How Three Boxes Become Five

Written by Rosita. Posted by Carol Dean

When I received the 3 big boxes, Bernie and me were working hard on our annual tax returns, so I decided to postpone opening the boxes until after all this was finished. It was hard, but had to be done!

Once the taxes done, it was time to open and have fun.

The items to pick from were wonderful thanks to everyone else’s generosity.

So here is what I picked: First I chose the book by Jeanette Cook (you can never have too many books on beading techniques!) and a pattern/kit by Nikia Angel.

Then my greedy hands went to the black Parawire and I picked 5 spools, these will come handy as I am increasing the amount of wire work I am including in my beading. Then I chose a short strand of peacock rondelles, a baggie of fat silver toned beads and 5 baggies of small rice shape silver toned beads, a baggie of tiny peacock bicones (Swarovski?), a baggie of funny fan shaped polka dotted beads that looked neat and 4 little glass beads that looked like mini tortoiseshell. And two tubes of #8 beads in chocolate brown and olive.

I could not resist picking 6 fancy Czech glass buttons as Buttons are often prominent in my beadwoven cuffs.

Now for focal beads and pendants: A long mottled brown and ivory lampwork bead, a large lovely ocean blue/green long bead, a large clay bead with a dreamy face and sparkles, another clay face cab with a bit of a snotty expression I found appealing! I will have to figure out how to use this one!

There were many interesting pendants and I chose a dark blue ceramic one, a green and blue pillow porcelain by Marsha Neal, a rectangular porcelain piece and a fantastic triangular slide pendant in soft beige tones( I will probably make something for myself with this one!).

Then I chose the tongs with scoop end, a Tierracast toggle clasp and the sweetest little pink parrot dangles.

Now for what I added to the treasure chest.

When adding to the chest, my thoughts went to adding as much value as possible so that when auctioning for the fundraiser, there would be items attractive for a wide range of beaders and jewelry makers, so I did add some items in large quantities of multiple bundles and strands. These can all be taken apart to create smaller bundles.

As pictures are better than a thousand words. Here they are. My husband Bernie donated all the stones and cabs from his Lodin's Gems and Minerals sock.

Fire Polished glass beads.

Czech round beads.

More Czech beads.

Betel nut beads from the Philippines.

Burnt wood beads from the Philippines.

Freshwater pearls.

Cloisonne/enamel focals and beads.

Agates, Sardonyx and various porcelains.

Various stone cabs and beads.

More stone cabs and beads.

Gold plated findings and Fiber optic beads

Painted wood beads.

Various stone beads.

Seed bead tubes.

More seed beads and cubes.

Hand-made lampwork, clay and other beads.

A bunch of Swarovskis.

A crimp plier, trays and a metal hole puncher.

More glass beads.

A glue gun and glue. Colored wires.

Leather scraps.

I had to add another large flat rate Priority box to pack all the goodies, but this was not enough so I added a medium flat rate priority box to carry everything.

So Beads of Courage 2011 are now to 5 boxes!

Courage Tiger supervised me during the entire process and helped me pick out the donations, he was the one to have the last say and was the ultimate decision maker. His favorite item was the heavy metal hole puncher as he sees himself as a ‘tool man’ since his visit here!