Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Bead Storage

Today I went to the Art Glass Alcove in Saugatuck where I sell my Troll/Pandora a.k.a. big hole beads. style beads and spacers.  She was very low on product and I set her up with a bunch of new beads and spacers.  It made me think of my bead storage solution again.  Originally I used cigar boxes to hold all my BHB,  it worked great and stored over 200 BHBs in a very small space.  I changed displays was when a lady at a show in Fort Wayne, Indiana picked up the whole cigar box and almost pored all 200 or so beads into the gutter.
Publish Post
Cigar Box Bead Storage
After thinking over the storage problem I decided a few things:

First of all each stick of beads needed to function on their own so customers could pick up a stick and look at them up close without having to pick up the whole box.

Second, if someone picks up a full stick it needs to be secure enough that the beads will not fall off.

I found that the bamboo sticks you use to cook meat on was just the right size to slide the beads onto.  I cut them to the width of a bracelet tray and placed wood beads onto the ends gluing one end and leaving the other to slide off and on.  Each stick holds about 20 beads and a tray holds 20 sticks.  After doing several shows I think this is the perfect answer to the big hole bead storage.  The only problem I have had so far is one lady picking them up and shaking the crap out of them while asking me if they were some sort of stress relief toy as they sprayed all over the place.  I guess it's better to only have 15 beads fly than 200.

Why do people do such stupid things with items that aren't theirs?
This box isn't very full right now but by this Sunday it will be :)

Close up of how nice they fit into the bracelet trays.

5 comments:

  1. They look great! I love the display that you created - sorry about the crazy lady.....your beads are beautiful!

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  2. Thanks, There is one crazy lady at every show, I always hope that they show up when there isn't a crowd so I can keep an eye on them :)

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  3. Totally wonderful, gorgeous, awesome beads!

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  4. Hi, i'm a french glass bead maker, it's nice to discovered you. I was looking for solutions for my displays for my beads, and fall on your blog. You seems to be very happy with this solution, please tell me, where did you find the tray to put your bamboo sticks ? Do you have a link or something like that where i can find this kind of product ? Again, nice to meet you :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you found my blog, the bamboo secures only work with the big hole beads if you want to do the same with smaller holed beads you can cut mandrels and use tight fitting rubber knitting needle tip protectors. The bead tray is simply a wood drawer for my jewelry case.

      This is the wood tray,
      http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Oak-Full-Size-Tray/400321?Pos=17
      This the plastic insert to make it look nice inside,
      http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Black-Flocked-Plastic-Divided-Bracelet-or-Watch-Tray-Insert/46162411?Pos=11

      I hope the photos help explain what I used.

      Tracy

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