I'm making some earrings for my mum (at her request) to go with a bracelet I made her for Christmas. Anyway, I know earrings are a bit fiddly but I seem to have dropped every bead, piece of chain etc lots of times while making them and I'm having a break cos I'm getting nowhere. Do you have those days where you seem to have butter fingers and just can't get things done?

I get that all the time hun, lol. Sometimes the air is blue when im beading, my youngest dd loves coming to my bead room with me when im making stuff to see what treasures she can find on the carpet when im finished lol.

Sometimes i just take a deep breath, go make a coffee and go back to it when im not so irrate lol.

Hope you manage to finish your project soon.

Carol XXX

I know just what you mean. I've just been making earrings that a customer asked me to make to go with a bracelet. They should be easy as the beads are a Jilly Beads mix and they are only dangles but they've taken me ages. Pity I don't charge according to how long I take!

Di

Yes, I think we all have those days - I definitely have times when it's really NOT a good idea for me to work on items because they are guaranteed to break/ crack/get dropped and bits go missing/get irredeemably tangled.

Sometimes you're too tired, or too stressed, or the beading gnomes just have it in for you...

On those days, I put the tray down (outside of the most remotely possible kicking/knocking range - believe me, this is important) and watch telly.

I'm glad it's not just me. I got them done in the end. Have emailed my mum a photo and she's very pleased with them. I'll be popping them in the post for her tomorrow.

That is who they are beading gnomes - thanks Wraithlady I do find when I get tired I am much more clumsy. As others do - I just walk away and do something else for a while and then come back to it.

The problem is when you up against a tight deadline, and you have lots of beads and fixings out on your mat and you can't find something - and it is staring you in the face - you are actually looking at it - but can't see it!

best regards
catherine-emma

Know how you feel.
Some days I drop more on the floor than I use.
My dog lets me know, cos she picks them up and tosses them around the wooden floor, then I have to chase her around trying to retrieve them

Oh Im well known for my sausage fingers! Youre sooo not alone, Ive ha a no 15 seed stuck in my keyboard for 3 weeks and no amount of vacuuming is shifting the bl**y thing!! Im fab at dropping beads...usually when Im sat on my sisters deck and cant retrieve the flippin things!! Grrr!!

ahh the ping factor!!
just think, if you drop enough findings, then your floor could exfoliate your feet wonderfully!!

I'm always dropping stuff, and grovelling on the floor.
I did a chain maille course with Jean Power a year or so ago: she had a good idea. We all wore aprons that we put the beading mats on - that way most stuff just stayed on the apron. (You needed to remember you'd done that though when you stood up).