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Posts Tagged ‘Work Space’

You Can Never Have Enough Containers For Your Stuff

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Containers, Or How To Keep Things Organized

It’s hard to contain a beader’s or craft person’s delight for containers.

Boxes. Boxes with lids. Boxes with drawers. Boxes with neatly inset boxes with lids and drawers. Boxes on wheels. Boxes on wheels that fit neatly into the limited space between two cabinets. Boxes that rotate. And boxes that levitate.

There are at least three challenges that every beader faces.

First is finding the best container.

Second is deciding how to organize your beads and craft supplies and tools and all your containers. And if you keep notes and sketches, how to keep these organized and accessible, as well.

Third is labeling and keeping track of everything.

Containers are everywhere. Bead stores have some good ones, but you find the best ones at hardware stores (tool boxes) and tackle stores (fishing boxes) and kitchen and bath stores (organizers).

There are many things which make good containers. These include egg boxes, muffin pans, deviled egg trays, cosmetic cases, containers and accessories for lipsticks, nail polishes and brushes, contact lens cases, and tic-tac mint boxes. Better containers are things you can see through.

It is not uncommon for beaders and crafters to completely re-organize a previously well-organized bead or craft work set up, upon finding new and different containers for organizing beads.

Containers, you see, are just another excuse for handling beads and crafts. And while making a necklace or beading a doll requires exercising the creative mind in very taxing ways, containers and their re-organizing are less so.

Susan found her Ultimate Beading-2000 container set-up at Lowes. It was a large multi-drawer tool cabinet made from red plastic. It had a top that lifted up. It had a pull out work-shelf. And it had drawer after drawer after drawer, each dividable with adjustable section-dividers into 1”x3” spaces — Perfect. The unit even had wheels. She thought to herself, she could easily bring the unit onto an airplane, or in a car, or to the doctor’s office. Perfect.

She bought six of them. And she began the routine of re-organizing everything in her studio. And her studio was vast. Even people with vast studios would think hers was vast-er. After many days of mornings and afternoons, evenings and nights, after diligence upon diligence upon diligence, after conversing with her Freudian mother and Jungian best friend and Horney-ian sister and Bayley-ian cousin, Susan was done. Everything was re-organized.

A smile. A satisfaction. A relief. Until, that is, Susan remembered to check inside one more closet and one more desk and a kitchen cabinet and a file cabinet in her garage. Yes, Susan had forgotten about a few beads and findings that she had stashed away throughout her house. Many “few” things. Many, many “few” things. So many, in fact, that Susan had to re-organize again from scratch.

As Susan, and many other experienced beaders and crafters know, you need different kinds of containers for different kinds of situations. This amplifies the fun in finding containers.

Susan is not quite here yet, … or is she?

You need containers to store your beads. You need something to carry your beads in your purse. You need containers to hold all your beads and supplies for a particular project, and these usually must fit inside a canvas tote bag. You need containers to bring things with you on a plane. You need containers that help you bead while traveling in car. You need containers to help you sort through things. And you need containers because everyone you know has containers.

Part of the art of “container-ing” is placement. If on a desk or work surface, it must aid the flow of work and not distract from it. If on the floor, it must ideally fit within or under something, or somehow disguise itself as part of the furniture. If to be stacked, each component must rest upon the other in some natural, inherent and perfectly rational way. If there are other containers for items associated with non-beading crafts, these must somehow not contaminate those for beads. You don’t want to block anything — a doorway, the bathroom, the dining room table.

Once the containers are set, (until, of course, you find new more appealing containers), you must decide what goes in them. Easier said than done. In an internet survey I once did, most people wrote that they organize their beads by color. All the reds go in one place, all the blues in another, and so forth.

This creates a slight dilemma. Say you want to do a project with delica beads. Arrangements solely by color will mean that you’ll have to dig through a lot of different styles of beads to find the delicas you want. And you’ll have to do this for each color.

If you arrange by style, then it will be difficult to pull your beads, if you want to use several different colors.

If you arrange by materials — glass vs. gemstone vs. plastic vs. metal vs. ceramic — then it will be difficult to find and pull your beads, if you want to mix styles and colors.

If you arrange by palette, then it is easy to find colors you know that work well together. But it becomes more difficult to locate specific colors or specific sizes or specific shapes.

You might feel the urge to separate small hole from large hole beads.

You might want to keep letter beads in their own place.

You might want to have additional trays that contain all the beads and other pieces used for your favorite designs, so if you want to repeat them, all you have to do is grab one tray.

Do you mix vintage with new?

Small with large?

Holiday with general?

Beads for bead-weaving with beads for fiber embellishment and sewing?

Beads in-style with beads out-of-style?

Machine made with handmade?

Contemporary with ethnic?

Do you cut things off strands, or leave them on strands?

Do you mix up your tubes, or keep them separated?

