I'm still feeling really under the weather so today I have spent the day in the living room not doing too much - watching a guilty pleasure of mine, Doc Martin, and playing with beads. It's 5pm now and I only got out of my pyjamas an hour ago! A proper lazy sick day.
A while back, we bought up some old bead shop trays from a vendor who was shutting up shop and had brought them along to a bead fair. My lovely father-in-law (I think that might be the first time I've actually referred to him as that!) made me a cabinet to store the trays in and I have slowly been transferring some of my enormous bead stash over to the wooden trays. Today was the day of the art beads...
I didn't realise I had so many! Like many of you I'm sure (I hope?!) I'm a total hoarder and can't bear to use many of the pretty things I own until I have held onto them for a good while...perhaps seeing them all laid out like this will inspire me on!
I thought I'd share a few of my favourite drawers with you. This belongs to Eve Smith of Silver Meadows, who not only makes beautiful jewellery but also enamelled metal components and very fine handmade headpins! She is from Prestonpans just outside Edinburgh (where I'm from originally and my heart still belongs :-)) so it always makes me extra happy to buy things from her Etsy store. I'm on my iPad and not sure how to create links from Blog Press so I'll just give you her address instead - silvermeadows.etsy.com. Check it out!
Next up is 4 drawers - clockwise from top left, Gaea Cannaday, Nancy Schindler of Round Rabbit, Shannon LeVart or Missficklemedia and Lisa of Sea Urchin. Do you spot a colour theme?! Sea Urchin is a British artist but the rest are from the US. I should also add that I have a small but very full box of missficklemedia metal components which are not involved in my beaders trays! I love her work muchly :-). As for Gaea, couldn't you just eat her beads?! There's another drawer which you can see on the top photo, just below Sea Urchin containing larger Gaea pieces. And Nancy's beautiful sea coloured pieces...well, I have enthused before in my blog about just how glorious I think they are and how I hoard them close to my heart....and now you can see them. Just ridiculously beautiful in my opinion. All of these artists make me hope so much that one day I will be able to take a clay class.
Lastly are another two artists - Menage Studio at the top and Beads by Keira beneath. Ménage Studio shocked me greatly by making me like polymer clay. I must confess, I am generally not a fan of the medium. However, I was visiting If 2 by Sea's blog a while back though and spotted a pendant Christi had used and immediately was smitten. The amount of artistry and craftsmanship which goes into these clay pieces blew me away! I love these two little birdies; one of my favourite images anyway but so pretty here especially. Keira is an American lamp worker but she lives here in the UK - right down south in Kent. I came across her lovely beads at the Big Bead Show down in Surrey earlier this year and adored her lampwork keys - another of my favourite images to work with in jewellery making. I also have a very cute polka dot coffee mug which she had lampworked...but did I mention, I have an entire tray dedicated to lampwork?! It's only half full, admittedly, but give me time....that post is for another day!
How do you store your beads? It's a common question in our little community I know but one I personally never tire of - perhaps because I am generally so messy and disorganised, I dream of the perfect storage solution - tidy but with things in easy access and the ability to see what you're working with! I love to read others' posts on this so let me know your solution! Hope you are enjoying these last few days of the year, best wishes for 2011 when it comes.
