BTW: Treasures Unearthed

This week on the bead table: Flowery dangly sparkly earrings!

I love Bead Table Wednesday for many reasons: I get to see what other people are working on and how they organize their workspaces, it allows me to really think and learn about the creative process, and it compels me to take a hard look at and maybe organize my beading area a bit because, really, who wants to show off a big mess? A funny thing happens when I clean up my beading area: I find stuff I forgot I had, or vaguely remembered having, or absolutely knew was somewhere in the mess.... When I cleaned up my bead table last week I unearthed a treasure trove of sterling silver findings and beads that I had set out into trays and cups for specific projects, then lost track of as I shifted to other projects and let things pile up. I thought I remembered stocking up on sterling earwires, headpins, spacer beads, and clasps last fall when silver was surging past $15 per ounce, but given how busy my life is my memory of such things isn't always reliable... So when I got an order for some sterling earrings a while back, I couldn't find a dang thing and figured, well, maybe I thought about stocking up and didn't get around to it because, sheesh, $15 an ounce??....

Project on the table: Hill Tribes silver trumpet
flower pendant with faceted amethyst, pearls



Also on the table: Hill Tribes silver rose
pendant with faceted garnet, pearls

Now that sterling silver is hovering around $35 to $40 an ounce (Thunderbird Supply shows the daily market price), I am over the moon to find the 50 pairs of sterling French hook earwires, 20 pairs of sterling leverback earwires, 200 sterling headpins, and 200 assorted sterling spacers I bought last fall -- holy cow, what a find! And so I have been making lots and lots of earrings this week, and will make lots and lots more, along with some necklaces featuring Hill Tribes silver flower pendants and faceted gemstones I bought in Tucson two years ago. I do love working with copper and brass, but sometimes a design really calls for sterling silver. You can bet I'll be keeping my bead table a bit cleaner from now on; if nothing else, I should refrain from laying out stones and findings and such until I actually have the time to execute a design, and just sketch out my jewelry ideas instead when time is short.
(It's a good goal to aim for, anyway...)