with glass beads, and crystals have to be in their own place.

I decided that now was the time to sort it all out before I can buy any more beads (talk about motivation!!). So several weeks ago I began the daunting task. 

I am working with every single box, bag, envelope and organizer full of beads - sorting them by color and then by bead shape/type and incorporating them into my own organizers. 

It's been slow going because most people aren't as particular about how they store their beads as I am. I have realized I must be odd because when I finish a beading project I put the extras back into their individual containers where they came from. The lots I have bought it looks like other people just take what's left over and dump it into a new square in their organizers or into a general "extras" box all mixed together. I can't describe how I feel about that - it makes me almost frantic to sort it out and get things organized as quickly as possible. When I begin something like this it becomes an obsession to make it right. 

So I have wading through box after box of beads trying to get it all sorted. I work on it for hours a day and have probably touched almost every bead in the stacks. Above are some of my sorted bead boxes. It kind of bugs me that the boxes don't all match but $'s dictate that I have to use the organizers I have. Luckily with what I already have and what came with the new beads I have enough. 

This is what I'm aiming for....THIS makes my heart happy!!! I love being able to go to a container and pick out exactly what I need without having to sort through box after box after box trying to find what I want. I use diamond bead containers for smaller beads or beads that I only have a few of (top 2 rows) there are small squares and larger square containers and a really cool box with a snap (top row on the right). I wish I could find more of those containers. They are great for larger qty of a particular bead. I've searched and searched but can't find anything similar to them. 

Anyway, as I mentioned it becomes an obsession once I get started. That's why I haven't been sharing much of my creative endeavors...I've been sorting bead after bead after bead.

Once I get this project finished I promise I will share the results and then I can comfortably start crafting again. I am almost finished with the beads....then on to the findings! 

Aside from stamping do you have another craft that you love?