Do you hang things on pegs on a wall, put them in drawers, put them in containers stacked on counters, or lay them in trays or on bead boards?

Ballen once told Krystal that one of the drawbacks to her container method was that there was some overlap of her categories. For instance, Lampwork, Shape-Beads (further broken down by Flora, Fauna, and Celestial/Symbols) and Large Glass Beads and On-Stone Pendants (in 6 color-grouped containers). She attempted to overcome this overlapping by giving priority to Stone Beads, then Pendants, then Shape-Beads, then Lampwork, then Large Glass Beads (which did not fit in with anything else already categorized).

And Krystal, in turn, got very confused. When she needed beads for classes, she found one arrangement of containers to be useful. But when she needed beads for projects, this same arrangement was unhelpful. Took too long to find what she needed. She could not come up with a set of rules for what should go where when.

And we haven’t begun to talk about stringing materials, jewelry findings, needles, glues, tools, and other beading accessories….

How do you label everything? How do you keep track of what you have and don’t have? How do you keep track of the color name, the color code, and the cost?

It is important to label everything: On your labels, you want some description, color name, where you bought it, any re-ordering code, and the date you bought it, as well as the price you paid for it. Save the price tags and package labels. Keep track of ideas — clippings, photos, sketches, internet notes, magazines and books. With patterns, instructions and designs, you want this categorized and kept in easily accessible and understandable file folders.

As one of our beader-friends said, “I have so many sketch books, that when I look for something, I don’t know where to start.” Moreover, “if I find the sketch I want, I don’t know where to safe-keep this, until I’m ready to begin the project, without losing it again.”

Where among all your containers in your already crowded workspace do you plan to situate the super-computer you’ll need to keep everything straight?

Whew!

Beads are so small! How can you possibly have difficulty organizing them? Or running out of space?

Which brings me to another important point. Anticipate growth!

For example, if you have allowed space for 300 colors of delica beads, leave some open space for some more. There are 35–60 new colors of delicas introduced each year. Delicas are usually ordered by code number. The code numbers do not reflect any system or logic about specific colors or finishes. New color code numbers are not only incremented from the previously highest number; many new code numbers are squeezed in among the previously existing order.

Beads and other craft supplies are power, and you will always want to accumulate more and more.

With all the containers you’ll need, and all the organizing and re-organizing you have to do and keep up with, will you ever have the time to take courses and develop your skills? Maybe, maybe not.

Too much to think about.

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).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beads, Containers, craft, Organizing, Work Space | Leave a Comment »

Organizing Your Craft Work Space: Some Smart Pointers

Posted by learntobead on April 19, 2020

Work Spaces

Every crafter, jewelry maker and beader has to decide which part of the house will be taken over by beads, craft supplies, and tools.

Often it’s the whole house.

James is a classic example. James never met a horizontal surface he couldn’t cover up with stuff. So his small beading table blossomed into multiple tables. These blossomed into several TV trays. And these blossomed into piles of stuff on chairs, counter-tops and couches. Stacks appeared in every room on the floors. It was not long before James had six projects on-going in the dining room, one in the kitchen, four in the bedroom, three in the TV room, one in the laundry room. James salivated about tool boxes, and so he bought tool box upon tool box upon tool box, in every size, with every arrangement of drawers and dividers and sections, in industrial colors of bright yellow, fire engine red, charcoal black, and steel gray.

We built a studio off our house. The studio, at first, was for silversmithing. It then also served for lampworking. And then for metal clay. And fused glass. And more beading. The studio then spilled right back into the house. So James wanted an additional studio room to accommodate yet more obsession. And we built an additional studio room off the house.

Years ago, in an internet survey we did about “Where People Beaded In Their Homes”, most people said their dining room or kitchen table was their Primary Creative Place. Meals were banished to the TV or living rooms, lest they be laced with beads. TV trays and cocktail tables were forced into new use. Most families, when queried, could no longer remember what colors the kitchen and dining room walls and cabinets were, as beads took over more and more of these rooms.

Another wrote that she would let us know about her special craft space, once she got things straightened up. She told us, “I don’t actually work there, because it looks like a tornado hit it. I just rush in to grab things, or dump things off, and run out.”

From Kathy Thomason: “I have a craft room lined with shelves and tables. I keep my beads in rolling carts, divided by color with each drawer labeled. I keep all my tools in a basket on one of the tables and I have all my findings in storage containers, divided by color and item and those sit on top of one of the rolling carts. I keep my wires in a drawer, where they are put into small trays and divided by color and type. I have beading trays set up on the tables with a rolling desk chair that can go from table to table. I get everything I need for my current project put on a tray, which I then carry to the living room to do the actual beading so I can be out where the family is.”

Some rooms did double-duty. There was the dining room/bead room. The TV room/bead room. The sewing room/bead room. And the laundry room/bead room. One person wrote that she had to share her bead room with her nursery. This created quite a dilemma in that beads and parts, plastic bags, needles, and threads were not a good fit with cradles and baby toys and baby blankets and, actually, not a good fit with babies.

