Bead Blog from Carolyn at eebeads.com

Win 5 Glass Bead Mixes

2012-02-03T13:12:00.002-05:00

With our Indian shipment of glass and natural material beads arriving last week, I thought it would be a great opportunity for a contest. All of our beads are packaged in small white boxes that you can see me holding. To win 5 of our Indian glass bead mixes, simply send me your guess as to how many of the small white boxes we received with this shipment. Send me an email to blog@eebeads.com and put your number guess in the subject line, in the body of the email put your full name and address. Whoever gets closest without going over will win. I'll be announcing the winner on Monday, February 6th, 2012 at noon. Good luck!

Win Two Dozen Ball Head Pins

2012-01-13T10:18:00.004-05:00

I love our new gold and silver plated ball head pins! These pins are a very affordable alternative to gold filled and sterling silver head pins. When I saw that I could get them in a plated version I had to have them!

Would you like some of these head pins? I'm giving away 12 gold plated and 12 silver plated ball head pins to one lucky winner. All you have to do is send me an email to blog@eebeads.com with the subject line "Ball Head Pins" and include your name and address in the body of the email. I'll pick a random winner on Tuesday, January 17th at noon Eastern. Good luck!

The Winner Is: Tanya Houston from Marminton New Mexico. Congratulations Tanya!

Win a Swarovski Sample Box

2011-12-09T12:24:00.001-05:00

When Swarovski launches new colors and products, I get this wonderful box with 12 sections filled with all the new goodies. It's eye candy at it's finest! I put up the two new Swarovski colors Denim Blue and Antique Pink this week so I thought I'd give away the sample box to one of my readers.

To enter to win, send an email to me at blog@eebeads.com. The subject line should say "Swarovski Contest" and include your full name and address in the body of the email...that's all you have to do! I'll pick one random winner on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at noon Eastern time and post the winner here. Good luck and thank you (as always) for stopping by!

The winner is: Amy King from Saratoga Springs, New York. Thanks to everyone for playing!

Win a Preciosa Crystal Faceted Round Snowman Kit

2011-12-02T09:53:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again for me to give away 3 of our Preciosa Frosted Round Crystal Snowman earring kits! Pictured in the bowl above are a bunch of our kits, guess how many there are (click for a larger picture) and send your answer to me at blog@eebeads.com. In the subject line put your number guess and in the body of the email include your name and mailing address. The 3 people who get closest without going over will win a Frosted Faceted Round Snowman Kit including silver filled findings. One guess per email address please and you can guess through Friday, December 9th, 2011 at noon when I'll announce the winners.

There were 94 kits and the winners are:
Terry Garner of Watts, OK who guessed 92
Vanessa Ratliff of Royal, AR who guessed 91
Patty Kaine of Hawley, PA who guessed 88

Thanks to everyone for playing, look for another contest coming soon!

New Swarovski Colors for Fall 2011

2011-09-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

The new colors from Swarovski this fall are Demin Blue Crystals,Crystal Petrol Glass Pearl and Crystal Antique Pink crystals. I think I'm in love with the Denim Blue already.

What do you think of these new colors?

Pantone Color Report for Fall 2011

2011-08-16T11:48:00.001-04:00

The colors that Pantone says are going to be showing up this fall are just yummy. I think my favorite combination is definitely going to be the greens of cedar and deep teal...maybe quarry too. Or how about a combination of deep teal and phlox? So many choices! What colors are you loving for jewelry? Leave a comment here or send me an email and let me know.

Win Preciosa Crystal Beaded Bracelets

2011-08-05T14:15:00.003-04:00

Time for another contest, but this one is a little tricky! A few weeks ago Preciosa sent us these gorgeous bracelets, each featuring loads of Preciosa crystals and beads. Brandi in customer service came up with the idea to have you try to tell the three different kinds of crystals we sell apart and win one of these bracelets! Read below to see how to be entered to win.

The correct answer was:
A: Swarovski Crystal
B: Chinese Crystal
C: Preciosa Crystal

Thank you to everyone who sent in a guess! Our 3 winners of the Preciosa crystal bracelets are Laura Lee Morrison, Pam Chesbro and Marsha Nelson.

New Decoration for the Office

2011-07-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

Allen has always wanted the poster of "Rosie the Riveter" in our office. Although there have been men who worked at eebeads.com over the years, primarily women have worked here and grown this company to what it is today. While we were in Chicago recently visiting the Museum of Science and Industry, Allen was thrilled to find this poster in the gift shop. It was a little tricky getting the poster home to Pennsylvania without it getting squished, but we did it. We unveiled Rosie at our weekly meeting this week and all the girls here loved it! We put the poster on an office door near our front door so everyone who comes in will see it.

Who is Rosie the Riveter you might ask? The classic figure of Rosie the Riveter was a representation of all hard working women during the WWII era. Mainly targeting women who worked in factories and industrial jobs that were normally given to men, Rosie became an icon for American working women. The need for these working women arose when men left the factories to go off to war. So who exactly is Rosie? The iconic figure was actually inspired by a group of working women whom most were named Rose. Rose Bonavita, Rosalind Walter, Geraldine Doyle, who actually was the model for Rosie in the popular poster, and Rose Monroe were the “real” Rosie’s of WWII. Each of these women varied in class, age, ethnicity, and background but their determined moral is what brought them together to represent the American working woman. They worked in factories helping to produce fighter airplanes, torpedo bombers, as well as other aircraft used for the war. Talk about one tough job! Where would we be without these powerful women helping to be a part of the backbone of our country during the war? They aided in paving the way for our nation as women began to fight for working rights. We can do it!

What does Silver Filled mean?

2011-06-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

As I keep adding new silver filled items, I get a lot of emails asking what silver filled is. Silver filled is just like gold filled but in silver. There is a thick layer of .925 or better sterling silver mechanically bonded to brass, above we're showing a bead. Silver filled is 1/10 or 10% by weight sterling silver. Silver filled is hundreds of times thicker than regular silver plate and looks just like solid sterling silver. Silver filled also tarnishes less than sterling and if it does tarnish, cleans up easier than sterling silver.

I hope this helps explain what our new silver filled items are!

Hop on over to Facebook to win Blinky Beads

2011-04-01T14:45:00.000-04:00

Hop on over to our Facebook page and leave your opinion of these beads. Even if you don't like them, your comment could win you these beads...we just want honest opinions.

Have a bead filled weekend!
Carolyn

Win A Swarovski Sample Box

2011-02-25T14:02:00.001-05:00

It's time for our last contest during our 15th birthday month. The other day a customer asked me what the "ee" in eebeads.com stood for and I thought it would make a great contest question! Here's how to enter:

Tell me what the "ee" in eebeads.com stands for by sending your answer to me in an email to blog@eebeads.com Please include your full name and mailing address in your email. From all the correct answers I receive, I'll pick three random names to win one of three Swarovski sample boxes. One guess per email address please and you can guess through Monday, February 28th and I'll pick the winner at noon Eastern. Good luck and happy weekend!

And the winners are:

The correct answer to what the ee in eebeads.com stands for was Eclectic Etc. We shortened it to eebeads after a while because we noticed people had a really hard time spelling eclectic. Congratulations to our winners, they are:

Paige Mixim of Readfield, Maine
Cynthia Dobbertean, Hammondsport, New York
Debbie Gilligam, Troy New York

Thank you to everyone who sent in a guess!

Guess How Many Kilos We Received

2011-02-18T12:29:00.007-05:00

It's time for another contest! A couple weeks ago we received our yearly shipment of Inexpensive Indian Glass Beads. The beads come in small white, one kilo size boxes (I'm holding one). The larger cartons are cardboard and then wrapped and stitched up in burlap filled with these smaller white boxes. We received 10 of the larger boxes.

The contest is to guess how many of the small, white, 1 kilo boxes are in our shipment. You can see the entire shipment in the photo.

The winner is:
I had actually 4 people who didn't go over and guessed 240 which were the closest guesses. The actual number of kilos in our shipment was 242. The guessers were Judy, Timea, Patti and Karen. Using a random number generator, Patti Welsh of Grand Rapids, Ohio is the winner! There were 242 kilos in our shipment. Thank you to everyone for playing!

New Picture of Us...Finally!

