There’s always one more, right?

So, I have this catalog on my web site of the beads that I make regularly for orders. Last month I got an order that called for ten of these beads (along with twenty other beads):

When I finished the order and got ready to string them all up for shipping, this is what I found:

Do you see what is wrong with this picture? Other than I took the photo quickly with a flash and they look fluorescent? Really they’re not. Look closely and you will see that there are only nine beads there. I was one short. And this order was already a bit late because I had been traveling. GRRRR!

So, since this is a style that I make regularly I thought, “There is always one more!” Right? Just like change in the bottom of your purse or tampons. With beads, there is always an extra laying around somewhere from a previous order or a show or just whatever. So I proceeded to look through my stash. I started here:

And continued here:

Which, led to here, even though they were primarily disks I thought, you never know where things can get put away after a show…

And then I checked here, in my spacers (at least, the ones that had been separated and stored properly):

Then through some odds and ends:

Things were starting to all look the same but I had hope that there was one lonely aquatic bead in there waiting to be reunited with its family. So I continued…

And, I know it was a long shot looking into the elusive focals show box but what the heck, right? I’d come this far already.

I delved into the other boxes and my hope started to fade. I wasn’t even getting close.

And my memory was not serving me correctly. Now, if you were an aquatic bead, where would you be? That thought process usually helps me to find things long forgotten. Or not.

I was getting to the end of my rope and was starting to realize that this order was going to have to wait yet another day to ship. I’d have to make one lonely bead and anneal it for hours just to complete this order. I know you’re pulling for a happy ending to this story, and that the last picture I show here is going to reveal one lonely bead that matches perfectly, right? Well, there was one more box left…

And while it might not look like it, I found one bead that came close.

If only I wouldn’t have cut the sides to make it a butterfly shape. And melted those aqua dots down. And etched it. It would have been perfect.

But, alas, it was as close as I was going to get. I had to wait another day, make another bead and the order did go out. Now, if I find one of those suckers laying around on my bench, I’m going to be really aggravated.

Tagged as: bead stash, excess, inventory