Seed bead swatches
I started to do a lot of projects with seed beads when I got a Beading Bead-a-day calendar a couple years ago. The good thing about the calendar is that it has a lot of different techniques and the instruction cards are a useful size to keep on the table next to you while you're trying something new. One helpful tip I picked up from the calendar was to keep swatches of your seed beads so you know what you've got to work with. As you can see, I've built up quite a palette over the last few years. When I was in Paris, I went to the Marché aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt , a huge flea market, and I found a shop with a huge selection of wonderful vintage and antique seed beads. I just finished making swatches for all of them because although swatches are useful, they're not terribly fun to make. Since older seed beads tend to be more irregular in shape, the swatches look kind of lopsided, so I guess I won't be doing much bead-weaving with them. They'll work as