2010-12-30T11:07:00.003-05:00

I admit it, I really don't like having my picture taken but the picture of Allen and me on our About Us page was entirely too old. A few weeks ago Allen found a park littered with fallen leaves and it seemed like the perfect spot to take our picture. After about 10 shots we got this one that we're pretty happy with! Our friend Jon of Enhanced Negatives did a little tweaking and created the border and it's all set now. What do you think? Leave a comment below or send me an email.

Happy New Year!
Carolyn

Win a Frosted Crystal Snowman Earring Kit!

2010-12-03T13:59:00.007-05:00

This year we really started early making our holiday earring kits, but are still busy making them even now! I thought it would be fun to have a contest for you to guess how many earring kits are in this jar. Pictured in the jar are our Pearl Snowman Earring Kits (I think they're a little easier to see) . Guess how many there are (click for a larger picture) and send your answer to me at blog@eebeads.com In the subject line put your number guess and in the body of the email include your name and mailing address. The 3 people who get closest without going over will win a Frosted Faceted Round Snowman Kit including sterling silver findings. This is our newest kit and I just love the little guy! One guess per email address please and you can guess through Monday, December 6th at noon when I'll announce the winners.

There were 141 kits in the jar and the winners are:
Kathy Martin of Trenton, Florida guessed 132
Carolyn White of Wartrace, Tennessee guessed 126
Heather Figueroa of Brampton, Ontario guessed 126

Thank you to everyone for playing!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-29T13:20:00.002-04:00

Aren't these pups adorable? This is Silver (on the left) and Diamond and they belong to Dan, a friend who is on Allen's pool team. Every year Dan dresses them up for Halloween and brings them to the shop for a visit. I swear, between all of us here, we must have taken 100 pictures of these cuties.

Silver and Diamond are pretty special dogs, they're therapy dogs. After visiting us they were off to a local nursing home. Dan takes them around to veterans homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals to brighten peoples days each week. They're not only adorable, they're just as sweet as can be, love to be pet and will even give you a kiss!

Happy Halloween from all of us at eebeads.com and also Silver, Diamond and Dan!

Gemstones in 10mm Round Size

2010-10-06T15:37:00.002-04:00

I'm so excited, this week I added a new size to our gemstone rounds family, we now have 10mm rounds in 6 stones. These are so fun and chunky, I know you're going to love them! Let me know what other stones we should have in this size or just in general by sending me an email or leaving a comment below.

Talk Like a Pirate and Win Pirate Booty!

2010-09-19T13:02:00.002-04:00

Ahoy t' the loyal readers o' me blog! Garrr, in honor o' the mighty Talk Like a Pirate Day, we're givin' ye scurvy dogs a chance t' win a great gift o' the sea...The Beader's Pirate Booty! We'll be pickin' three o' ye landlubbers t' be winners, so head on over t' our Facebook page t' enter! Arggghh! Click the ol' "like" button on the page t' comment with yer best "arrrgh!" or "avast!" and we might randomly draw yer name outta the cap'n's hat t' get The Blessed Beader's Booty! Yarghh, the 3 luckiest o' the brood'll be gettin' gem-shaped soaps and a grand ol' bag o' gemstone goodies, includin' our favorite...SKULLS! Arrrrghh! Avast, we'll be announcin' the winners on the morrow at 3PM EST, so grab yer bottle o' rum and join the rest o' the scallywags on Facebook for yer chance t' win!

-Cap'n' Carolyn

Problems With Norton This Morning?

2010-08-26T16:12:00.002-04:00

If you use Norton anti virus software and clicked on our email message this morning, you might have gotten a message that our site was "not safe". After a little digging, we realized it wasn't us, it was the email company that is in charge of sending out our emails that was causing the problem. Basically, Norton thought they had a problem. We wanted to assure everyone that there was no security threat on our site and Norton loves our site as you can see here.

Later on in the day, the email company apparently got Norton to cancel the warning, so you may not have gotten this message at all.

Just wanted to assure you everything was fine and we take your security around here very seriously. Any concerns, don't hesitate to email me or Allen@eebeads.com.

Fantastic Online Color Wheel

2010-05-28T11:49:00.003-04:00

Last week Dannie made the fun little birds nest out of our vintage brass wire and filled it with Turquoise Colored Jasper. It was my job to make a necklace out of it. I wanted the beads I used to really contrast the turquoise color, but what color to use?

I recently found an online color wheel called the Color Scheme Designer and used it to pick a complementary color to go with the beads in the birds nest. This is such a great tool I knew I had to share it with you! Hope you enjoy playing with it!

Angel Wings Flying to Us Soon

2010-05-13T10:49:00.004-04:00

Look what's coming to eebeads soon! Our pewter artist Don made this beautiful angel wing pendant (or charm) just for us and samples are on the way for approval. But from this picture I think I'm going to love it! It measures 40mm long and 14mm wide, great for a pendant and still not too big for earrings. If all goes well we should have this in antique gold and silver plating in about 2-3 weeks. Make sure you're on our email list for first notice of this coming to the shop!

Send me an email or leave me a comment below, what do you think of it?

Enchanted Nights Design Challenge Winners!

2010-02-12T14:09:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful response from this contest! Thank you to everyone who entered and all those who voted and left comments too! Our winners for the Enchanted Nights Challenge are:

1st Place $100 Gift Certificate
#9 Danette Seiler from Missoula, Montana

2nd Place A Grab Bag of Gemstone Shape Beads
#10 Cheryl Bracht from Cascade, Wisconsin

Stay tuned to my blog for another contest...we'll announce the details for the next one soon!

Blizzards...Just Not a Lot of Fun.

2010-02-11T14:53:00.003-05:00

Blizzards are never much fun and this most recent one kept all of us out of the office for two days. We'll be back in tomorrow, but we wanted to let you know why your order didn't ship if you placed one yesterday or today.

This snowy picture is the view from Carolyn and Allen's front window during the height of the storm yesterday. We got about 18" here in Willow Grove, PA and set a new record for the most snow in a season. Only 37 days till spring!

Vote in the Enchanted Nights Design Challenge

2010-02-05T12:32:00.012-05:00

Below are the 13 entries for the Enchanted Nights Design Challenge. Great job to all our eebeaders and thank you for entering! Take a look at the entries below, click on the thumbnails to see the full size picture and then vote for your favorite in the poll below the pictures.
When you place your vote below, you will be asked to give your email. You will receive a vote confirmation email and you must click the link in the email for your vote to count. This is the only use of your email, we won't add you to any list. We reserve the right to reject any votes we deem suspicious of "vote-stuffing". Please limit your voting to one vote per person.
The first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to eebeads.com and the second place winner will receive a grab bag of gemstone shape beads.
Voting ends February 12th at noon. Happy voting and good luck eebeaders!

Click here to view the current results!

Yea! I have a new desk!

2010-01-15T13:58:00.003-05:00

I've been complaining for too long that my desk was too small. Allen kept saying that I should get a new one and this week I finally got a new desk about 3 times bigger than my old one. I just love it! I had to move out of my office for the beast to be built and found a stash of Czech pressed glass and lampwork beads. They need a good home so I made up some little bags of the beauties just for you! Place an order $40 or morebefore January 22 enter coupon code:
BLOGDESK
and I'll send you a bag of the beads I found! I bet you'll love them!

And don't forget to enter our Enchanted Nights Design Challenge, I'd love to see what you come up with!

2010-01-05T16:37:00.002-05:00

It's been a while so I thought it was time to have another Challenge with our eebeads beaders! This time the theme is “Enchanted Nights” and you can make anything you want from items available from eebeads.com, it’s up to you to interpret the theme any way you choose, you do not have to use the colors in the picture here. Feel free to use any colors and materials you like.

Votes will be collected as we did last time. When you vote the server will send you an email to confirm your vote and you must click the sent link for your vote to count. We also reserve the right to reject any votes we deem suspicious of "vote-stuffing". Please limit your voting to one vote per person.

1. All materials used in your submission must have been purchased from eebeads.com
2. Only one entry per person, but you can submit a matched set (for example a bracelet and earrings).
3. Photos should be emailed to blog@eebeads.com by February 3rd . Please include your full name in the email. Any type of graphic file is fine, but please make sure the picture is in focus.
4. Winners of the last Autumn Harvest Challenge are not eligible to enter the Enchanted Nights Challenge.
5. Voting will begin Friday, February 5th and run through Friday, February 12th at noon. Winners will be announced Friday, February 12th .

