Featured Brand of the Month - TierraCast: Week Two

This week, as part of the featured brand of the month, we want to showcase the large hole style beads by TierraCast. Many of these affordable beads come in brass, silver and black finish pewter.

Another thing I want to introduce to you, if you don't already know about them, are the large hole bead aligners. These small beads look like rivets but are actually really helpful in transforming your large hole beads to fit a smaller chain or head pin. Have you ever see a large hole bead but didn't want the full effect of the chunky bracelet? These bead aligners are your solution. Our designer Julie used them in her Air Mail Earrings. With bead aligners you can incorporate these beads into many of your designs.

Below is a great video to show you just how easy and versatile the TierraCast bead aligners can be.

Here are the designer picks for the TierraCast large hole style beads.

Julie

This little bunny is just too cute and I love how he is molded around the bead, I can see him spinning delightfully on a bracelet. I chose him because he reminds me of the rabbits I sometimes see in my grandma's pasture when I go home to visit. 

Megan

These skull beads are so cool. They're really detailed, and the roses on the back are so pretty when contrasted against the tough looking skulls. Plus, they have a hanging loop at the bottom, so you can add a little bead dangle. I always love large hole beads and charms with that extra little something!

Kat

I love this cute little brass lion bead. This would be a great charm to add to someone's charm bracelet that has the lion as a school mascot. This bead comes in silver plated as well.

Karlin

I think this silver pewter plated owl bead is adorable. It's super animated and eye-catching. I think it would be an awesome little addition to your bracelet or necklace. Plus, owls are so in right now! 

Which one is your favorite? Comment below. And don't forget to add your creations to our Customer Gallery.

Spotlight Saturday: Charming Bookmarks

How is that Summer reading coming along?  What's your favorite type of beach book?  A juicy thriller or a devious mystery?   I don't know about you but I love relaxing on the beach with a great book, but there is no way I am bringing my digital reading device into the sand.  So I always have a old fashioned book when I head out to get some sun.  You know, one where you actually have to turn the pages?  And for that, you will need a stylish bookmark!

Featured Video: How to Use Ribbon Crimps

This video shows you how easy it is to create a finished look to your ribbon projects.  No more frayed ends of ribbon to ruin your projects.

Featured Project:  Don't Bother Me, I'm Reading!  Bookmark

This is such a great project that you can make one for everyone in your Book Club.  This also makes a great gift for your favorite student going back to school this fall, which you can personalize with their school colors using our ribbon and charms.

Featured Product:  Pandora Beads 

My personal favorite is this Neon Pink SWAROVSKI ELEMENTS crystal BeCharmed Pearl Bead. There is no way I am losing that one in the sand. Get creative! We have so many to choose from. Be sure to check out all of our Pandora Style Beads.  Share your favorite with us below.

Happy Beading and Happy Reading!

Pieces for Nieces

You would think, as someone who runs a bead website, that I would be giving the gift of jewelry to everyone I know this holiday season.  Ironically, we're so busy here bringing beautiful beading supplies to other people, that I don't have much time to make jewelry anymore.  Things have changed since the days I worked full time making jewelry to sell at swap meets.  It was so easy to pick out finished pieces from my stock, or make a variation of something I had already designed, to give to people.  

My creative thrills come more vicariously now, through our customers and our design department.  I supervise video, photography, website and graphic design, and, of course our two wonderful jewelry designers, Andrea and Kathleen.  To them, I flatter myself, I am a gently exhortative muse, the Tim Gunn to their creative process.  "Great color palette, but I want more strands!"  "Step back and look at the necklace from 10 feet away before you decide...."   And of course, "Can somebody please make some more bracelets?"   If our designers have a different view of my assistance, they have never said a word to me....

This year, trying to break my 5-year streak of Amazon e-gift certificate giving, I thought of a way to at least give my two young nieces some jewelry, complete with modern interactive features.   

I think almost everyone has now become aware of the Pandora jewelry phenomenon.   This is a hugely popular jewelry line that uses as its basis the concept of large-hole 'charm' beads made of precious materials, that can be chosen and switched out by the owner, to customize their bracelet, necklace or earrings.

Genuine Pandora beads can cost hundreds of dollars each, putting them out of the reach of most of us.   So it is no wonder that dozens of competing brands of interchangeable beads have sprung up.   It is now quite easy to find attractive and original large-hole beads that cost under three dollars each. 

I decided to take advantage of our large-hole bead inventory to make some 'Pandora-style' bracelets for my young nieces.   I browsed our website, channeling my inner little girl.   Shopping for those beads was FUN!  Themes of pink, flowers, bling, butterflies, hearts, peace signs and smiley faces seemed right to me.  Fat beads, spacer beads, dangling charms, they all had to be there.    It was a little too easy to get a big selection in my cart, and I had to do a little editing before I was done.

Once my order was in my hands, I put together my own pandora-style charms by attaching cute silver-plated charms to charm-hanger beads with the included jump rings.    Each niece is getting a charm with her initial on it, so their bracelets will be even more personal.   Each girl is also getting some extra beads - so the younger girl will have fun choosing her favorites and the older girl can choose beads to match her outfits.  I chose high-quality black rubber bracelets over solid Sterling for the practicality and price point.   The clasp assembly is Sterling, and if the screw-off end should get lost, well, we have extras in stock.

I think these are fun gifts for young girls.   While I wouldn't give something like this to anyone younger than six, I can tell you that a lot of grown-ups in the offices loved these bracelets too.   For the more elegant among us, there are many beads and bracelets available that are more sophisticated.

-Sarah

PS:  To my sisters-in-law--please do not show this blog to your daughters if the packages haven't arrived yet!

Monday's New Arrivals at Beadaholique!

We are constantly getting neat new 'stuff' in at Beadaholique. We used to just pop each item up on the website one by one, as the photos got done, as the descriptions got written, in between doing other things...the result was that our New Arrivals category, while large, was usually a jumble, and its size actually made it difficult for anyone to really get through it.

Lately, we've been sorting our New Arrivals into concise, exciting (well we think so) groupings. On our home page it is now easy to see the groups of arrivals from the last two weeks, and you can click through to see every new category of stuff for up to the last six months.

So feel free to check out the beads, findings or supplies that most interest you: New Pandora-Style Crystal and Birthstone Beads, Pandora Style Metal Beads, New Mixed Media Materials, including Lisa Pavelka Waterslides, New Craft Wire in Half Round and Square shapes, New Steampunk Buttons, new Batik Beauties and Sassy Silkies Fabric Beads by Kristal Wick, or some really cute antiqued Alphabet charms (which remind me of old typewriter keys).

Have fun!

-Sarah