Yesterday I got some more beads I had ordered on e-bay. They are supposed to be black agate and azurite. To tell you the truth I’m not convinced that the beads sold on e-bay (almost exclusively from China/Hong Kong) are what they say they are. I suspect that they may be artificial, some sort of resin. But knowing absolutely nothing about rocks, I don’t have a way of really knowing. So, to make myself feel better, I’ll just go on assuming they are “real”.
I’ve been thinking what to do with the pearls I got the other day, and decided that I wanted to match them with the black agate. I ended up making the necklace below and I’m very, very happy with it. I think it looks even better in person, and I’ll definitely wear it with dressy clothing. The necklace is supposed to be Mika’s, I bought the pearls for her, as she always wanted something “real” – but I think it looks too grown up for her. I may try to make her another one with the azurite, which is greenish, or just pretend it’s hers but wear it myself š
In all, I’ve found that beading is quite relaxing, in particular when following a pattern. I think that must be why people like knitting as well.
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As anyone who has kept up with my crafting blogs knows, I obsess. It doesn’t matter really what I obsess about, I’ll find something on which to focus all my free-moment-energies and there it is. After crafts in general, and then craft books, the newest thing has been beads. I started with the jewelry set I got at the flea market, I went on to looking for beads on Amazon (but not buying any), and about 2 weeks ago I moved to ebay. The problem with e-bay is that the sellers make it too easy for you, many of them include free shipping, and some auctions start quite low (as in one cent). Indeed, it was one of those one-cent auctions which got me. It was for a single Murano Glass Bead. What do I want with one bead? Who knows! But it was one cent, free shipping, and it was just too easy to buy it. I’m sad to say that there were dozens of more bids following that first one, and I’ve actually bought 32 (yes, that’s not a misprint) items. I don’t even know what those items are (beads and pendants, I assume), but I know that I have to quit! Now, someone take me to e-bay (or is it beadaholics?) anonymous.
Well, my first purchase came today. It’s a strand of 8mm white freshwater pearls, 55 in all. I’ve never had “real” pearls before, so I can’t really evaluate how good they are. They are definitely not all perfectly round, many seem more oval-shaped than round, and many of them have markings or some imperfection or another, but I guess it’s a way of telling that they are “real” instead of just “plastic”. In any case, I paid $5 for the strand (including shipping), so I wasn’t expecting museum quality. It took the pearls 10 days to arrive from Hong Kong, which really isn’t bad.
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
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 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.
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