Work Surface for Beading

Try an old mouse pad!  These are designed not to slide around, you can stick pins into them if you need to, and they're usually dark on the back which makes it easier to see your beads.

Chris sent me these great ideas:

I find that working on a piece of velvet stuck onto a piece of sticky back plastic much easier to work on than a beading board.  The beads don't roll around and when you have finished you can just roll it up and pour your beads back into their container.

Another tip is to use a piece of masking tape stuck onto your work bench, on this you can mark the length,centre etc. of you work.

Janet is also very organised...

I use a (new) wooden cutting board when I want to sit and work on beads. The trough that is routed around the perimeter helps keep the beads from rolling off onto the floor. I have a 2" magnet glued to one of the upper corners to stick pins and needles. The weight of the board helps keep it from tipping, too. This works really well for me and a good sized cutting board is pretty inexpensive.
Thanks Susan!