Supplies: Containers
Containers are needed to store your beads by color, size, and type, and having the beads organized will help your work go faster. You do not need to go out and buy something especially for this purpose. Any small jar with a tight fitting lid such as small jelly jars or baby food jars will work, as will international coffee tins, tackle boxes, and small parts bins. I even use some of those pill boxes with seven compartments, one for each day of the week. But for long term storage, I try to use containers or cases that can be seen through. They’re the best because they allow quick assessment of the beads on hand.
Now there are a lot of people who like to use baby food jars because not only is it easy to keep the colors separate, but you can pour some beads into the lids and work from the lids. However, there are pros and cons to everything, and the disadvantages of the baby food jars are that they are not very compact, they can break in transportation or if dropped, and the sizes of these jars are limited.
If you do want to go out and buy some fun, new containers there are a myriad of bead organizers, boxes, cases, and totes available. A purchased item that is popular to store beads is a set of small, plastic stacking jars that screw into each other. I’ve heard these work fairly well, but I’ve also heard that they have a tendency to come apart and then the beads go flying everywhere. Beware.
Surf some of the bead sites on the Internet and shop your local bead store for a look at some of the newest things out there for bead storage.
Some of my bead storage solutions are pictured in the photo above. My husband just recently gave me his old small parts bin, so I am still in the process of filling it up and getting it organized.
