Saturday, July 16, 2011

A Special Drawer for Seed Beads

Photo above - empty seed bead vials and containers

I have a collection of Seed Beads, it may not be the biggest collection but it takes up space and has always proved a challenge not only in how to contain those tiny beads but where to store the containers themselves.
Photos above and Below - A box full of empty seed bead containers.

Fortunately I came up with an idea and, even more fortunately, my dearest hubby was the one that made my idea into reality by creating  the storage space that I needed.  He strongly believes in the saying; "A happy wife makes for a happy life".

This was just a standard drawer that he replaced the glides on making it a full extension drawer.  Then he crafted the wooden shelf insert, which is based upon those spice storage inserts that one can purchase for their kitchen drawers.


Photos above and below - Every inch is utilized and I can see at a glance just what I have.




All those empty containers in that box at the top of my blog are from the beads in these photos.  I've discovered a lovely plastic jar that has a screw on lid, so the past few days I've been emptying old vials, boxes and other containers (even little baggies) of seed beads and putting them into these wonderful jars.  No more spilled beads caused from trying to pull off those annoying snap-on vial tops.  Must admit creating all those labels is what took FOREVER !

Now there's only problem,  I need another drawer just like this one! 

19 comments:

  1. That looks great!! Anything little and tiny like that needs great organization and you certainly figured something wonderful out. I love the fact that you can easily see them all...wish my spices looked so neat!! :-)

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  2. Oh what a wonderful Hubby your John is :)

    Your organised drawer is beauty itself. (I LOVE colour coordinated items, I do it with ALL my thread :)

    Have a lovely Weekend, T. :)

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  3. That is AWESOME! You should send that idea into the bead mags so they can show your hubby's work to the world!

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  4. Yes, you'll need more just to separate out the different sizes! Your husband could really sell the inserts to a lot of beaders!

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  5. Ooh you're putting my organizing efforts to shame my friend! What a terrific use of your space and a great way to know at a quick glance what you do & don't have. Though the labels took a while they're the perfect accessory to make sure you never forget what's in your jars. Time to do a little subtle, cute eye blinking and all that cute girlie stuff to get another drawer made it sounds like heehee :-)

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  6. *LOVE* I just emptied all my little vials because apparently my man hands can't eep from spilling them EVERY TIME I OPEN THEM.... I got some squat clear screw on lid containers that can stay upright by themselves! Damn seed beads!

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  7. Oooh my gosh that is an impressive collection for sure!! I am a little jealous actually :)

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  8. Wow! that's amazing! I not only love your bead collection but your organization is awesome. Great job!

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  9. Hubbies can sure come in handy sometimes! A finished project that is functional AND looks good is the best!

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  10. I love reading how other people organize bead storage. And I really love your solution. I'm wondering how you like the Dyna-Mites. I considered ordering them but haven't heard how people like them. I have to say the my label maker (a Brother P-Touch) and I have become the best of friends because of my bead labeling efforts! Loved this post. Thanks.

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  11. Hi Sally - Thanks for stopping by my blog I love having people visit.
    As you know Dyna-Mites are made by the same company that creates the wonderful little Delica seed beads. I enjoy using the Dyna-Mites as they are larger than their cousin Delica so I can pass the thread through them many more times and also use heavier thread if I need to. The Dyna-Mites are fairly consistent in size and shape, perhaps not quite as consistent as the Delica but they'er far more consistent than many other #11/0 seed beads. They are very pretty beads, have a great variety of colors and come in rainbow finishes and also a square hole variety which I love as it creates incredible sparkle. I would not hesitate to recommend them. Personally I use them often and do not have any complaints about them. As I mentioned they are not quite as consistent as the Delica nor are they as small but many times I require something closer to a true size 11/0 and the Delica are really closer to a size 12/0 , so the Dyna-Mites fill that need perfectly for me.

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  12. THAT IS AWESOME! I would love to have something like that to organize my seed beads! :) I'm a new follower
    Nissa
    http://versatilejewelry.blogspot.com

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  13. Great drawer, but if you have room to hang your collection of beads, this is great.
    It's called the Bead Pavilion (On line). It will hold 128 Flip top containers (32 per shelf), or 224 tubes (56 per shelf). I like the Flip top, as it is only 2 deep and you can see your colors better. I have mine in numerical order. Happy beading.

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  14. I was wondering where you bought your seed bead vials/tubes.

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  16. Dear Anonymous - The screw on top, vials or tubes are really tubes made for coin storage, designed for coin collectors.
    I found mine online at: http://www.bobscurrency.com/indexnew.php?cPath=37_39 .

    These tubes come in several sizes, from tubes to hold dimes, pennies and nickels to tubes for storage of quarters, half dollars and silver dollars. The dime and penny sizes are the most suitable for tiny seed beads and the nickel vials are perfect for either large seed beads are for larger quantities of seed beads.

    Most of the tubes are sold in cases of 100 - which I thought was a lot but, believe it or not, I first ordered a case of the penny tubes and a case of the nickel tubes, thinking I'd end up with way too many but, as it turned out I ended up using all 100 of the nickel tubes and had to order a second case of 100 of them (which I've used over 50 of.
    I also used all 100 of the penny tubes and I'm thinking about ordering another case of them also.

    If you want to actually see the size of the coin tubes you can visit a local coin shop as they usually have them in stock . . . but if you need a lot of them (like I did) it is much cheaper to purchase them by the case online than individually from a coin shop. Hope this will be helpful to you. :)

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  17. Wow thank you for the quick response and the information! It looks like FMG's pricing isn't too far off from what you've found... http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H201277PK

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  18. Wow. That is an awesome idea. Especially if you have worked on a project and you have half the vial left. You are so organised. I could only aspire to your level of organisation!

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