MetalsStudio_BeadSorting

I can’t believe the “treasures” I’m rediscovering. while cleaning my metals studio. I’ve already sorted through the Delicas, seed, and novelty beads in my beading studio, but I didn’t realize I had so accumulated so much more!  You know the saying, “Out of sight, out of mind.”  Well, it’s true…I know I would have been using many of these if they hadn’t been lost amidst all the clutter!  Some of the goodies I’m finding date back to the 1980’s when I first started making jewelry.  I have collections of beautiful semi-precious stones and cabochons, etched glass beads, agate and onyx carvings, quartz, granite, ancient beads, trade and tribal beads, metal, bone, wood, and polymer beads. And I have so many found objects…game pieces, shells, carved bone, bicycle reflectors, resin pieces, etcetera. There is truly far more than I will ever use in my lifetime. So, little by little, I will be assembling some of these goodies into collections and listing them in my Etsy shop.  I’ll let you know when they are available!

Metal_Silver_Hollow-formedBeads

I found more fine silver twigs that I cast while taking a metals course at the College of DuPage twenty years ago.  And I came across these wonderful hollow-formed beads that I made when I first purchased my hydraulic press in the late 1990’s. These had been tucked away in a box in a drawer under other boxes. I am rediscovering so many wonderful components to use in new works!  A lot of fun awaits me…now to find the time to do it all!