Some beaders were blessed, however. Their spouses built them special spaces in attics, garages or the once-previously used bedroom. Some wealthier beaders had both a bead room, as well as another room devoted to another craft like sewing.

But most people were forced to take over the biggest table in the house, most often in the dining room.

Every workspace had to accommodate a lot of containers and a lot of room to layout different projects.

Organizing your work space, for some, can mean saving and salvaging their creative lives. Clutter and disorganization is distracting, and can prevent you from making progress on important projects. You don’t want to waste time looking for things. You want to be able to get rid of things you no longer use, without it becoming a major effort to do so. And you do not want to overwhelm yourself with too many half-finished projects laying all over the place.

I remember Ginny telling me about her desk. It just wasn’t big enough. So she abutted a folding table next to it. It just wasn’t big enough. So she got another folding table. Again, not big enough. Plus, at each edge the tables met, they were uneven. So she bought some large pieces of plywood, and hardware to nail them together, and lay over all her tables. She ran molding along the outer edges so that beads wouldn’t roll off. Her expanded table was soon over-run, so she set up another smaller table on the opposite wall, and towards which she could wheel her chair. She found herself working on the smaller table, and used her large table for storage.

Ginny had the best chair. Ergonomic. Great back support. Wheels. It spins. It was a chair she could sink into, relax, wheel herself from one side of the room to another. Heavenly. She could sit on it for hours without getting tired. It had good arm rests that didn’t get in the way of beading or stringing.

Ginny was determined to maximize her work space, any way she could. She attached shelving off the wall that would fold up, and fold out, depending on how much horizontal work surface she wanted. She took off the closet door, and built in shelves with drawers that pulled out. In three of these drawers, she stuffed fabric she had accumulated from an earlier obsession. She hung a hanging shoe bag off one side of the closet, and stored “projects-in-progress” in each of the shoe storage slots. She put up pegboard along all the open wall space. She hung over-the-door wire storage racks on the entry door to the room — one on the back and one on the front of the door.

She hated clutter. But each time she put into effect another plan to improve the efficiency of her bead room set-up, she ended up with more and more clutter. A jumble. Beads begat beads begat beads begat books, papers, half-finished projects, storage containers and more supplies.

She read a book by Jo Packham called Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women. She looked for beautiful and inspirational and practical ideas so that she could create in an environment conducive for creativity. One of many questions raised in the book, was “Do you like to listen to music while you create?” She did. Where would she put the stereo and the speakers now?

[Another question asked in this book was “Where did you like to work as a child?” Ginny liked to work in her bedroom under a blanket. ]

Ginny failed to anticipate the “administrivia” of it all. She had to keep everything labeled. She now had to keep records of what she bought at what price. She had sketch books of ideas. She had pictures torn out of magazines. She had pattern upon pattern of designs. She had lists of addresses, websites and phone numbers of sources. She had to coordinate trays of several unfinished projects. She needed to add two filing cabinets, which she shoved underneath one side of her expanded table.

She bought a computer and installed a phone and internet connection, so she could keep up with her bead research as she worked. She forgot to add some space to store all the bead and jewelry magazines she subscribed to and never threw away. She threw them in a pile on the floor in a corner and under part of her expanded table.

Her sister, who visited almost everyday, gave Ginny two hanging plants “for the studio.” Just what Ginny needed. But Ginny was too embarrassed not to find places for these, as well.

Ginny began to realize that her creative energies were getting used up in planning and maintaining her environment. She was too tired to think about making jewelry. So she moved some of her stuff, and her great ergonomic chair, to a table in what today is rumored to have been her dining room, and where she wouldn’t have to deal with it all. …And she moved just a few little things to a tray that sits on top of a throw pillow that sits on top of her living room couch.

As every beader has experienced, the beads take over more and more of your home. Eventually, if you keep beading and making jewelry long enough, you’ll need a second home. Or you’ll be forced to open up a bead store of your own.

As one of my friends remarked recently, in a controlled panic, “I’m out of space, and I have nowhere to go.”

And not to complicate things, but to complicate things…. If you are selling yourself, it is very advisable to set up a “Business” area separate from your “Craft” area.

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).

Visit Land of Odds online (https://www.landofodds.com)for all your jewelry making supplies.

Enroll in my jewelry design and business of craft video tutorials online.

Add your name to my email list.

Posted in Stitch 'n Bitch | Tagged: beading, craft, Organization, Studio, Work Space | Leave a Comment »

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Posts Tagged ‘Work Space’

You Can Never Have Enough Containers For Your Stuff

Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.

Organizing Your Craft Work Space: Some Smart Pointers

Other Articles of Interest by Warren Feld:

I hope you found this article useful. Be sure to click the CLAP HANDS icon at the bottom of this article.