When I was perhaps 11 years old, I was introduced to my first bead shop. A friend’s mother took myself, her daughter, and a few others out for a Girls’ Day, and we went beading. Naturally, we didn’t do anything elaborate at 11 years old, but we were happy and I was in love.
After achieving not only a license, but a job that could pay for the supplies, I went on to frequent the bead shop and make what I thought were awesome necklaces. In reality, I had a lot to learn, but again, I was happy.
This bead shop went on to close, and unfortunately I was unaware of any other reasonably-priced places in the area. Color me depressed, because I really loved that place; even if I didn’t frequent it as much as I wanted.
It was with great happiness that I found out one of the girls who worked at that bead shop had opened her own place, and that said place was closer to me than the original shop! It’s not as large and therefore cannot host as large a variety of beads, but she does a wonderful job with the space she has available.
Now that I am of an age where I’ve learned patience, I’ve begun taking bead classes at her quaint shop. At this point I’ve taken seven classes, and I don’t intend to stop there. With each class taken, it’s another technique learned; many of which I’m hoping to incorporate into items you’ll see offered from us. At the moment the main focus are the bracelets, because they’re relatively quick to make, and not as expensive a cost to you.
My current favorite has to be the Russian Spiral, which after learning the pattern for I quickly dissected so that I could change the colors in and out at will. It takes about an hour and forty-five minutes to make one of the bracelets, but thanks to increased patience and just a general love for the peaceful beading time it doesn’t seem like all that long.
What is really fabulous about these items though, is we’re going to attempt to coordinate them with our eggshell jewelry, so that you can coordinate them too! After all, it’s no fun when things don’t match. 😉
On top of enjoying the craft, I’m happy to say that we as a small business are able to support another local small business in the process. As much as possible, we are trying to source materials from her shop, and take as many classes as we possibly can. When we can shop local, we try to. The internet is great for a lot of things, but keeping your local economy and small businesses going and growing is not one of them.
So please look forward to seeing many beaded crafts from us! They’ll soon be available on our Etsy, and at craft fairs we attend. We hope you love them as much as we do. ♥