Art Basics: Travel Palette for Beads

Fun fact: Before I was a painter or a collagist or even a scrapbooker, there were beads.  In fact, I stumbled into A.C. Moore for the first time because I was looking for beads.  Here's a peek at just a few of the pieces I've made over the years -- a lot of the photography is old and not great quality:

Bead weaving and bead embroidery remain activities that I really enjoy doing. It's extremely relaxing and meditative work.  Plus beads are small and make a perfect travel art project.  Today, as part of my ongoing series of basic art tutorials, I'm going to show you how I make a small portable beading tray.  It's perfect for taking a project with you.  It does a great job keeping the parts of an ongoing project together.  And it helps stop the beads from rolling away when you're working at home.

Watch the video for the how-to:

Grab a bead mat and a thin tin and make yourself a bead bed! 

If you're looking for a great book to get started with making beaded beads (one of my particular obsessions) I can absolutely recommend anything by Carol Wilcox Wells.  Her book, The Art & Elegance of Beadweaving has excellent and easy-to-follow instructions.

Thanks for stopping by!