Today I had a scheduled play date with my friend, Billie. The game plan was to do beading so I slipped off my wrist brace and loaded my beads into the car. Hey, a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do! Anyway, since I had most of my beads out I thought this would be a good time to take a few photos and share them. I ended up taking several photos so I’m posting the thumbnails here and you can click on them to see larger views. An obsessive collection looks so much more obsessive in large view.

These cases hold most of my charms, findings and spacers.

I said “most”, right? These are the rest of my findings. Now on to the beads, or at least most of them. I also have a healthy collection of what I call clunky beads that I don’t know if I’ll ever use. Back in my earlier craft days I was a major collector of pony beads as well as a lot of other inexpensive plastic beads. I still hang on to them because you never know when the beaded bandanna look is going to resurface or when I may need to decorate an entire Christmas tree with handmade bead ornaments. I didn’t have them out for my play date so they didn’t get photographed for this…. hmm…. I’m not sure if I should call this a victory lap or a walk of shame. Anyway, here are most of my beads:

And of course you need a few tools:

There is also the wire box. I didn’t take a picture but I think you get the idea, there is more than one spool of wire.

This necklace and bracelet is what I made today. I’ve been in a bit of a rut lately where I put a pendant on all my necklaces and then arrange the beads so that each side of the necklace is a mirror image of the other. The next one I make I am going to let it have a random pattern to it. Do you ever make bead necklaces? Do you prefer a random pattern or do you like to make sure all your ducks are in a row?