Craftwork: Beading On A Sunny Day
Want to know how we spent our sunny Saturday afternoon? It involved some good friends, white wine, and lots of beads. We wanted to craft and enjoy the summer weather we were having, so we dragged our city feet over to the East Bay for a beading party. Not only was it warmer on the other side of the bay, but our friends over there have a nice big yard perfect for crafting in the sun. We brought our bins of beads, stopped off for some supplies on the way, and had a lovely afternoon.
When you bead with friends not only can you swap beads and supplies, it's also the perfect time to share skills and teach each other different techniques. Start with an easy project like a necklace or drop earrings. We know that lots of people don't have time to make their own jewelry, but after you learn how to make a pair of earrings you'll never look at store bought ones the same way again. Once you get some basics down, you can make those $50 earrings for about $5, and feel proud showing off your handy work to everyone.
We've been buying beads in the city for a while now, so we thought we should share some of our favorite places to get supplies. We'd love to hear about your favorite spots to buy beads, so feel free to leave comments with any places we didn't list and may not know about.
Photo courtesy of CharmingMilo.
General Bead in Soma is by far our favorite place to buy supplies. With two floors of beads, wire, chain, findings, and charms, General Bead offers some of the best deals in the city. Make sure to set some time aside for a visit here, and be sure to go upstairs as they have lots of great sales up there.
Right around the corner, also in Soma you'll find Beyond Beads. We love the shelves full of charms and chain available by the inch. Like General Bead, Beyond Beads has bargain prices and it's a good place to go if you're just starting out. The staff at Beyond Beads are friendly and will take the time to help you work through a problem or find the right beads for a project.
We're sure there are lots of good bead stores in the East Bay, but since we do most of our shopping for crafts here, we've only got SF suggestions for you. We did stop at the Michaels in Emeryville for some basic things we needed before hitting the backyard. Don't get fooled into buying the tools you need for beading at a fancy bead boutique, pliers, and wire cutters are extremely over priced in these stores. You can get the same exact tools for half the price at Michaels. If you know of some good bead stores in the East Bay leave your suggestions in the comments.
Beadissimo in the Mission is a little more on the pricey side, we like going there when we want to get a couple of precious and unique beads for a project. It's not overwhelming and all of the beads are well organized. This store is clean and open, with a big table in the front room where customers are invited to work on their projects with help from the staff. They also offer classes.
Noe Valley has a cute little bead shop called Forbeadin', on the expensive side, it's also well organized and offers some good quality findings and beads. They have classes and can create custom jewelry for events.
Even though it's tiny and and doesn't have a huge selection to chose from, we love The Bead Store in the Castro. The Bead Store is a great place to go if you're looking for different beads from around the world. They make and fix jewelry and every time we've been in there we can't believe how nice they are to everyone who walks in the door.
It looks like we've got some rainy days coming up, so you'll just have to get cozy and bead indoors for now. Practice inside and celebrate the next warm day by throwing a beading party.