Joining in on the Bead Fest Pity Party

I’m RSVPing to Heather Power’s Bead Fest Pity Party!

Now this party is full of all sorts of wonderful guests offering awesome deals you should know about.

Since I can’t be attending Bead Fest myself, nor am I sending my personal shopper like a little while ago, I’ll just have to make do with my own bead stash.  It’s pretty modest really but it is housed by the most beautiful Hamilton chase.  It was no beauty when I got it.  I’d show you the before pictures if they hadn’t been eaten by our last desktop, but imagine a whole lot of grime and assorted yuck.  Before I go further, I should really give proper credit as it was my husband who found it in the local used ads online and convinced the seller to give us an awesome price as he wanted to surprise me with it for our anniversary.  It wasn’t our anniversary, but it was one of the best gifts ever!

So back to the yuck, I wanted it gone.  Antiquers look away – I stripped it!  There was no way I was ever going to part with this beauty and it really needed to go back to bare wood, be re-stained (a tad darker to go with our stuff) and then protected by three coats of poly.  It took me weeks in our garage, balancing all twenty drawers all over the place, but it turned out beautifully.



It is in the darkest corner of our basement so a flash photo is the best chance to show you.  I decided too to show you the truth with it covered with all the usual junk.  Before you get extra jealous let me tell you it’s no where near full, that will probably be a lifetime pursuit. But I will give you a few sneak peeks.



A quick look in part of the pearl drawer, and you may see a few bits of tape around.  When I’m really on top of supplies there is a per bead price on the little strip of tape per section.

I had this idea about showing you my storage, when no sooner than I had the thought, I saw Lorelei Eurto showing off her new beauty.  I hope hers is nice and clean!  Mine, the filth was really stubborn so I had to come up with a work around.  Below is a half lined drawer.  When I first started filling it I wanted to be sure I could see the colours accurately as it’s in a dark spot, so I wanted a white background.  While paper would have probably done the job I chose white craft foam (by the roll) instead for it’s extra cushion. There are 1920 compartments in this thing (96 per drawer) so I’m a long way from done, I just add as needed.



I’m being a bad party guest since I’m supposed to be “busting my stash”.  For the sake of the photo I moved around some vintage Humblebeads from their regular home to close to some gorgeous lampwork I had bought for myself and some Marsha Neal Studio pendants… I think there may be something in the making!



I adore these humblebeads! They used to be in a necklace but it wasn’t quite right for me so it returned to the drawer. It’s funny but it seems that because I work with polymer I have a hard time creating jewelry with polymer made by others.  I feel conflicted about making anything to coordinate and then I feel conflicted if I am wearing a necklace I’ve made, but not the polymer beads themselves… I do make things complicated for myself don’t I!