A few weeks ago, I was talking to Stacy about the change in her beading habits over the time she’s spent working here. She said one of the hazards of the job is being around so many great materials and wanting to buy all of the best stuff to make her own jewelry. Being a generally thrifty gal, I wondered if I would ever feel that way, too.

The past few days I must admit that feeling has indeed begun to seep in. I’ve been working on a project that I really love, and it inspired me to create something for myself using the same stitch. While attending my weekly Craft Night with my friends, I hauled out all my beading supplies and got ready to bead.

The project I envisioned required a great many colors of seed beads, so the first thing I use at work that I wished I’d had at home was a beading mat. To be honest, before I started working at Bead&Button, the idea of a beading mat never even crossed my mind. I kept my beads in little containers or pulled them off their hanks one-by-one. Now that I have the convenience of that fuzzy little spongey beading mat pal, I realize how much easier it makes life while making projects. Granted, beading mats aren’t expensive, but they are invaluably helpful.

The second thing I wished I had was a decent beading needle (mine are so old, they’re almost as thick as a sewing needle), the third was good thread, and the fourth was decent beads. It turns out that even though I mainly have 11s, they’re all different sizes! None of these materials is terribly expensive, either. So, luckily, I can easily fix what my supplies lack.

While I wasn’t able to complete the project I’d intended to make that evening, at least I learned a valuable lesson: Get decent materials for home.

What materials do you find you just can’t bead without?