Follow The Directions Man !

Went to Ikea ... man how I love that store, and not just for their Swedish meatballs either.  :)
I needed some storage containers - inexpensive ones.  Ikea had an assortment of CD storage boxes in various colors and prints, just cardboard and paper with a few metal rivets and a metal frame to hold the label onto the box.

When I opened the package there were all these parts and a sheet of "directions" (of sorts)  what I liked the best was this  . . . I think it pretty much says it all . . .

Fortunately the CD boxes weren't that complicated to figure out.  They didn't have that many parts and, given the fact that I've seen a cardboard CD box before,  I was able to put them together without having to resort to making an emergency phone call.

So here they are, all ready to put junk stuff into.  Are any of you fans of Ikea ?

Working With Beads...

A few years ago I attended a Bead Expo where I picked up a couple of rather expensive kits for beaded beads. One was for a beaded flower bead, I thought it was cute but wouldn't really call it a bead as I'm not sure how one would string it in bead-like fashion. However when I attempted to follow the instructions my flower fell apart...time and time again, also had the same problem with the other beaded bead kit. It seemed that whoever wrote the directions had left something out, finally I gave up on the directions and constructed them my way, the way that seemed most logical.  After incorporating a couple of small changes, the flowers were quite secure...only, what to do with them ?

Photo above...one side of flower has a white center.

Photo below...the other side of the flower sports a black center.

With experimentation I found they could be adapted for use as a small pendant in beaded necklaces.

Photo below...Beaded Flowers in use

Even to this day I can't help but wonder about those poor souls who, with little beading knowledge, faced the frustrations of misleading and incomplete instructions.


I'm considering offering these in my shop AlmostPrecious for use as focal pendant beads but I'm not sure if there'd be any interest. I would truly value and appreciate your input and opinions on this.