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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Making Jewelry - Beading Part 1

As part of our Valentines hunt, I bought the girls each a necklace or the stuff to make one together. I thought I would give them the option. Several opted to make a necklace.


About 7 years ago, I was looking for a fun way to bond with my oldest daughter and also help her be more feminine. She would wear jeans and a t-shirt almost daily.


The thought that came to me was to get her into making jewelry. We went to several stores and craft/beading stores and bought her the works. We bought all the findings and she picked out several types of beads she liked. I would keep my eyes open for interesting beads on sale, used coupons and bought "kits" with many types of beads and checked the second hand stores for beads and old jewelry that could be taken apart and the beads reused.


Several times I found grab bags with all sorts of scrap jewelry in them for $25. I found a 14 Karat real gold bracelet in one and several other times I found other gold and silver items. Sometime the jewelry is great and we like it, other times, if it isn't something we would wear, we take them and let the patients at the local nursing home choose one when we go to sing for them.


Once we acquired all the fixings and beads, we tried several different types of containers to hold them all. We tried bottles, thread containers, bags, other plastic containers, film containers and nothing seemed right. We searched the craft stores for "bead containers" and they were not easy to store, carry or use.


I suggested we look at tackle boxes as they are made for small items and have a spot for the "tools" in them. We found the perfect container. It is made by "Okeechobee Fats" and is a four plastic container, soft sided tackle box. It has pockets on both sides, thick zip baggies that clamp on the lid that are see through so you can keep current projects in them. There are a few other pockets on the front. The bead palette that is used to lay out the beads, fits neatly on top of the four plastic containers and the bag zips up to protect it all and make it easy to carry.


The "tools" for jewelry making fit in one pocket. Most common tools are needle nosed pliers. Needle threaders for small beads, a bead reamer and internal pliers. One other thing I added the other day was little zip baggies that can be bought in the craft section of Wal-Mart or other craft stores. I use them for my homemade suckers but found that the findings and smaller beads were sometimes wondering in the plastic containers so we watched a movie together and organized those items this week.


I think the kit we have is as good as any I have seen or heard of and probably should talk to the good makers of the tackle box and start marketing it for beaders! The other side pocket we use for the larger threads, twine, leather, nylon and other types of cording for jewelry.


That is all for the container and tomorrow I will show how we put together a jewelry set of Necklace, bracelet and earrings rather quickly.


To be continued....

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