The first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to eebeads.com and the second place winner will receive a grab bag of gemstone shape beads.

Get creating and have fun! Any questions, feel free to email me at blog@eebeads.com

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-26T12:29:00.004-05:00

Happy Holidays from all of us at eebeads.com! From the left is Dennis, Allen, Dannie, Michelle, Kelly, Brandi, Kimmy and Carolyn. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and wish you a prosperous New Year!

Our holiday gift to you is a free Scoopeez Bead Scoop with any purchase over $40 now through January 1st, 2010. To get this gift use coupon SCOOPEEZ and a free Scoopeez Bead Scoop will automatically be added to your order.

Happy Holidays!
Carolyn, Allen and all of us at eebeads.com

Guess the Number of Snowman Kits Winners!

2009-11-30T14:28:00.002-05:00

We got a bunch of guesses for our Guess the Number of Snowman Kits and decided to pick the three closest guesses to win a Snowman Earring Kit complete with sterling silver findings. The correct number was 150 kits.

The winners are:
Nancy Hendershot of Haines City, Florida guessed 150
Patsy J. Bland of Laurel, Maryland guessed 148
Sharla Brownlow of Milton, Ontario, Canada guessed 153

Good job winners and to all the other close guessers!

Guess the Number of Snowman Kits!

2009-11-23T16:35:00.006-05:00

No matter how prepared we try to be for busy Monday's, we inevitably have to make some of the Holiday Earring Kits. Today I pitched in and made the Snowman Pearl Earring Kits (with just the beads, no findings). Guess how many I made (shown in the picture - click for a larger image) and send your answer to me at blog@eebeads.com In the subject line put your number guess and in the body of the email include your name and address. The person who gets closest to the correct number wins one of our Snowman Pearl Earring Kit complete with the sterling silver findings! If more than one person guesses the exact number, each person wins! One guess per email address please and you can guess through Monday, November 30th at noon when I'll announce the winners.

Good luck with your guess!

Autumn Harvest Challenge Winners!

2009-11-13T14:35:00.004-05:00

Congratulations to the winners of the Autumn Harvest Challenge below! Thanks to everyone who participated, your entries were all wonderful and inspiring as all the great comments below in the original contest post show. I'll be having another contest soon...not sure of the theme or the dates, so stay tuned to my blog!

1st Place Winner
Jyl Anais Ion of West Melbourne, Florida
Jyl won a $100 Gift Certificate to eebeads.com

2nd Place Winner
Pam Hurst of Martinsville, Indiana
Pam won a bag of gemstone shapes

Autumn Harvest Challenge - Vote For Your Favorite!

2009-11-06T15:01:00.012-05:00

Below are the 17 entries for the Autumn Harvest Design Challenge. Great job to all our eebeaders and thank you for entering! Take a look at the entry below, click on the thumbnails to see the full size picture and then vote for your favorite in the poll below the pictures.

When you place your vote below, you will be asked to give your email. You will receive a vote confirmation email and you must click the link in the email for your vote to count. This is the only use of your email, we won't add you to any list. We reserve the right to reject any votes we deem suspicious of "vote-stuffing". Please limit your voting to one vote per person.

Winners will be announced on Friday, November 13th. The first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to eebeads.com and the second place winner will receive a grab bag of gemstone shape beads.

Happy voting and good luck eebeaders!

Voting is now closed.

Click here to view the current results!

Autumn Harvest Design Challenge

2009-10-06T15:51:00.005-04:00

I’m so excited to try another Challenge with our eebeads beaders! This time the theme is “Autumn Harvest” and you can make anything you want from items available from eebeads.com, it’s up to you to interpret the theme any way you choose. Feel free to use any colors and materials you like.

Please note that will be using a completely different way of tallying the votes this time. Allen created a way for votes to be collected based on a confirmed email address, so when you vote the server will send you an email to confirm your vote and you must click the sent link for your vote to count. We also reserve the right to reject any votes we deem suspicious of "vote-stuffing". Please limit your voting to one vote per person.

1. All materials used in your submission must have been purchased from eebeads.com
2. Only one entry per person, but you can submit a matched set (for example a bracelet and earrings).
3. Photos should be emailed to blog@eebeads.com by November 4^th . Please include your full name in the email. Any type of graphic file is fine, but please make sure the picture is in focus.
4. Winners of the last Vintage Challenge are not eligible to enter the Autumn Harvest Challenge.
5. Voting will begin Friday, November 6th and run through Friday, November 13th at noon. Winners will be announced Friday, November 13^th .

The first place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate to eebeads.com and the second place winner will receive a grab bag of gemstone shape beads.

Get creating and have fun! Any questions, feel free to email me at blog@eebeads.com

Breast Cancer Awareness for Susan G. Komen for the Cure

2009-09-29T15:43:00.007-04:00

Usually on Wednesdays I put something on sale either as a private sale for folks on our email list or a sale open to the public. This week I wanted to try something different.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and we've been busy here making Breast Cancer Awareness Jewelry Ideas. I put all the ideas up on a page that's also loaded with pink beads. Rather than put them on sale for two days, we're going to instead donate a portion of the proceeds from the sales of all items available from eebeads through October 1st to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Shop these great ideas and beads today and help in the fight to find a cure for breast cancer!

Vintage Challenge Winners

2009-09-18T12:16:00.002-04:00

Thank you to everyone who entered and all those who voted and left comments too! Our winners for the Vintage Challenge are:

1st Place $100 Gift Certificate
#6 Sonali Bagaria from Dresher, Pennsylvania

2nd Place A Bag of Vintage Goodies
#16 Linda Mink from Clearwater, Florida

Stay tuned to my blog for another contest...we've got plans for the next one already!

Vintage Challenge Entries - Vote Today!

2009-09-04T13:09:00.003-04:00

Here are all 18 entries for the Vintage Challenge! Thanks to everyone for entering! It was like getting wonderful party favors every time a new entry came in. Take a look at all the entries below, click on the thumbnails to see the full size picture and then vote for your favorite in the poll below the entry pictures. First place wins a $100 gift certificate to eebeads.com. Second place is a big ole bag of Vintage goodies from eebeads.com. I'll announce the winner on September 18th. Good luck to everyone!

Which of the Vintage Challenge entries do you like best?(polls)

Audrey Had Her Baby!

2009-09-01T16:16:00.003-04:00

So many of you have been asking, I thought I better get these pictures up! Audrey from our Customer Service Department had her baby on August 26th at 11:57pm. Both Mommy and baby Patrick are doing great. Audrey is finally home and Mom and Dad brought Patrick for a visit today where I was able to get this adorable picture of him sleeping. Audrey is pretty camera shy, but did let me take this picture of her when she was still expecting. Sadly, Audrey won't be coming back to work for eebeads, but we're hoping she'll come back occasionally and design some ideas for us! Congratulations Audrey and Pat and welcome to the world baby Patrick! You can leave a comment for Audrey below or send an email to me and I'll forward it on to her.

Vintage Challenge for Anyone - Enter and win!

2009-07-28T14:04:00.011-04:00

This past week, all the girls at eebeads.com made ideas using our vintage brass charms and findings and had a lot of fun doing it.

Now it's your turn! Make anything you want using beads and findings from eebeads.com. Your creation must include some of our vintage brass items. Entries need to be made only from items that are available from eebeads.com.

Entries need to be emailed to me at blog@eebeads.com by September 1st. Any graphic file type is fine. Please include your full name with your entry, but names won't be posted until after the winners are chosen. One entry per person but a set (like a necklace and matching earrings in one picture) is fine. Voting will begin by September 5th and anyone can vote. Voting will last 2 weeks and the winner will then be announced on September 18th. Any questions, feel free to email me at blog@eebeads.com

First place winner will receive a $100 gift certificate and second place will get a package of our vintage brass pieces!

Get creating and have fun!

Kimmy Turns 50!

2009-06-16T14:10:00.006-04:00

We are loaded with Birthdays at eebeads.com these days and we had a very special one! Kimmy, from the piece work department, has turned 50! Kimmy has been with eebeads the longest of any of my current employees, she's been here since October of 2002. She started out as a piece worker and now is in charge of the piece work department. Not only does she bag a ton of our beads, she also hand makes all the Bead Collections we sell. She also happens to be the one of the few employees here who will let me put up her picture so I had to blog about her special day here!

