OK Campers - do you SEE those colors???  These babies are Czech seed beads (look like 10’s and 11’s) made for the Walbead company in the 1960’s, in ORIGINAL PACKAGING.  Walbeads did a lot of French beaded flower kits and books.  So we have a lot of nice flower colors. 

We looked online for other vintage beads like these, but we couldn’t find a thing as wonderful.  They have been sitting in a box in a warehouse for nearly 40 years.  The cards are mostly in perfect shape.  The beads are wonderful colors, bright shades and some wonderful color-lined greens and pinks that we haven’t ever seen anywhere else.   Oranges and yellows - just LOOK at them!!!!  (sorry, drooled)

And it was awfully hard, but after a lot of agonizing reflection we finally realized that the Bead Goddess would smack us down hard if we kept them all to ourselves.   We can’t hoard them, we can’t pretend nobody else would love them, we have to let them go to their Forever Homes. 

So we split them between the two stores - half to Fort Worth, half to Carrollton (the pictures are of the Carrollton share - yes, that’s all there is.)  And we’re selling them for the unbelievable price of $6.00 a hank.

If you have a Thing for vintage seed beads, or if you just love beautiful beads, come in soon!!

If you’ve seen the brown peyote bracelet with gold spirals that we have at the Carrollton store, you’ve seen one example of Eleonore Pieper’s skill.  We recently found her again, and she sent us a link to her beadwork gallery - http://tinyurl.com/ljkrde .

Chickens - this is AMAZING!!!  Go ahead and look, we won’t wait around for you (we’ll be here later, promise).  I warn you, though, I had to put my head between my knees a couple of times, there are several designs in here that make me woozy.  Luna Moths?  aaaaahhhhh - too wondiferous for words!!!!!  Old Tapestry - knees get weak!  I can’t look at them now, I MUST finish this.

Anyway, we are working on getting some of Eleonore’s patterns for sale in the store.  We’ll let you know when we have them.  And we might see if we can get some of her newer patterns too. 

The Gecko bracelet!!  I NEED that!!!

My Gecko by =Ellygator on deviantART

We need help and some honest feedback.  We did a google search for the terms Beads + Dallas and guess what? We didn’t show up on the
Google map and we weren’t even listed on the first page.

Please help us out by going to this address and adding an honest review of the Artful Bead.

http://tinyurl.com/qr9muq

Just look at these cuties!

Picture Frame Pendants

They range in size down from an inch and a half,  (the copper and silver big squares) and have a little latch on the side.  You can put in fabric, paper, pictures, flowers, you name it!

And they have nice large loops, so you can slide them onto premade necklaces or cord.  Quick and personal, right?

Oh, also, all of the 3mm Miyuki cubes are now 33% off.  Yes, that’s ALL of the 3mm cube seed beads are one -third off.  So hurry.

We had a woman in the store this week who said she was “just getting started in this beading stuff” and wanted help picking out some beads to go with some she already had.  She pulled out a ziplock bag with 8 or 10 large glass beads, that had three colors on each. 

I go through the “what kind of beads” litany.  Do you want to emphasize any of the colors in particular?  No…  Do you want to add some sparkle or tone it down?  I don’t know…  Is there a particular outfit you plan to wear it with? 

And then she drops the bomb:  “I don’t really like them, they’re from a broken necklace I bought for a quarter at a garage sale.  I don’t know what I”m doing, so it makes no sense to spend any money on it.”

Wait just a minute!!!  Let’s think this through carefully.  If you don’t like the main components, you aren’t going to like or enjoy the finished piece, are you?  If you ever do wear it, and somebody notices it, you’re likely to say “I made it, but it’s not any good.”  And you decide that you can’t make jewelry, because the first thing you made wasn’t anything you could be proud of.

WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!

Everybody’s heard the computer adage “Garbage in, garbage out” right?  And you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, as Granny used to say.  These are cliches because they’re nearly always true.  The final product is still what the ingredients were.

So what if you’re just learning?  If you want to make something you’ll be proud of and want to wear, do it with materials that you like!  You don’t have to spend $300 on sapphires to make something beautiful, we have plenty of beads that are absolutely wonderful for any budget.  Yes, ANY budget! 

