MORE BEAD STORAGE IDEAS

I am aware other Mavens have shared their storage ideas and each has been valuable in their own right. Every beader is always looking for ways to store their 'stash' and I wanted to share an idea I have had for a long time and only recently put into place.

I had been to a Bead Show in Sydney in April and bought lots of new colour seed beads. In May I travelled to the US to attend the Bead & Button Show and came home with 4.5kgs (10lbs) of seed beads in my bag, not to mention other types of beads I had bought.  

I usually stored my size 11 seed bead tubes in small drawers in colour tones i.e. greens and blues together, reds, oranges and yellows together etc. BUT with all my new stash the drawers were too small.

I needed to find a new way of storing all these tubes of seed beads. I tried a couple of things, like laying them in boxes - no, not happy with that -  then I stood them on their ends with rubber bands around them, didn't like either. 

I began to think I wanted to see the colours so that I knew what I had. It was a comment and a picture from Barbara Briggs on Facebook showing me how she stored the tubes on their lids so she could see the colour from the bottom of the tube. That was when I remembered an idea I had had ages ago.

Store them in PVC pipes in their colour hues. What a great idea!!

Off I rushed to the local hardware store and bought three lengths of 90mm diameter x 1 metre long PVC pipes. I also purchased a miter box to get a correct cut. I borrowed a mates hacksaw and away I went. Cutting, cutting, cutting. The pipes also needed sandpaper to remove any rough edges after the cuts. All cost about $25.00 and pretty quick and pretty easy to do. 
The PVC pipes come in various sizes from 125mm down to 65mm diameter so I am sure there is one that would suit your needs.

I then sat them on my worktable and placed in the seed bead tubes. Don’t they look pretty I thought! I was happy with this.

Problem #1 – you needed ‘book ends’ so the pipes didn’t roll. I had to place other storage

drawers at either end of the pipe display.

Problem#2 – if I wanted to lift up a ‘book end’ the pipes would roll again!
It was suggested to glue the pipes together but I didn't want anything that big to be permanent. I wanted the option to lift and move and reduce the quantity of pipes if I choose.

I felt I needed a wedge on the pipes, or a pigeon hole kind of set up or something permanent to hold it all in place!

I decided to check out Ikea and see what kind of shelving they had to accommodate these pipes. It couldn’t be too deep as I wanted to sit it on my worktable and didn't want to lose workspace. I discovered that DVD and CD furniture fitted the bill and here is a link to the exact one I purchased.

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/80221658/

Off I went and paid $50.00 for the shelves. Came home, put it together, placed it on my worktable and put in the pipes with the colours. Great, it all fitted, it works and looks good.

Problem #3 – I had cut the pipes 165mm long thinking that would be a good idea. Seed bead tubes are generally 150mm long. When I placed my tubes in the pipes they recessed into the pipe too much and made it difficult to lift out - not happy with that. I had to re-cut all of them again. This time I wanted the seed bead tubes to stick out just a little for easy removal. The new lengths are 142mm long and you get 7 lengths from a 1 metre pipe after six cuts. Terrific, more for my money - YAY!

The image to the right shows both 165mm length on the bottom and 140mm length on the top - you decide which you prefer.

Problem #4 – if you are not careful when extracting the seed bead tube you may pull the end cap off as they rub up against the other tube caps. I learnt that pretty quickly. However, only a small number of seeds fell out as they are laying flat and only the seeds at the end of the tube fell out so no BIG problem, just a little one. 

I have now been living with this system for almost a week and I absolutely Love it!  

Benefit #1 - Having the tubes jutting outside of the pipes a little makes it easier to handle. I found when removing a tube lift it up to the top first then lift it out, no pulling happens on the end cap and no seed bead spillage.  YAY! 

Benefit #2 - As I am working on a design I can see all my colours, which helps me decide which colour will work with what I am making. Being stored and hidden in a drawer you don’t get that immediate association.
Benefit #3 - they are within arm's reach of my workspace. Love being able to reach for them and not search for them.

Benefit #4 - I now have heaps of room for growth, more seed bead tubes to acquire. YAY!

Benefit #5 - The whole set-up looks good and has become part of the beading 'decor'. My beading space is set up in my dining room - or dining studio I call it LOL - when I have people over for dinner they like seeing my space and now it looks attractive as well.

So all in all it has been an easy exercise to undertake with a lot of benefits. 

I hope my sharing this method gives you some ideas and helps you with your bead storage.

Enjoy!