Category: Products & Services (Page 15 of 24)

I’ve ordered a bunch of findings (as the metal parts that hold jewelry together are called) through e-bay, but most of them are coming from China, so it’ll be a while before I get them. Meanwhile I was in need of more clasps, fishhooks (for earrings), crimp beads and so forth. I figured buying a findings set would be the cheapest option – specially given the 40% off coupon always available at Michaels. Well, I was wrong. The Precious Accents collection is soooo bad that I’d have been better off just waiting.
The collection, even with the coupon, is not particularly cheap – almost $7 after tax. It comes with a little of everything, emphasis on the little. But what is annoying is just how cheap all the findings are, made from such weak metal. The clasps are hard to open (and I’m sure they’ll quickly break), the hoops are too small and the pins very fragile. I hope the stuff I get from China is better 🙂

I haven’t been “beading” for very long, but soon after I bought our first jewelery kits I lost the beading needles that came with them. It’s quite hard to put small beads into thread without a beading needle, so I hurried to buy some more.
There were several choices at Michaels, a craft chain store near us, and some how I lucked out and got the Beadalon Collapsible Eye Needles. I LOVE them. So far, I’ve pretty much been able to bead anything I’ve wanted using them. The eyes collapse, so it mostly doesn’t matter how small the hole in the bead is (but be weary and don’t try to force it, I did get a needle to break while trying to pass it through too small a hole).
There are a couple of minuses, however. For one, they’re expensive!, up to $4 for a 4-pack. For the other, they are VERY easy to lose. I already lost 3 of the 4 that came in my last package. They are so thin that it’s almost impossible to see them once they fall into the floor.
Anyway, I’m sold by them.

I got Alex Toys Paint Ice Beads and Jingle Jewelry Kit, after the kids and I made a couple of necklaces with the Girlfitti Magna Style Jewelry Kit which my mother got for the girls. They enjoyed that kit, so I thought they would like these as well.
And indeed, they did. They loved painting the “ice” (a.k.a. glass) beads in the first kit, and they loved the idea of jingle jewelry in the second kit. But… they weren’t too big on making the jewelry itself. The beads that come with the kits are very small, and the possibilities for creativity, at least with the ice set, are limited. So they haven’t gone beyond painting beads on that set.
We fared even worse with the Jingle Jewelry Kit. The first problem was that the kit didn’t have any written instructions as to how to make the jewelry, just drawings of the steps. Alas, if you’ve never made jewelry before the steps could seem puzzling. But beyond that, using the jingles means having to knot the cord in precise places before and after putting specific beads – not an easy endeavor for me, much less for two little girls who barely know how to tie knots. Let’s just say that the enthusiasm for the kits did not last very long.
In all, now that I have gotten more beads, those two kits seem rather expensive for what they are (but that’s true of all of Alex’s kits). Still, the kids liked painting those beads so much that I’ll try to find some transparent beads for them to paint.