Something I have been needing to do for a long time, is to figure out a good way to organize some of my beads so that the process of designing new pieces of jewelry is easier. I LOVE organizing, but for some reason, trying to discover a way to get my tiniest beads in order has eluded me. So they have lived in a bit of chaos within a drawer and that has been their home. It’s made new ideas have a difficult time with flow, it’s like they are there but just right beyond my reach most of the time. There are too many store labels hiding the beads, bar codes, prices, website addresses, store branding, bead numbers, more numbers, these bits of ephemera that all combine to something that just made a mess in my creative mind. Plus, the inability to really lay them all out by hue was stifling, too… color organization on a palette is incredibly important!
Workflow in any endeavor is a thing!
A very small selection of the beads, in typical disarray
Putting to use my recent rebirth into the technology world, alongside the incredible, creative and brilliant mind of my loved one, we came up with a plan!
The first idea involved designing a container system to display all the beads on my workbench, arranged by hue, to optimize the design process and arrange the palette much like you do when painting!
Then we got to brainstorming…
It’s very nice to love technology again. I spent many years despising it after burning out in the tech industry. Now it’s fun and a whole new world!
We ordered a bunch of tubes to get all of the beads into uniform containers. We ended up getting a lot more than we ordered, and it’s funny how MANY there are! So… this project will extend to ALL of my seed beads now and not just the tiniest ones.
The rainbow on my workbench will be mighty! Thank you, fairies!
Very many tubes
I was simply going to write the bead numbers on labels or with sharpie on the bottoms of the tubes, for reordering purposes. It’s super important to always keep track of these numbers, especially if reordering online, because otherwise you’re left to try and pick out a bead based on picture. And the bead world is a multi-thousand-year-old black hole of types of beads, where upon entry you descend into seed beads, and then you find there is another black hole within the original black hole of the lighting in which pictures are shot making it very easy to pick the wrong color, and… yes, more chaos, spiraling forever.
So: Numbers as guides! Most important!
Numbers to keep track of
On my labeling idea, “We could etch them with the laser engraver, and it’ll be really nice” he said. Something I had not even in my wildest dreams considered. We worked together to get a whole lot of bead numbers translated to that amazing machine… I went into spreadsheet mode and he went into programming mode until we had one file to rule them all!
We also needed to make a jig to hold the tubes in the engraver, so he designed that in his 3d software! We could then send it to his 3d printer, a marvel in itself!
3d printers are magic
I love this little robot so much! This jig was our first attempt and ultimately the printing placement on the tops of the tubes didn’t work out. That’s okay, experimenting is fun.
This time we would try printing on the sides of the tubes. When we went back to redesigning, I was excited and forgot to get a picture of the second one we made, but you’ll see this one in the engraver below, because it worked perfectly!
Getting ready to engrave
After some time spent getting the lasers aligned properly on the tubes, we had bead numbers beautifully engraved on them!
In my experience over the last near decade of jewelry making, the item numbers on these beads does not change (deep thanks to Japanese organization minds) so having such a permanent way of identification is okay here. And anyway, we can replace the tubes and engrave new numbers down the road if needed.
Perfectly legible and waiting to be filled with color!
Then came the fun part of putting all of the beautiful beads in their new homes! We ran with the box of tubes back to our studio laboratory very eager for this! It was really fun to both be so excited over this.
With just this change, there was a rush of creative energy. Experiencing the raw material, the enchanting beads, without all the distracting elements that were there before was just hypnotizing. A new canvas! A clean slate! They looked even more beautiful, clear, and ready to be woven into jewels!
Sparkling beauties
Okay, let’s get crazy and organize them by hue!!
Ah, that is very good!
Voila! Ideas are so much easier to extract and develop now.
And it was a wonderful case of teamwork, with productive outcomes for both of us. I can focus to make many more beaded jewelry pieces, and he has an automation process for numbering, that he devised via programming, to be used in many other applications on the engraver. Working together like this to make brand new things is a beautiful, fun way to coexist and like wildfire, it fuels even more inspiration. That blending of two minds, to me is Magic!
Next up I’ll show the container system we’ve invented for all of the bead tubes, and how it works on my bench! Another very exciting thing!
