Building a travel size bead kit
I am currently in a long distance relationship and learned that traveling as a multidisciplinary artist can be difficult as I pair down my supplies. However, a minimal traveling kit encourages me to be more decisive and resourceful, which greatly benefits my art practice. So I’m not too bothered.
For my current trip, I chose to focus on beadwork as I prepare for a holiday market at the end of November. 11/0 sized seed beads are extremely portable (because they’re tiny) and I don’t use many beads much larger than that. With the exception of the lighter, the photo below shows everything I brought in my carry-on. I use a lighter to burn the ends of my beading thread after knotting. My boyfriend graciously lent it to me as I cannot take one on the plane due to TSA rules.
I bought the small plastic box at Daiso and it stores my current projects, some beads, beeswax, a triangular bead scoop (on the right of the photo), and my needles stored in another smaller plastic box (seen to the left of the bead scoop). The toiletry bag stores thread and the rest of my beads. I‘m currently using Hercules fishing line for my thread.
I bought these mini scissors while visiting Japan last year and they‘re not fantastic but they get the job done/ensure that I don’t have to worry about TSA perceiving them as a weapon. I look forward to posting my finished beadwork.