Allen and I decorated her work area the night before her birthday and Michelle bought her a fun bag full of all sorts of "old fart" items. Kimmy is also a Breyer's Vanilla Ice Cream junky so we had that instead of cake.

I try to make a card for my employees on their Birthday and Kimmy's 50th was no exception. I used one of my favorite quotes from Picasso "It takes a long time to become young".

As is a new tradition at eebeads.com, when it's your birthday, we put all your favorite beads on sale for a week so visit Kimmy's 50th Birthday Sale for her favorite beads. Feel free to leave a comment below for Kimmy and wish her a Happy 50th!

Sorting Day

2009-06-12T16:09:00.002-04:00

I love when we get a delivery and I'm told it's from my plater. I'm never sure what is going to be because it depends who made it to the plater first with my unplated goodies. Today it was 43 pounds and I was thrilled it was more of the wonderful, chocolate brown vintage style patina charms. The only problem is these beauties are plated in 3-5 pound batches and yep, that means we have to sort them out. Allen and Kelly were hard at work today sorting (talk about brain damage!), Kimmy would count them and Michelle would get them back up on the site. We were able to get a bunch of out of stock items back on the site today and more are coming next week. We also got 12 new styles today including blanks so keep an eye out in our email updates for the new ones! Stop by and take a look at all the pieces we have now.

And The Winners Are...!

2009-05-07T12:40:00.008-04:00

I finally heard back from all the winners of our contest last month and also the winner of "find the errors" contest we ran last month. The winners are:

Karen Carl
Maneca, California

Margaret G. King
Las Vegas, Nevada

Joy Husted
Muir, Michigan

The Find the Errors Contest:
Karen Goodhelpsen
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Thanks to everyone for playing and helping us celebrate our new look at eebeads.com!

An eebeads Bead!

2009-04-24T10:44:00.002-04:00

What could be better than a new website people seem to love? A bead to match it! My special customer Lisa Crispin from Austrailia told me she had a surprise coming for me to celebrate the new site, but I never imagined an eebeads bead to actually match the new site! Lisa is quite the talented lampwork artist and jewelry designer, visit here site Passion for Flame and have a look around. Thanks again Lisa...I love it!

New site and a yet another contest!

2009-04-03T20:16:00.015-04:00

This contest is now closed. The number of files on the day of the site launch was 10,215 and Paula Hornberger of Ringtown, Pennsylvania guessed 10,030 so she won the gift certificate. Congratulations Paula and thanks to everyone for playing!

It's up! I can't believe it! After 5 months of working 7 days a week our new look of eebeads.com is finally live. Thanks to everyone who sent me comments here or emails about the new logo. I hope the actual site lives up to the look of the logo and you love the new site as much as we do.

Now lets have some fun!

Background: Allen brought me the new site on his flash drive to install on my computer yesterday. The old site had over 20,000 files. We never deleted anything off the old site...if an item was discontinued, we just left the image files on the server. Not too smart, but we've got a ton of room so it was no big deal. The new site had about half as many but it was pretty dramatic for us. Uploading anything to the new site is soooo much faster. But enough of my babbling...you want the fun...

We're running a contest to win gift certificates already on the site but let's start another one. Guess how many files the new site has! You got a hint above, the old site had 20,000, the new one is about half as much. Send me an email to blog@eebeads.com and in the subject line put the number of files as your guess.

I'll run this contest for 2 weeks ending with me picking a winner on April 18th and the person who comes closest to the number of existing files on the site the day of the launch will win a $25 gift certificate. I'll put the winner's name, city and state here in 2 weeks. You can enter as many times as you want, heck knock yourself out, but just one entry per email again with your guess in the subject line. Guess your brains out! Allen and I are just a bit fried after the last 5 months but we are so in the mood for celebrating so send in those guesses!

Keep the errors coming! If you went to our main contest, at the bottom you can enter to win another $25 gift certificate by emailing me any errors on the site you find. Our favorite so far: "We just wanted the site to be easier to navigate and we think we've archived that." Yeah, we meant achieved...duh! ;) And then there's my apostrophe policewoman Helen who has found (I don't know how many) cases of "it's" when I meant "its". Remember one error per email so I can keep track and then you can enter as many errors as you find!

Shhh...it's a secret!

2009-03-25T19:17:00.007-04:00

Changes are a brewing at eebeads.com. It's coming. (It's kind of a secret, but I'll share a little with you). See the new logo on the left? That's just the start of it. Allen has been working about 12 hours a day on our little project. Don't worry, things won't change too much. All the things you love about eebeads.com will remain the same including great prices, adding multiple things to your cart with one click, new ideas every week, fun new items and more. Just our look is changing. It's time we had a face lift and we've been busy making it happen.

For a little nostalgia, I thought it'd be fun to show you past versions of our home page before the new one is launched (soon!). There were lots of variations, but these two were our main looks for the past years before the current one (for now!)

This one was from about 2000 when we didn't know how to make a page that filled up or stretched across the entire screen.

This one was a few years later still with a drop down box to find your way around and no real pictures of beads on the home page.

The current site is alright, but it lacks the fun and playfulness we feel that should surround us and our beaderific customers (not to mention it's just not purple enough and you know how much we love purple). The new site is coming just around the corner. Take a last glance at the old look of our site and we do hope you like the new!

If you have a minute, leave me a comment below and let me know what you think of our new logo. Comments from anyone are welcome and you can leave them anonymously if you like. Wish us luck with the new site launch too!

Vintage Challenge - The Opinions Are In!

2009-02-24T16:44:00.007-05:00

A few weeks ago I put up a Vintage Challenge in which the first 5 people to email me would receive $10.00 worth of their choice of our new Vintage Charms and Findings (they could of course purchase more if they wanted to). I had 5 folks respond and out their goodies went. Regrettably one who was supposed to be in the challenge, Brooke, received her items but never got back to me, so we won't get to see her creations or get her opinion of the products, but I think you're going to love what the other 4 came up with! Click on the small picture below to see what each person created. Gorgeous work all around!

Carolyn White from Wartrace, Tennessee
Carolyn used all pieces and beads from eebeads.com.
Carolyn's Woodland Fairy Earrings are an idea you can make at eebeads.com

"This was my first time working with Vintage pieces and I loved it! I've wanted to use the pieces before now, but they were too expensive for my beading budget. (I had searched the Internet for prices at other bead sites.) I was so excited when eebeads added Vintage to the site at such great prices.

When I received my pieces, I was very impressed with the quality and color. I spread the pieces out on my work table and realized how versatile they could be. You can turn them in different directions, layer them, or put the different shapes together. The possibilities are endless.

I used the medium diamond shapes, long diamond shape, the fairy charms, amethyst and peridot crystals along with Indian glass flowers to create my Fairy Garden earrings and matching ring. The dragonfly piece, rose crystals, pink baby bells, and Czech leaves made a whimsical Dragonfly Journey bracelet. I used small diamond shapes, red hearts,siam crystals and red seed beads to create Heart Fantasy Valentine earrings. The last piece I made was a really easy Oval Delight ring with amethyst and peridot crystals and a white flat oval Czech bead.( If you aren't happy with a piece you've bent for a ring, you can flatten it and start over. You can even remove G-S Hypo cement with your fingernail without marring the finish.)"

Heather East from Hazard, Kentucky
Heather used all pieces and beads from eebeads.com.

"I've not bought vintage pieces before now. No complaints about color or price, nor quality. I prefer cast charms as apposed to stamped, so it was a challenge to work with stamped pieces on a bracelet due to concerns for chaffing. To assure a smooth wear, I paired the stamped vintage pieces back-to-back against each other - yeah it used twice as many I anticipated, but it was worth it.

Other materials I used were copper and other metals, and Glass, red rondelles and purple with AB finish - not a combo I planned, however it fell together beautifully.

I typically create shiny, sparkly, brights or sharp contrasts, so this was a slight departure. I enjoyed stretching my brain a bit because I'll rule out nothing in creative pursuit...except lack of imagination. I don't think I would have ordered vintage pieces on my own, so it was good to try the vintage beads through your challenge. I will order more in the future - they are worth keeping in my collection.

