Thursday, May 6, 2010
I used to keep all my cabs in a candy bowl. Everytime I got a new one, I'd drop it in. Then when I wanted to design a new piece of jewelry, I'd start rummaging through the bowl to find what I wanted.
This was OK for a while, but when my collection grew, I started forgetting about what I had. And sometimes cabs would be missing because it was so easy to leave them lying about all over the house.
When I showed my cabs to someone, I'd just spill out the contents of the bowl on a table and we'd sift through all the pretty stones. Fun, yes, but not very efficient or professional.
What to do with them?!
I thought of organizing my cabs in those acrylic organizer boxes that are used for beads or embroidery thread. But that would just mean that the cabs would still be strewn in little containers - just more of them! Then a friend of mine suggested using a scrapbook. Why didn't I think of that!
I found a couple of scrapbooks for $1.99 on a clearance rack. These look like photo albums but have clear plastic sleeves that you can slip things into.
And I found the best time to do a little organizing. Our family was planning a long car trip, so I brought along my cabs and the scrapbooks for the ride. Rather than sitting around bored or looking at scenery, I spent several hours happily organizing the cabs into the books and labeling them:
The cabs are roughly organized by color or type of stone and each has been labeled with the type of stone, where it was purchased, and how much I paid for it. I secured them with double-sided foam tape which holds the cabs firmly, but allows me to easily pull them off when I need to. Plus they're protected in the plastic sleeves. These scrapbooks are expandable which is helpful, as the cabs are bulky and they're easy to page through.
And, happily for me, I still have plenty of room to expand.
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I like the way you think.
;-)
Hopefully he'd be able to "guess" what kind of stones you like and the style of ring you'd like.
I get carsick if I read, so I usually can't do anything other than listen to the radio and look out the window. This was a fun way of passing the time AND doing something useful.
There is nothing worse than having an element you need for a design and not being able to find it! This totally solves that problem for you :)
Nicole/Beadwright