Beads Galore!

My wife and I took off today to look at bead stores. She has plans to design some interesting jewelry.

The first place, Baubles and Beads, was huge--and we spent quite a while walking through and looking at the thousands and thousands of different beads you can buy. I wondered how they keep track of the items, which sat neatly in their tiny little trays with prices posted. They are almost all too small to hold price stickers!

Turns out they give you a pre-marked tray and you simply drop the items you want into the appropriate spots--$0.35? $5.00? Drop it in. They tally it up at the end--no cheating!

There is almost no limit to the kinds of things you can find in a bead store. Gorgeous colors, tiny objects, a wide range of materials and surfaces. If you have an idea, they should be able to supply something. One-quarter-inch-wide Buddha heads? Microscopic housekeys? Any animal you can think of? Replica watch faces? Beads made from beer bottlecaps?

They also have a whole corner of the store devoted to the small tools needed for manipulating the tiny wires, beads, metal pieces, etc. And how about classes? You can learn to do almost anything beadworthy.

We went to a second place, Bead Inspirations, but it was a fraction of the size. However, it still offered a charming inventory, and is closer to home, so any classes (weekends and holiday Mondays only) would be easier (and a little cheaper, too).

Afterwards, we bought my wife a sketchbook for her to record her jewelry ideas. I can't wait to see the results of all this research. But, the best part of all was spending the afternoon together.