I planned to make a bracelet and had an idea of what colors and beads to use. However, my idea didn't come together as I originally envisioned. Oh yeah - I had hoped to make matching earrings, but I ordered too much variety and not enough matching pieces. best laid plans.... and so the story goes. The rich color of the vintage pieces was a great backdrop for the metallics and red rondelles. I already enjoy mixing metallic finishes together, especially copper, so it was nice to find a new way to use these favorites. All said and done - I am pleased with my creation. The bracelet wears well (which I did for a few days) and I got compliments. I expect that as it wears and weathers, it will achieve a more authentic vintage look. Additionally, the textures added visual and tactile complexity that appeals to me. "

Joyce Davies from Houston, Texas
Joyce used our pieces from eebeads.com and other suppliers.

"Making jewelry from metal pieces and chain was a new experience for me. I never thought I'd use filigree pieces because they are so Victorian and my jewelry is pretty eclectic. I string beads and make wire bangles. But I couldn't resist the Challenge and getting free stuff to play with. Almost all that I ordered has been used. The findings, odd charms and some of the beads are from sources other than eebeads.com. I enjoyed stepping outside my comfort zone and making pretty, feminine jewelry and I will probably use vintage pieces again. I thought they were beautiful and for all their delicacy, they were strong when I tried to curl a square into a cone. The hard part was getting things to lay right and getting the dangles to show right."

Jenni Kinney from Ogden, Utah
Jenni used our pieces from eebeads.com and other suppliers.

"I haven't bought vintage pieces like these before. I loved their color, I'm always searching for colors like this. The quality was great, and really well made. And the price was great. In my piece I used a chain I had to a gypsy belt, and random beads I have collected over time. And a small jewel I had picked up for another project. Black cord from a necklace to tie the pieces together, and a toggle and clasp to be able to wear it. Ihave wanted to try the dark antique look for a long time I could just never find the middle pieces until now! The circlet was inspired by medieval/ Renaissance/ Fantasy Faire wear. I had always wanted to make a circlet, but could never find colors that fit well with each other until now. I was finally able to complete a project I had in mind for a long time! yay! The way the piece was made I tried to make it as "natural" as possible, trying to figure out ways on how it would have been made way back when. Of course I had to improvise on some areas, like the glue."

Thanks everyone! You did a fantastic job! Leave a comment below and let the Challengers know what you think of their pieces!

Look for another Challenge open to everyone coming really soon!

Sick of the "Going Green" thing?

2009-02-10T16:54:00.003-05:00

At the start of the year, I read an article about a university in the Midwest. Apparantly each year they put out a list of phrases or words that should be banned from the universe from the past year. In 2008 "go green" was number 1 on their list. In fact, one professor stated that if he heard about one more company "going green" he was going to start burning tires in his back yard.

When I started eebeads.com in 1994 our homepage had a "We reuse and recycle" banner on the home page (shown on the top graphic) which got a fair amount of hits, but nothing spectacular. I've always been nuts about recycling and saving resources here at eebeads, so last year I decided to make a new page about our efforts (much snazzier graphic this time shown below). But then I pulled it because I was starting to get sick of hearing about the "go green" thing too. In fact, after our page went up, three of our competitors put one up.

If you want to learn about our recycling and conservation habits, click here.

Anyway, are you sick of hearing about companies "going green"? Leave me a comment below (it can be anonymous) or send me an email to blog@eebeads.com I'd love to hear from you!

Icy eebeads world

2009-01-18T14:50:00.003-05:00

Mother Nature hit us with a cold blast this past week in Pennsylvania and at eebeads.com. Keeping warm at our warehouse was a bit of a joke. Our walls aren't insulated like an office building, they're just cinder block. And our windows aren't those fancy gas filled double panes either...just Plexiglas with bars...so, that's right we froze last week (and our windows froze as you can see in the picture). Shouldn't complain too much, with the heat running constantly, we could get it up to a balmy 60°. We turn the heat off at night when we leave, so when the first person shows up (she's nuts and comes in at 7:30) I don't even want to know how cold it is.

I usually work alone on the weekends and shut all my office doors and turn on a space heater and that usually works pretty good. Not yesterday or today...took 2 space heaters to keep my fingers working. Ugh. Well, the good news is today it's up to 36° and that's definitely a lot better than last week.

What's it like where you work or live? Are you freezing, or do you live down under and your dying from the heat? Send me an email at blog@eebeads.com or leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you!

Vintage Brass Challenge

2009-01-09T15:59:00.005-05:00

A while ago I learned of a company that was selling vintage brass charms. Then I learned the prices these pieces were wholesaling and retailing at. Just about fell off my chair and concerned my employees at the state I went into. So I started contacting the companies that make the charms and found out my plater could do the exact same finish. The result? We added 25 new charms and findings to the site with the rich chocolate finish at prices that beat everyone. And I do mean everyone (as of this posting). Seemed like a challenge was in order (geez it's been a while since the last one) so here goes...

The Challenge: With this challenge you'll receive up to $10.00 worth of our Vintage Brass Charms and Findings from eebeads.com (your choices). You can create anything you want with these items using the brass and other beads and findings (we'd like them from eebeads.com but they don't have to be). Send your creation(s) in the mail back to me (within 10 days of receiving the pieces) and I'll get it up on my blog. I'll email you a list of questions that I would like answered about the brass pieces. Once up here I'll mail your creation back to you. You must also agree to let me post your full name and city and state where you live.

This challenge is officially now closed. Come back and visit in a few weeks to see what the beaders made with this new line of charms!

p.s. Even if you don't want to take place in the challenge, feel free to leave me a comment below (it can be anonymous) and let me know what you think of the pieces and the prices.

Loving Our New Prices on Gemstone Rounds

2008-12-18T15:18:00.002-05:00

This holiday season we put up our Christmas Tree and Snowman Earrings. I thought our prices were good, and then I started looking around. We blew away the competition with the trees at $5.75 including sterling silver findings. One competitor was daring to sell the trees at $10.99! They had one more tier to their tree, but come on...that's a bit steep!

Anyway, we got better pricing from our gemstone rounds supplier a few weeks ago due to the volume we buy. I was sooo happy! I spent the next two weeks working on getting them repriced to bring you lower prices and they went up this week. This afternoon I had some free time so I went around and checked out our competition and I'm delighted to say we're stomping them once again. I found one competitor with better prices, until I zoomed in. The stones weren't round...whoops!

The best part (I think) about our gemstone rounds is the consistency in color and quality. Every batch is the same color...no changes and no surprises. I've had tons of suppliers have me try to switch to them, and I always go back to my original supplier for the exceptional quality of stones they have to offer.

Take a look at our gemstone rounds and compare prices with other retailers. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at our prices. If you've tried them or have a comment, let me know below or send me an email to blog@eebeads.com

By the way, a new Challenge is coming in January so stay tuned!

The Next Hot Thing?

2008-11-25T11:14:00.002-05:00

I get a ton of emails from China offering new and sometimes really neat items. Then sometimes, I get emails that are just downright silly. I opened my email the other day to a subject that said "The Next Hot President Jewelry". Hmm...they couldnt be serious could they? They were. Obama jewelry. Well that set me off in giggles. Who would wear such things? The had bracelets, key chains, cell phone jewelry, earrings (shown here) and anything they could attach the heart charm with. Even if you LOVED Obama, would you wear this stuff? Leave me a comment below (it can be anonymous) or send me an email to blog@eebeads.com

The Holidays...this early?

2008-11-16T19:41:00.004-05:00

I can't stand it anymore. I really can't. I've now been to three different stores that are playing Christmas music in the past week. Tonight I went to get groceries at a leading store and they have wreaths, poinsettas and Norfolk decorated pine trees sitting outside. Are you kidding me? It's not even Thanksgiving yet!!! If I was insane enough to buy a wreath tonight it would be a dead mess by Christmas. I found a few stores doing all this holiday stuff before Halloween, but I thought it was just a fluke. Now...I'm inundated and disgusted.

I admit it. I'm ready for the holidays at eebeads.com and I have a few graphics planned for putting up on the site, but that's AFTER Thanksgiving.

I heard on the news that retail sales are down right now...maybe it's because people want to wait to hear holiday music when it's closer TO the holiday and are avoiding these overly exuberant stores.

