As I was out and about yesterday evening running errands, I decided on impulse to stop by the local bead store.  I was completely out of the vibrant green vintage glass beads that I use in my Nitta earrings, and I wanted to list some more pairs in my shop soon.  I thought I would just dash into the store and grab them – twenty minutes left on the meter, a hungry cat at home (see Levi v. Frist, I & II), lots of orders to get out… I couldn’t afford to linger.  I knew exactly what I needed and where in the store they were. 

So I grabbed my tray, headed to the bin, and holy cow!  The bin was full of identical glass beads in three or four different shades of green that weren’t there before, and I suddenly had no idea which one was my shade! 

I tend to keep a lot of things in my head when I’m making jewelry, relying on memory instead of writing certain specifications down.  This works fine when I’m at home in my workspace with the tons of photos I’ve saved open on the computer in front of me. 

I thought that I could rely on memory again and mentally picture the exact shade of green I used in the earrings, but when confronted with a bunch of unexpected choices, I panicked!  I ended up buying several beads in each shade and spending a lot more money than I had intended.  The moral of the story is to plan ahead, take careful stock of what is needed, take samples to the store if color matching is needed, and avoid impulse shopping when it comes to supplies.  My local bead supplier might not like me much, but at least I won’t put unnecessary strain on my already tight budget.

I’ve recently found a fantastic source of these amazing brass findings!  I have no idea what they are supposed to be used for, or where they were made, but I love them.  They come in a great variety of evocative shapes and sizes – just looking at the rows and rows of bins starts my head spinning with all kinds of ideas. 

The earrings pictured are my Coriolis Earrings - lightweight, sexy, sophisticated!

So my stash of supplies is getting daaaannngerously low! 

The above photo is just a sampling – I’m really not as desparate as that, but it makes the point nicely!  I have a bunch of ideas for new projects, but I’m afraid to start anything for fear of running out of something essential halfway through.  I’m also itching to re-list some of my favorite items, like the Isamu Necklace, that have sold from my shop recently, but no, I have to wait until I can remake them.  I literally have only a few inches left of some of the basics, like 20 gauge sterling wire, which I primarily use for ear wires but have recently started incorporating into new designs.  With the price of silver rising the way it has lately, it hurts a bit to place a big order with Rio Grande, but what am I going to do?  If the weather had been a little nicer yesterday, I would have just gone to Metalliferous on my day off.  But then, I only had the day off because the weather was so bad!  Oh, the irony…

Because I live in student housing, work full time and run a fair trade company, the two things that I am rather short on are the time and space in which to make the jewelry that I sell at AntiGenre Arts. Hence I’m forced to be very organized when I head off to the studio that I’m currently using in New York. I don’t have a soldering station at home (…yet), and studio time can be expensive, so I like to be prepared with as many sets of the basic necessities as possible. I spend a few hours at home making, sawing and finishing the various-sized rings that will become hoops, links and organic shapes that I use for items like my best-selling Lotte Earrings or Cycles Necklace. When I get to the studio, I’m ready to sit and solder for a solid few hours. The end result is always very satisfying – a bundle of bright shiny hoops and links, ready to become something beautiful: