Bead boxes/palettes

Those of you who transfer your paint to bead boxes, I've got some questions:

1. Do you love it? Do you feel relief at its space-saving qualities and ease of use and setup?

2. Is there any way to keep it relatively neat looking?

3. Has any parent ever expressed concern that they weren't professional paints or that they looked messy or unprofessional?

4. Are they shallow enough to get a sponge into?

Thanks!

I did the bead box for 1 week before I transferred the paints back to their respective containers. I didn't like how deep the compartments were. Although the sponge fits just fine, sticking my fingers in the compartments to load the sponge made it impossible for my fingers to not get messy. I also found that people treated me more like a professional when I had all my professional containers. It may have not been directly related, but I certainly felt like it was. I know a lot of people love the bead box as it does make set-up super easy and it does take up less space. Although the professional cases make set-up just as fast because all you do is pop it open, they do take up more space. The space thing is not that big of an issue for me.

I used to use a bead box but it was very hard for me to keep it clean looking. The compartments are deep and you can't really wipe the paint off the insides. I switched to a Snaz Pro-22 which wipes up easier and is close to the same size, and recently switched again to a Paradise palette for an even more professional look since Snaz palettes can look sort of cheap and are a bit flimsy.

To answer your questions:

1. I did like that the lid on mine was molded to fit slightly into each compartment so that I could turn it sideways without wet paint dripping into other colors, etc. It saved space but I can do that without a bead box by using split cakes.

2. No, it's probably going to look pretty messy.

3. I never heard anyone comment on my kit being messy or unprofessional when I used a bead box, so it may not be a big concern for customers.

4. The compartments are large enough to fit a half sponge into width-wise.

I just purchased a bead box from Michaels yesterday! I read a lot of posts where people have been using the bead box. While I see it can be a bit messy I like the flexibility it gives me to make different split cake colors and to carry them around. I am planning on buying a pro paradise kit as well so I will have both. I say that if it works for you then keep it as neat as possible and continue to use it. If someone asks just let them know why you use it and assure them the paints are still the same as the ones in your other pallette.

I did it - and then transferred back after a few weeks. It just ended up looking up looking sloppy after some use. The palettes look so much more professional IMO

Like others I did it for a short time and hated it. I make splits out of "scrap" or ends of paints so I kept them as practice and have laptops now.

Honestly, I made all my cakes into splits. Slide them into the laptop and have 24 colors right there. I also have an arty brush laptop. I pop the foam out, put in the top side of the split cake palette and am only taking up one palette of space. I love this.
Not to mention the arty cake plastic containers can be refilled into custom cakes when they run out.

Why I didn't like the bead boxes-
They were too deep.
They got super messy very quickly.
Any excess water in them was impossible to get out, making colors "bleed".
Sponges fit fine, not all brushes did.
My fingers were more of a mess than any other sponge work I've done and I was constantly wiping them off to keep from smudging designs.

What was good-
They locked down tightly (one of my laptops snap mechanism broke).
They're smaller table space wise (but taller than laptops storage wise).
I liked the long storage ones, so I could get a good drag of paint. There were less compartments in those though (so back to having more things).

I absolutely LOVE my kit... and I use a bead box/crafty thing. I have used this same thing for a year now and I don't think it looks overly messy... I get TONS of colors in a small amount of space and I have never had anyone questions my paints..

Just my 2 cents

I really love the look of that Suzy....

I just changed all my colors over into the bead box and I am definitely looking forward to using it for the first time with a gig on Thursday. Just the ease of setting up and taking down for me is enough of a draw for me to do it. I tend not to be a very organized person, and this seems to really help at home with practicing, so I think it will in public as well. I like the way everyone else's kits look, so....

I tried the bead boxes & then went back to the packages. I wanted to distinguish myself from my local market. Many of them use bead boxes & mops for their work. Bead boxes are hard to keep clean & as you work down into the paint, they get too deep to work with. Also, Snaz eats plastic & you'll end up w/ plastic components breaking down into your paints.

I love my bead box setup... fast and easy. Since I clean my hands between each customer, it doesn't matter that my fingers get a little messier. Kids love that there are so many color choices and parents have often remarked how neat and professional my setup is, so I don't think it's a negative in their eyes. I'm sometimes sharing my tabletop on my fatmax with 2 or 3 other people so space is a premium and this setup allows for that. I've had my paints in a bead box for about a year and a half and there's been no degradation of the plastic. It does take a little time to clean up and make look neat in between gigs but I clean my whole kit between gigs anyway, so doesn't matter to me. Excuse the messiness in the pics- this was the morning after a busy gig before I cleaned my kit

If they ever came out with shallow, large rectangular, black compartment, bead boxes, I would do one again for sure, but I didn't like the deep clear ones. I really wish a manufacturer would come out with rectangular containers for the regular colors that were black. The black color is what I love about my paradise containers.

Suzy, how do you get your paints in the bead box? I just purchased one just like it.

Squiggle

Do you use that white net bag to hold your clean sponges as you paint?

Yes, I have one mesh bag for clean sponges strapped to the chair, then a collapsible box under my fat max that I throw all my dirty sponges and trash into during the gig (not shown). At the end of the gig, I have a second mesh bag that I put all the dirty sponges into and a garbage bag for the trash. If I'm in a hurry to get out of there, I just put the whole box into the garbage bag then separate everything when I get home. The dirty sponge bag goes into the washing machine with my dirty towels and apron

To get the paint into the bead box you just pry it out of the cake and smoosh it into the containers Easy!

Sounds great!!! Do you find that your sponges stay really stained if you dont get them into the washer machine right away? is it ok to wash them with laundry detergent?

Because I use mostly metallics mine stain however quickly I get them into the washer LOL Yes, I was them with my regular laundry detergent

Thanks Squiggle

I love the FatMax. That's a great idea.

I use bead containers with no problems. Just push down the corners when the middle wears down and keep the paint filled up and it looks just fine.

I only used the bead boxes for a very short time too.

Now my favorite is to use separate rectanular boxes - think of the boxes Prism Split cakes come in, or the Diamond FX Euro Cakes, or the Silly Farm huge body cakes.

I take all of their little lids off, and put them all into a big pallet box, with ONE big lid over it all. I velcox them all into the one big box.

This makes them easy to take out, and run under a faucet to clean as needed.

Here is a photo of my set-up from last year.



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where do you get the rectangular brushes

I meant to ask where do u get the rectangular cases

So I wonder if the bead boxes are good for glitter?

@Suzy, Squiggle, etc.:

Can I ask how deep are your bead boxes? I've been scouring online and the shallowest compartment box I found was a tackle box at 1.13". In your photos the boxes don't look too deep.

Thanks!