Are you disgusted? Is it too early or is it just me. Tell me honestly. Leave me a comment below (it can be anonymous) or send me an email to blog@eebeads.com and tell me your thoughts. I promise a pretty little holiday type show at eebeads.com, but when I think it's appropriate.

Stunning Natural Material Pendants

2008-10-29T18:42:00.006-04:00

I am so excited about a new line I've added to eebeads.com this morning....but let me tell you the full story. A salesman of mine (we'll call him Salesman Sam) came in about 2 months ago with glass, metal and many other wonderful things to make me drool. He said he had one more line to show me, but I told him I spent my quota on the other items. He said I must just peek. Well, I did more than peek, I bought 9 absolutely gorgeous and unique natural material pendants from him.

Only 3 are shown in the picture here, but trust me, you must see them all. Sam has known the folks that use these pendants for years. They actually have these pendants custom made for them in the Philippines and make finished jewelry with them and market them to high end department stores. Sam has begged that he made the pendants available to jewelry making suppliers and they said they would give it a try. All orders are custom made so it takes 2 months to fill any order. I tried to be patient in the waiting...

These pendants are one of a kind because each one made individually by hand. The base for the top 6 on the page is manufactured lucite. Each piece of shell, bamboo or onion skin is then attached to the pendant by hand and then a clear laminate is applied for complete durability.

The blackpen shell pendants pictures didn't do them justice. The shells are the deepest coffee color and transparent when held up to the light. The shells are polished and then etched to give the crocodile pattern.

I wasn't sure how these pendants would go over, so I didn't order a ton of them. My employees all drooled along with me when they arrived and were totally depressed when I said they had to wait until the second shipment in order to buy them. Sorry gals but I promise more are on the way!

Take a look at these beauties and tell me what you think of them by leaving a comment here or sending me an email to blog@eebeads.com. Am I nuts or these as stunning and incredible as my two month wait promised they'd be?

Squirrel Visits eebeads.com

2008-10-14T16:53:00.004-04:00

Boy did I have an exciting weekend. I came into work alone on Saturday to get some stuff done. I turned off the alarm and heard all kinds of banging (then my heart joined in) and then it just stopped. A couple things were out of place in the warehouse, but nothing dramatic. I called Allen and he said it was the roofer fixing our roof...but there was no truck to go with said roofer. Since the noise stopped, I just blew it off, put the couple items back and got to work. Few more noises, but nothing like the inital banging.

On Monday (we were closed for the holiday) I again came in alone and there was MORE banging. This time Allen said it was the wind (it wasn't a windy day). I told him we had something in the warehouse but he said "Fear is the mind killer". I was getting annoyed. Went walking around the warehouse and found proof! There was a paper organizer that fell off a shelf that was pretty dusty, perfect for showing...squirrel footprints! The squirrel left all the offices alone except, you got it, the disbeliever Allen! hehehe (Well, his office has a window so the squirrel was probably trying to get out).

So, now I had proof and we put a call into the landlord. He said to open all the bay doors and our squirrel would leave. No such luck. I called Willow Grove Animal Control and they never returned my call. I called 3 exterminators and they all wanted hundreds of dollars to trap the little guy, couldn't come out right away, etc., etc.

Meanwhile, my warehouse is getting trashed. The worst part was our warehouse was a machine shop previously and all the rafters have inches of black, sooty, greasy, metal dust. Guess where Mr. Squirrel was running around? Yep, all our counters, shelves, computers, EVERYTHING was being rained on while he scampered around.

And to make things worse, it was like he wanted to stay! This morning (we called the employees to warn them) Michelle is the first to show up and there he is sitting in the window (that's the picture of him) like he's all at home! Michelle parks in front of this window and said she was laughing so hard she couldn't park. The bay doors were open for hours and he just stayed up in the rafters hopping around. There was no way this guy was leaving without encouragement.

We were able to get a catch and release trap from a friend this morning but he wouldn't go in it. Finally this afternoon Allen and Dennis wrangled him back into Allen's office. We locked him in, Allen bravely went in and removed the screen from the window and we all hooted and hollered and he finally went flying out the window into the woods. Ugh!

We really think he planned to stay. There was evidence that he had nuts stashed all around our warehouse so this wasn't his first visit. I bet he never comes hiding or looking for his nuts again. He was trapped in here at least 5 days. Happyily, he's back in Mother Nature and probably thanking his lucky stars he got away from all us crazy people.

Funny thing is, I don't think he took any beads!

The Joys of Photography

2008-09-29T16:27:00.004-04:00

It takes a lot of work to photograph all those Jewelry Making Ideas I have for you at eebeads.com, but it's a lot of fun too. Years ago we used to just lay the jewelry on a scanner and scan away, but not anymore. Scanning is a very easy (not to mention inexpensive) way to get pictures of your jewelry up on the web, but I was picky and wanted more.

After a lot of investment in time and money Allen (hubby and co-owner of eebeads.com) figured it all out and what you see today is the results. It also didn't hurt that my brother is a professional photographer. He lives 800 miles away, but through the miracle of email, he helped us get where we are today. The only problem is little Ms. Picky (aka me) wanted more than Allen had the patience for. "Can you move it a little to the left? Can you try it at a different angle? Could you move the light to the right?" He's patient, but there's only so much he can take. So I took over and we've all been happy now. Yep, I take all the photos that appear on our site. I know a lot of our competitors have multiple photographers, but we can't afford that and I'd probably be miserable anyway.

The trickiest things have always been the earrings. We tried laying them down flat and shooting from above, but some earrings just wouldn't cooperate. A perfect example is the angel breast cancer awareness ribbon earrings that I'm putting up this week. As you can see, there's no way those little angels and ribbons would have laid flat properly. In came Allen. He made the little "stage" you see above to shoot earrings and I think it's just perfect! Let me know what you think by sending me an email to blog@eebeads.com or leave a comment below.

Crystal Glue-In Charms

2008-09-14T16:09:00.003-04:00

The last time I asked you why something wasn't selling (the Psychedelic Tye-Dye Beads) you gave me some good feedback by the way of comments and email so it's time to ask you again.

On Friday I put up a new line of Crystal Glue-In Charms that you can customize by gluing any color of crystal flat back you want. I thought they were just about the neatest thing I've seen in a long time and got 10 different designs (not all shown here) and 8 colors of sparkling flat backs. Running a scan on what sold this weekend, it wasn't these little guys, and my other confusion is a lot of the folks who did buy the charms didn't buy the flat backs.

So...why aren't they selling? You all made it perfectly clear to me via comments and emails back in July that Hot Fix Crystals were a bad idea, but these aren't glued to clothing, they're stuck to these adorable little charms. Or did I pick bad designs (there were others to choose from)? Take a look at the Crystal Glue-In Charms and please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or sending me an email to blog@eebeads.com

By the way, for whatever odd reason, the Psychedelic Tye Dye Beads started selling about a month after they were up...who knows why! :)

Out of Stocks?

2008-09-07T15:49:00.005-04:00

I had so many wonderful comments left here and suggestions via email about the last post (the red X in our shopping cart has been replaced with a more subtle purple trash can by the way) that I decided to submit another question for you that Allen and I need help with...out of stock items.

What a bunch of our competitors do is remove an item from their site completely if it's out of stock. In our site redesign we could do that and that's where we're stuck. The picture shows what an item at eebeads.com looks like right now if it's out of stock. The best part (we think) is you can sign up to be notified when an item is back in stock. Would you rather not see the item at all or do you like it the way it is?

The other problem is the Inspirational Jewelry Making Ideas we have up. Here's an example: November's Jewel Necklace If we had simply removed the out of stock items, and you clicked the "Add All Above to My Cart" button, you'd only get the items we had in stock and probably not even realize you didn't order the complete idea. Again, which way do you think is better?

Ponder our dilemma and leave a comment below or email me at blog@eebeads.com
Can't wait to hear what YOU think!

Got an Opinion? I'm looking for yours!

2008-08-13T19:12:00.005-04:00

Allen (my husband, joint business owner and fellow bead nut) has been working away at redesigning the shopping cart at eebeads.com for a while now. This is just phase one in the redesign of all things eebeads.com which I promise is coming to a monitor near you at some point in the future. Anyway, we're pretty happy with it and it is SO much easier to check out now. There's just one thing that neither one of us (me with the art degree and him with the computer science degree - what a troublesome combination) can agree on and it's the "remove an item from my cart X" you can see above in bright red.

