More Beads Than You Will Ever Use … What To Do With Your Bead Stash
Posted by learntobead on April 21, 2020
Your Unused Bead Stash
You usually have to buy more beads than you will use for any particular project. It’s infrequent that you can buy one bead at a time. So you have lots of little bits of little things left over.
Having a little of a lot of different beads might be disconcerting to some. “It’s gotten to the point,” Neva admitted, “where I’m running out of people to give gifts to … to justify my bead stash.” However, for Neva, as well as others, this stash of beads should be seen and treated as treasure. It’s not a burden. It should open up new possibilities for you as you think through new projects and designs.
Your stash can be used in fringes or as embellishment. You can use it to finish off the edges in your pieces. You can use these as spacer beads in bead stringing projects.
You can organize bead swaps with your friends, and trade off part of your stash for that of another’s.
I was so determined to create a project for using up my bead stash, that I even developed a graphic embroidery pattern to assist me. Since I was somewhat new to bead embroidery, this was an accomplishment in and of itself. In my stash, I had a little of everything — 11/0’s, 15/0’s, drops, bugles. But not enough of any one color to make a project with them. I thought and thought and thought what to do.
The result: Hapua Reef Cuff. I laid out a graphic pattern, and colored in each section with beads. And used very few beads of many, many colors. And used up part of my bead stash.
Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:
Best Way To Thread Your Needle
Bead Stringing With Needle and Thread
Turning Silver and Copper Metals Black: Some Oxidizing Techniques
Color Blending; A Management Approach
Cleaning Sterling Silver Jewelry: What Works!
What Glue Should I Use When Making Jewelry?
When Choosing Colors Has You Down, Check Out The Magic Of Simultaneity Effects
When Your Cord Doesn’t Come With A Needle…What You Can Do
What To Know About Gluing Rhinestones
Know Your Anatomy Of A Necklace
How Does The Jewelry Designer Make Asymmetry Work?
How To Design An Ugly Necklace: The Ultimate Designer Challenge
I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.
Also, check out my website (www.warrenfeldjewelry.com).
Subscribe to my Learn To Bead blog (https://blog.landofodds.com).
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Hapua Reef Cuff Bracelet is available as a kit with instructions on the Land of Odds web-site.
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