How about a $20 necklace?  Or $5 earrings?  You’d pay that much in any store, or even more.  And for that much, you can pick out beads that you like, spacers and accents to make it pop, and all the rest.  And then when somebody compliments it, you can say “Thanks!  I made it!” with pride! 

So what if the finishing isn’t quite perfect?  Nobody but you will ever notice that the crimping isn’t exactly straight.  Nobody will care that the clasp is a bit boring.  Have you looked at store-bought jewelry?  Those crimps are a mess!  The clasps are always the cheapest thing they could find! 

And if you decide later that you made some critical mistake, or that it needs something else, cut it apart and use those beads you love all over again.  Those beads can be used over and over, you know.  The holes are still there!

Are you missing something? The following have been found this week:

Please call or come by to claim them.

Well, we listened to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s infomative and very funny talk, she signed our book, let us take a picture, and we gave her beads.

It was amazing.  She is as funny in person, and we all felt like an old friend had stopped by to catch us up on important stuff.  And everything she said about knitting totally applies to beading too, really!!  Between knitters and beaders, it’s only a matter of time till we take over the world. 

And the funniest thing?  Watching the bookstore staff as they watched an overflow crowd knitting.  Standing knitting, sitting knitting, laughing knitting.  The first question was about her dishwasher, that’s how nerdy we all are.  It was fabulous, and totally worth getting home at 11.  Really a great evening.

Don’t forget, on Friday May 29th, we’re closing early so we can see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at Legacy Books. Officially, we’re supposed to close at 6, but if we get antsy, (which is, sadly, more likely than not,) we may skate out early so we can be sure and get our book signed.

Actually, “we” here refers to me (your local Bead Hoor) and Michell, who is going with me. Because I’m not reliable enough on my own in circumstances like these. I’m likely to miss the exit, or forget to put on shoes, or something like that. Like saying “OMG, I LOOOOOOVE your stuff (drool embarrassingly, dribble on table) you are soooooo wunnerful!” and fall over. Really. I know how I am around people I nearly worship. So Michell will be there to kick me before I totally boob flake out.  She’s wonderfully competent and controlled and parental like that.

We’ll be back at 10:00 AM Saturday, open and selling beads.  If you come by and we’re gone Friday night, we’re sorry.  But Los Lupes does a tasty margarita. 

Whoopee!!!  Less than 24 hours to go!!! 

Excuse me, I have to go practice being normal for awhile.

Oh, come’on, everybody needs help sometimes. That’s why we’re having our new “The Joy of Being Random” classes. In fact, there is one in Fort Worth on Saturday (the 23rd) and two in Carrollton this Sunday (the 24th)! Check the schedules for exact times.

The Joy of Being Random is a one-hour design seminar on how to break yourself out of the “big bead, little bead, big bead, little bead” box. How to make great necklaces and bracelets that go with more things, look more professional, and don’t look like you borrowed them from Aunt Mildred. (Sorry, Aunt Mildred, but you wear boring jewelry made mostly of plastic…) We won’t be making a bracelet or anything, just giving you a million and one ideas. These $10 classes just packed with information.

And if you have a piece that you’ve been stuck on, bring it with you, we’ll help break through the design wall.

There are plenty of spots left, but sign up soon!

The Carrollton store will be closing at 6:00 on May 29th, so we can go to Legacy Bookstore to see the Yarn Harlot! Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to Dallas!!! She’s signing books AND talking!!! And she likes beads too!

If you haven’t discovered her, check out her blog. She’s wonderfully funny about life and knitting, and she’s taught me an amazing amount. Like the spider-in-the-shower story. I thought I was the only person that freaked about spiders when naked. Except her story was a lot funnier. (Yarn Harlot Blog Archive, August 6, 2007 - The Bad and the Ugly parts.) A word of warning, if you read her blog at work, and you laugh out loud, don’t tell them it’s about knitting, or they’ll think you’re crazy. (As S P-M says, “Ask me how I know that!”)

So show up and bring your knitting and beading. Bookstore employees are often quite taken aback at the response Stephanie gets. She deserves a great big Dallas-Fort Worth welcome, y’all!!!