I don't like the red X because it looks like something you'd see on a paper from school where the teacher said you made a mistake and were bad. (By the way, did I mention I was a teacher for a while and refused to use red for corrections...surprise, surprise, I used purple :) I made a teal X but that just didn't work either.

So now it's up to you...what color should we be using or is the red fine and we're overreacting (and over thinking)? Or is there another type of icon we could use other than an X? If you want to try the actual cart and see it live, just visit eebeads.com, add something to your cart and you can see it in action!

To let me know your thoughts, leave me a comment below (it can be anonymous) or send an email to me at blog@eebeads.com or bug my husband at TheDigitalBead@eebeads.com (By the way, I know he'd love an email from you telling him what you think of his new cart...you can try all the steps and if you don't want to place an order, just don't complete the order by hitting the "Place Order" button. I get tons of fun email from you and he gets only the problem emails...make his day and tell him an honest opinion of his hard work :)

Later.... Thank you for all the comments and emails!!! We tried different things with the X and in the end went with a light purple trash can. We think it looks MUCH better and appreciated all the suggestions you sent us.

Hot Fix or Not Hot Fix?

2008-07-08T15:41:00.003-04:00

It's time to ask your opinion and have you help decide what we might add to eebeads.com. Hot Fix Swarovski rhinestone crystals...ever heard of them? Hot Fix crystals are flat rhinestones that are attached with a tool (that costs around $15.95) to fabric and other surfaces by heating up the special adhesive on the back. Some of the girls here think they'd be a good addition to our site, but I'm not so sure. So you tell me... Do you use them? Would you consider trying them if we got them? What would you attach the stones to? Send me an email at blog@eebeads.com or leave a comment below. Can't wait to read your opinions!

Psychedelic Tye Dye Beads!

2008-06-10T15:35:00.003-04:00

Here I come to you with a question... What is it you don't like about these beads? I'm stunned! I put them up on the site last Saturday and was just flabbergasted at the lack of sales for these beauties on Monday. I think they're amazing myself. Allen, my husband and tye dye junkie, picked out the 10 designs and when they arrived everyone oood and ahhhd over them. These little guys are made by hand in South Africa. The canes actually start out at about 8" in diameter and methodically made smaller to create the beads you get.

So do me a favor and take a look at them. Then send me an email to blog@eebeads.com or post a comment below and tell me what you think and why they didn't sell so well. Thank you!!!

Bead Collections Challenge - The Opinions Are In!

2008-05-20T10:13:00.018-04:00

A couple weeks ago I asked for five challengers to be sent one of our $11.95 Bead Collections. They could choose the Bead Collection they wanted or I would send them one of my choice. Only 3 people asked for specific Bead Collections. They were to make something with the beads, write up a paragraph about what they thought of the collections and then send me the picture and paragraph. The results of this challenge are below.

To see what the challengers created, click on the picture of the Bead Collection they got.

Peacock Collection:
Jill Liles, Fuqua-Varnia, North Carolina
Here are a few of the pieces I made with the peacock collection. The only thing I added was gold craft wire. :I found the beads to be a good value for the price - there were certainly a lot of them. Two bracelets, a necklace, and a pair of earrings, and there are still some left. I wouldn't have bought this pack myself because I tend to go for silver not gold, but this set gave me a chance to play out of my zone. A few of the beads - especially the top drilled - had broken, but not too many to make the whole set unusable. I think some of the problem selling them online is that you can't "see" what's in it - and $11.95 is a good-size gamble for something that may not work for you at all.

Zebra Collection:
Katherine Scott, Hooksett, New Hampshire
I was willing to take any collection but I really hoped I wouldn't get the zebra one. When it arrived I wasn't sure what to do but then I started making aliens. I teach jewelry making in an after school program and Bead People (aliens) are one of the most popular projects. Once I made the pendant and the people earrings I decided to try to make as many projects as I could. I only added the little white glass sticks and findings, the rest was all in the collection. I ended up with 2 necklaces, 2 bracelets and 3 pairs of earrings. I loved the variety of shapes and materials in the collection and was able to make the pieces so easily because everything was so well matched up. I took the finished pieces to work and they were popular. I gave one bracelet to a volunteer who works in my classroom she wanted to buy it. Sometimes looking in my own bead stash gives me too many choices, this collection was the perfect size with the right amount of variety. Thanks so much for the beads and the challenge, I enjoyed them both and will look into some of the other collections.

Sherbet Collection:
Danielle Hurt, Martin, Oregon
Once I was "in" the challenge I started building my creation in my head. When I got the beads in my hands, that changed......After I stared at the package of beads for 3 days wondering what on earth I was going to make, I finally got brave and unloaded the package on my beading table. I was determined to use all the beads provided but in the end I did leave out 22(actually 26 as one of 4 matching beads was not drilled so all four of those didn't make the cut). The other beads left out were small silver and gold spacer types.

After laying it out 4 times and stringing it twice I finally liked what I came up with. I started this one unusual for me, from the center out. The only thing I added was the Mother of Pearl focal bead with the green leaf and the clasp. I think this is a casual "jeans and t-shirt" necklace, multi-colored to go with anything.

The possibilities are endless with these collection packages. The price is right too. You certainly can't go out and buy ONE decent pair of earrings for under $12.00. I will definitely be purchasing another collection or two! This challenge was fun.

Mother Earth Collection:
Elizabeth Trask, Wollaston, Massachusetts
The Mother Earth collection is exactly as the photo shows. Coming up with a design wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I believe that more beads of the same kind would be more useful to me rather than only 4 to 6 each of many kinds. I finally came up with an idea for an 18” necklace, and then I had fun with it ? I even gave it a name!

“Springtime in Wyoming” contains 6 beads from the collection. I added an earthy colored glass leaf as a focal bead, red and green crystals to brighten up all the browns and tans, and enough small gold beads to make up the 18”. The tan beads in the middle remind me of the plains in Wyoming, then as you move toward the mountains (where my dear friends live) you pass through meadows of bright flowers. The beads that look like smoky quartz are the mountains separated by clear little bubbles from all the spring waterfalls! Silly? Maybe, but I had a good time. Time ran out for me before I could make the earrings using two more of the larger bicones, tiny gold beads, and more green crystals.

The more I look at the rest of the beads, the more ideas come to use them with other beads. There are several other nice little sets of beads that can be mixed and matched.

Arctic Ice Collection:
Dawn Sickerott, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
these are the pictures of all the things i made out of the bead challenge beads. i did add 4 flower beads to the necklace, which were from one of the mystery bags. these beads reminded me of the seashore especially the swirls ones. they had a good variety of shapes and sizes. also a nice array of color. i would get these again for someone that requested them or something like them or color array, request. but as for using them to make jewelry to resell, they would be kinda pricey for the market i sell too. i enjoyed working with them though.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Bead Collections Challenge. I hope their projects and honest reviews of these collections will inspire you to try them yourself! If you do and you'd like me to post your comments here, just email me your review to blog@eebeads.com All the collections are now on sale at 15% Off until Tuesday, May 27th! Enjoy!

Silver Core Lampwork Beads

2008-05-15T19:15:00.006-04:00

Every once in a while I get really excited about new beads going up on the site and this week is one of those times. Don't get me wrong, if I don't love it, I don't sell it...period. But these little beauties are something to behold.

About 6 months ago, one of my main suppliers sent out a flyer about silver core beads. Looked somewhat promising until I inspected them closely. They were pretty simple lampwork beads from China with a silver or gold plated core. Fun idea and I know they're the "in thing" now, but the lampwork was just ordinary and I couldn't see selling ordinary.

Last week, one of my favorite sales folks, Peter, came to see me and said he had silver and gold core beads made by Sassoon Beads of China. I was not ready to be impressed until he showed me another site that's selling similar beads for $25.00 each. Yep...EACH! Are you kidding me? So he pulled out his samples. Unbeadlievable! Gorgeous even! And the price...well, let me just get your juices flowing that these beads are not going to cost you anywhere NEAR $25.00 each.
The best part is the colors...they're just stunning. Swirls and bold colors that make your brain just spin with ideas. The solid colors with dots have air bubbles in the dots (see the cobalt bead in the center above). Air bubbles!!! I have to say I fell in love and bought a bunch.

