Studio Musings

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Progress Report Wednesday - Working on Bead Kits

I love this time of year when I can take my work outside!
Seemed like a simple enough thing, when I thought I'd give this a whirl as a regular Wednesday column.  Just take pictures of whatever I was working on that day and post it here.  Sort of like a bead table Wednesday, but a little more  process oriented.

I'm afraid all I've really worked on the past couple of days are beading kits, which aren't terribly glamorous.  On the plus side,  the weather was lovely this afternoon, so I took my work outside and set up at the table out in the garden.  It was much more comfortable than the previous day's workstation, camped out on the floor in my living room front of several windows (it was rainy and that was the best light to be had).



Trying to organize beads into kits and color ways
Since this is my first foray into kits in a very long time, I'd not realized just how long it would take to measure out all of the individual bead types.  I've spent a good eight to ten hours over the past two and a half days working on this. I'm hoping I can speed that up in the future as I spent a fair bit of time deciding upon the exact beads to use in each of the different color ways.

As of this evening, I've managed to measure out the beads for two sets each of twelve different color ways for my beaded beads. Can we say overkill?  I'm planning to take these to the Seedbeader's meeting this Sunday and see which colorways garner the most interest, and then make more of those. 

I also put together four to six each of six different color ways for my Lacework bracelets. I tried wherever possible to match the beads I've used in some of my previous bracelets but that wasn't always possible.  Some of the beads from my original bracelets had been in my stash for ages, and available bead colors seem to change from season to season.  Finding the right beads has definitely been part of the challenge. 

9 comments:

  1. Hello,Karen:-)
    I smiled,looking at those photos:You must have been working like an ant,or 'Cinderella',sorting those seed beads out.Weren't You afraid,that the sudden wind might sweep all the beads away into the garden?
    Many times I thought of beading in the garden,as the weather here's also warm and nice,but was afraid of losing the beads in the grass:-)
    The kites look so nice and colorful.
    Warm Greetings-Halinka-

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    1. I had my beading mat heavily weighted down so that wouldn't happen. Even so, I drop one crystal. Luckily I saw where it had landed, mostly. So it only to a little searching to retrieve it.

      But it was definitely worth it, being to work outside in the garden! Especially as it's raining again today. :)

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  2. Oh I could use a little of that Seattle weather! We are going to hit 98 today and very, very humid here in NYC. ick. Never going to get use to this humid summer weather back East.

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    1. Seattle is known for it's long, wet springs and cool summers. Right now we're sort of in-between the two. And I wouldn't trade them for almost anywhere else around!

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  3. kits take such a long time! i had to make a whole bunch for a series of 6 classes i taught. it took days. full, 12 hour days! but the end result was happy packets and happy beaders :-)

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    1. Thank you Christine! I am sooooo glad I'm not the only one who finds this to be an incredibly slow process. But I agree - the end results are worth it!

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  4. How cool that you have a focus group to test your kits on!

    I've always wondered... how do you decide how many seed beads of each color to include in a kit?

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    1. Basically, I go from my own experiences making the pattern. I keep track of how much of which types of beads I use. Then I add extra, just in case.

      I'd much rather there be some beads left over for making earrings or starting on another project than to have too few.

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  5. I know your kits will be awesome!

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