Or, perhaps you're like me, and many others like me, who are just a little touched by it all. I am not what you'd call a top-shelf knitter, and I only sort of know crochet, but I love fiber and went on a small-quantity buying spree a while back. I also love things like seashells, paper art, glass microscope slides, felted wool beads, etc. I also enjoy polymer clay and the idea of making my own color blends and turning that clay into beads, or adding it to other projects as elements to the design.
If you've been thinking about adding various items to your beadwork, to get a feel for mixed-media beadwork you might wonder which types of additional items will work best. Or, not wanting to sink any additional funds into an experiment, you may wonder what you've got around the house that could be used for mixed media beading. That's where I was when I began, and here's a list of things I was able to find around the house to get me started:
- Buttons
I had a collection of my mother's old buttons, so this was a natural item for me to consider using. - Small pieces of wood - I had an interesting piece of pecan wood from a sack of pecans purchased over the holidays. I thought it had an interesting shape, so I hung on to it, and now have a great idea for a necklace.
- Broken Bits of Jewelry
I had a large and interesting collection of old, broken jewelry that had been given to me, piece by piece. My mother called it my "magpie bag" but never tried to get rid of it. In fact, she contributed to it every so often, I still have many of those pieces. - Wooden Thread Spools
These just always seem like a natural when it comes to making new things. I can never bring myself to throwing them out, and, in fact, have even gone on a buying spree when I found some on an on-line auction site once. But, others love them, too, as I got out bid to a MAJOR degree. Theses spools ended up selling for over a hundred dollars, And there were only about 75 or so of them, so they must have been rare. I'm sure some are collectors items, so it might be worthwhile to check this before you re-purpose a particularly old spool. They make great sliders on a slim strand of spiral rope chain. - Broken Glass
Small bits of broken glass from a stained glass shop can be used in a bunch of ways. The edges can be sanded down (be sure to sand them with waterproof sandpaper, under water) and work as interesting beaded cabochons, or even as pendants on a necklace with an interesting bail glued to the back. My husband and son once brought me home a small box of various glass from the stained glass store, and my son still loves to say "oh, you can make my mom happy just by giving her a box full of broken glass." - Match Boxes
The little ones, those that hold a small quantity of wooden matches. They can be reinforced for added strength and made into all kinds of fun picture frames. holders, lockets and even into personal shrines. - Paper Matchbooks
If you have a staple remover, or a sturdy butter knife in your studio, it's not hard to remove the cardboard insert containing the matches. Just make sure you dispose of them safely. Then, you can re-cover the matchbook cover with anything - fabric, paper, plastic, beads, etc. and then cut some tiny pieces of paper to replace the matches and have yourself a nice little notebook. Use this to jot down quick ideas for projects, but unless you can get perforated paper to staple in place, you might have a hard time tearing out the pages. Some restaurants now give these out in place of matches, which is nice, because they have the paper in place, and you can just decorate the cover! - Metal Tags
These are the kind used in gardening or the ones meant for scrapbooks. These make wonderful charms and can be painted, stamped with alcohol-based inks, and dressed up with polymer clay and other surface treatments. - Metal Tins
Mint tins are the most common, but just about any kind of time can be used. I've seen some great old film cans that were used to store old home movies turned into a great tiny scrapbook. In fact, the one I saw cam about from a tragedy; a fire had burned near a box containing some old 8mm films. The film inside was ruined but the tins were OK, mostly, so they were used to make little "memory boxes" with pictures from the film's era.
