Workbench Wednesday...

This week I decided to show you one of my actual work areas and what is on it this week.

This is the table next to my spot on the couch.

There's my laptop, my newish wooden unit and the looped beads I have been playing with.

I bought a one step looper, which I love.

I can make my own beaded chains easily.

I made some into chains.

Others are just the beads with the loops on each end, ready to be bulit into designs.

I apologize for the photo quality. 

 It is rather dim and the lighting is not ideal for photography.

The looper is pretty versatile.

I tried seed beads and larger glass beads to play around with it.

 These are not the tiny seed beads.

They are the "E" size.

The glass beads are from one of those glass budget bead containers.

I love those for the variety.

Here are the loopers.

They are supposed to work for wire 18- 24 guage.  

I used 20 gauge.

I wanted to share my new organizer as well.

It holds essentials and some other fun goodies.

I recently splurged and bought some silk strips so the colors are arranged in the top slots.

I have some of my specialty pliers in their own slots.

My tag punch is where I can find it.

And those little glass jars have hand forged steel findings.

I spent Sunday morning hammering them so I could fill all the little jars.

Kleenex, sewing supplies and chocolate are essentials.

There is always a magazine from Stampington in that slot.

Next to the wooden organizer is a little basket with some pliers and clippers.

Behind it, is a poster my daughter bought for me when we went to Lucketts this spring.

It was a great day.

So that is what is new on the workbench this week.

What are you up to?

Thanks for stopping by....

Linking up with these great blogs.

The GREAT BEAD ORGANIZATION PROJECT

This spring I decided I wanted to redo my garage studio.  

I wanted to move some of my storage pieces around to better utilize my space.

I did a lot of thinking and planning.

Then I told my husband.

He suggested going and getting new shelves to better utilize the space.

We measured and researched options.

Then we went and bought some heavy wire shelves.  

I will show you where we put those later but for now I want to show you my bead shelf.

This is the area before.

I had a lot of this and that piled and stacked.

When we got the new shelves, an old shelf I already had fit perfectly in this spot.

So I cleaned out the old space and moved this shelf over.

I also moved an upper cabinet over.

This is still during the moving process.

This is after.

Tah-Dah!

I love that everything is here in one place for making jewelry.

On the top are all my jewelry books and magazines.

I sorted them all and only kept the ones I use.

The three bins on the top of the wire shelf are my husband's idea.

Those are my holding bins. 

 When I buy new supplies or bring something out and don't have time to put it away, I put it in one of the bins.  

When the bins are full, it is time to sort.

Time to sort....

My drying racks are ready to go and I finally sorted out the trays that fit on the taller skinnier one.

I keep projects I am working on on these trays as well.

In the upper cabinets, under the books, I have bins holding wires, elastic, jute, seed bead tubes, etc.

The bins are easy to stack and remove.

The holding bins are full...better get on that.

Under them are larger bins of bangles, bracelets and headbands sorted by materials.

Then there are the beads.

It took me a week to organize the beads.

My old method involved putting them into these little compartment boxes by when I bought them. 

That is a horrible method for trying to find anything.

So I sorted out every single box and reorganized by color and type.

Types include things like wooden, metals, pearls, whimsical, vintage, and handmade components.

I also have many boxes of hardware goodies like nuts, washers and such.

My label maker got quite a workout.

I love my label maker.

There are some empty boxes for future finds. 

 I have a bunch of stuff in the studio that will go in these too.

I also really loaded each box by combining lots of bead types into each compartment.

I realize that would make some people crazy but it utilizes the boxes so much better for me.

On the side of the shelf are all my chains and necklaces.

These are sorted as well by finish and length.

It makes finding a chain so much easier than my old system which also went by when things were purchased.

I buy chains at yard sales, thrift stores and the mall when they are deeply discounted.

Many of them I will distress and completely change the finish.

Necklaces with beads and dangles get disassembled so I can use them in a different way.

So, this is the GREAT BEAD ORGANIZATION PROJECT.

The capitalization of the project helps to show the magnitude of it.

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these great blogs.

Workbench Wednesday...It Has Been A Long Time...

It has been a very long time since I have done a Workbench Wednesday...

Not because I have not been creating.

I have.

I just have quite a mess going on in my studio this time of year.

Today I wanted to share some of the process of bead making.

First I hand-form my beads and components from Sculpey polymer clay.

Then I cook them in my toaster oven.

Next is the adding color process. 

Sometimes I use dyes.

Sometimes I use paints.

These were dyed.

I did not have any photos of the finishing processes.

There is a lot of steps and layers to the final steps.

Once the beads are done, I keep them in various containers.

First they go in a can or plastic container.

Next I sort them into my printer's trays and shadow boxes.

I started putting them there in the spring last year.

They sit on my dining room table most of the time.

I find just looking at them makes me so happy.

I am known to be a bead hoarder.

I love pretty ones but if I allow myself to actually buy them, I am afraid to use them.

Now that I am making my own beads, I am much better about this.

I know if I use them up, I can just make more.

I am a texture girl.

How about you?  

Do you love color or texture?

I also love beads that are special in some way.

I like to incorporate cool embedded items, new bales, shimmery colors.

I find that when I look at other people's work, I am fascinated by how they made it.

I want to try to get the same look.

I also like to play around while I am working to see what happens.

I am 1 part scientist and the rest artist...

Maybe all artists are more scientific than they think.

Thanks for stopping by...

Linking up with these blogs.

A Review...DecoArt Chalky Finish Paints...

This post was originally slated for this summer but never made it out of the draft folder.

I love these paints though and wanted to share the post with you today.

I am a DecoArt Helping Artist.

I have used DecoArt paints for about 20 years.

I have always thought they were the best quality, consistency, and pigment at a reasonable price.

This summer I ordered some of the Chalky Finish paints to try them out.

My experience prior to that with chalky finish paints were with those I mixed myself.

And while I love my homemade chalk paints, this was different.

These are so creamy.

I ended up painting everything on my workbench that could use a little paint.

These hat boxes have been in every craft room I had for the last 20 years.

This summer when I was cleaning the studio, I almost got rid of them because I was tired of the floral design.

I brushed 2 coats of Chalky Finish paints on them and now I am in love with them again.

Even the first coat has great coverage.

Now my buttons have a happy new place to hang out.

And I like that you can still see the old pattern inside.

I painted  them in different colors.

While I was waiting for each coat to dry, I looked around the workbench and saw the pretzel container of bottle brush trees.

Usually I just turn the label to the back so I can't see it, but there was still paint on the paint brush, so I gave the label a few coats.

Then I did my other one too...

Hmmmm...

How about those little peat pots...

 I showed you how they turned out, but here is where they got started...

This jewelry box was originally headed for the thrift store.

I bought several jewelry boxes full of jewelry this summer at my favorite flea market.

While my brush was still loaded with paint, I decided to give it a chalky makeover.

I love the new pale chalky pink.

I left the inside with the original colors and pattern.

With it's new chlky finish, it is cute enough to be a keeper...

I strongly recommend these paint if you have not tried them yet.

They have a great consistency, super coverage and a great array of colors.

Thanks for stopping by...