If you'd like to see these beauties, click here. And wait till you see the price! Don't think they're "cheap"...trust me, they're not...they're high quality beads at incredibly low prices. One of our competitors is selling the exact same beads, from the exact same supplier, for a lot more than me. Once you get these little beauties, send me an email at blog@eebeads.com and let me know what you think of them. Am I nuts? Or are these beads as remarkable as I think they are?

Bead Collection Challenge Begins!

2008-04-30T17:46:00.010-04:00

You've been asking and I've been thinking...what to challenge you with next? One of my favorite products is our Bead Collections (shown to the left is the Peacock Collection). Not a huge seller though and I've often wondered why... I admit they're a bit expensive at $11.95 for 150+ beads, but we've done all the work at mixing together colors that go great together. Maybe that's it too...you want to do the mixing?

Our Bead Collections are much different than other companies mixes because they are created in small batches. That means that every bead in the Bead Collection has a partner so they're great for symmetrical designs and earrings. There's a mix of Czech and Indian glass and other materials based on the specific collection, plus a smattering of metals for interest. I'd like to see what 5 of you think of our Bead Collections so...

Here's the challenge:

I will send you one package of our Bead Collections valued at $11.95. You can see them at the top of our Collections page of the site (look for the $11.95 priced collections). You can request a specific Bead Collection, but if I get more than one request for the same collection, I'll send you a different one as the challengers send me emails. In other words, each participant will have a different Bead Collection. Please keep in mind you might not get a collection you love the colors of!
You will have two weeks from the mailing date to make a project with these and any other beads you want to add. That means you're going to need to get working right away so please make sure you have the time.
When you're done with your creation, email me a picture of what you made and a blurb giving me your opinion of these beads. You must also agree to let me post your full name and city and state where you live.
If you've already participated in another challenge from my blog, please let someone else play this time alright? :)

I now have 5 people who will participate in this challenge. Look for another entry soon that shows you what the beaders made and what they thought of the beads!

Redesigning all things eebeads.com

2008-04-23T18:29:00.004-04:00

What a momentous title...it really means I'm asking for YOUR help. Allen and I are working on redesigning eebeads.com (just the website, don't panic :). We have a marketing firm working on ideas and a couple customers who have commented on the website giving us their feedback, but we're kind of at a stand still. Although we have ideas on what we'd like to do, it's pretty useless unless you, our beady, internet surfing customer, like what we do.

So I've got a bit of a challenge for you (another bead challenge is coming REALLY soon, I promise): Take a look at eebeads.com and surf around a bit and then tell me what you want eebeads.com to be like for you! I really mean this...if you were remaking the eebeads.com website, what would you want it to look like?
Here are some things we're debating on that you might be able to solve arguments for:

Should we keep the tab navigation on top or switch to a left side navigation bar?
If we go with left side navigation, should all categories be outlined or should you have to click to get to the subcategories as with the tabs?
Are the colors on the tabs at the top too bright?
Is the background distracting?
(This one gets wordy...sorry) Most sites have an one item per line for sale with an image to the left and text and the option to buy to the right, we have a table and put a lot more items per line...is this too much or do you like seeing more at once?
Is the home page cluttered or do you like all the information you find there?
Is there anything on the site you find confusing or completely baffles you?
Anything else you'd change?

I really appreciate you looking over our site and giving us feedback. We're working to make this site the best it can be and the easiest for you to find what you're looking for. Send any and all comments (nothing wrong with a negative comment!) to me at blog@eebeads.com or leave me a comment below. And thank you in advance!

African Bead Challenge - The Opinions Are In!

2008-04-03T15:46:00.033-04:00

About a month ago, I posted a challenge for beaders about our African Trade Beads. I sent 5 beaders one package of Cobalt Bottle Glass from Ghana, one package of Silver Roundish Beads from Ethiopia, and one bag containing a little more than half a strand of Christmas Beads from Ghana (older) all shown to the above left. Unlike my last challenge with Peruvian beads, this time the beaders got to see the beads before committing to the challenge...much better way to do it I think.

Below are each beaders comments about the beads and what they made with them. I'm posting exactly what they wrote to me (positive or negative). Each of the small pictures is clickable so you can see a larger picture.

Lisa Devos from New Hope, Pennsylvania

When I opened the package with the beads, I immediately loved the cobalt glass and silver beads but was initially at a loss how to combine them with the Christmas beads. After looking at them for a few days, I decided to combine them with some cobalt blue seed beads I had lying around, use some wire for the silver round beads and introduce the Christmas beads as an accent color. I am very pleased with the way they all look together and it will make a nice piece to add to my tribal belly dance jewelry collection. I am going to have to buy more and make earrings and a head piece as well :)

Debbie Gilligan from Troy, New York

The African beads aren't perfect but they have character and the colors are beautiful. I used seed beads inside the Bottle Glass beads to compensate for the large hole and center them on the wire. I have a tendency to be symmetrical in my designs so I slid the Christmas beads off their string in small sections to keep the order random. I added MT AB Cobalt Druks, Bali style spacers, and my favorite toggle. I remembered that I had gotten zebra charms in a goody bag and immediately got them out to make the earrings. This was a perfect time to use them! I wore the set to work today and told everyone about your website and blog.

Sharon M. Harris from Chattanooga, Tennessee
I did not care for the African beads. I prefer beads that are more uniform in size and shape. I also prefer a smooth shiny finish on beads. Also, these beads are a little too heavy to wear comfortably. In general I prefer pastel colors instead of the stronger primary colors of these beads. That being said, I found I liked the necklace better than I expected once it was made, though I probably will not wear it.

Julianne Kurpiewski from Wilmington, North Carolina

I knew before I even got the beads that I would love the Christmas beads. Their small size, bright colors, tiny stripes and random patterns are perfect.

I decided to make a bracelet because I love bracelets and I'm not a big fan of necklaces. The blue glass beads were a beautiful color and I loved their frosted texture but they were a little too big for my tastes...which is why I didn't use them in my bracelet. I'm sure they'd be perfect size for a necklace but I just haven't thought of what I want to do with them. The silver beads were neat but I had trouble with their holes. Some of the holes were really big and others were a lot smaller. I ended up putting the small Christmas beads inside the silver beads and then used spacers to prevent the silver beads slipping over the Christmas beads.

I do love my bracelet. I've worn it several times and people always comment on how cute the Christmas beads are.

Debby Boltman of Bothell, Washington
I needed a new anklet for my Disney trip we are leaving on tomorrow and I thought the African beads were charming and would be perfect for such a project. The slight imperfections provide just the right amount of eclectic appeal for my project.

Thank you to all the beaders who participated in this challenge! African trade beads are very unique. The beads are old and worn and just downright funky at times. Hopefully these ideas and comments will get you to take another look at our wonderful African trade beads and give them a try!

House Rabbits and Easter - Not a Good Combination

2008-03-15T18:11:00.018-04:00

I haven't done this in my blog yet, but now
I'm going to jump on my soap box for this post. If you've been to the bottom of the homepage at eebeads.com, you'll see a banner that says "Easter and Bunnies Don't Mix". If you click on it, you'll get a page from the House Rabbit Society telling you why buns make a bad choice for kids at Easter.

Allen and I have the second house rabbit we've owned and his name is Domino. Let me start with the joys of owning this, and any other house rabbit. Once they're fixed, they're wonderfully loving, frisky and calm all in the same day. They're pretty easy to litter train (yes, they use litter boxes just like cats, but not cat litter). They can run, jump around and flip around (called binking) and then they'll settle down next to you. It's just the greatest feeling to be sitting on the floor and Domino will come up next to you and flop down for his petting...and talk about soft and snuggly...it just doesn't get any better than that.

Well, this sounds great! Why wouldn't I advocate getting a bun for a child at Easter? Here comes the bad part. Most house rabbits are quite fearfull of children. No matter if you tell your child to be quiet and calm around the rabbit (a must) you probably know that children are frisky and rarely calm. Even around adults, rabbits can be quite skittish (as Domino is). Another problem with kids is that children always want pick rabbits up and "cuddle" them. Rabbits are prey animals and feel trapped when picked up. The only time I pick Domino up is for a trip to the vet. And speaking of vets...if you get a baby rabbit, it'll eventually go into heat and you will have a frisky, biting, spraying (marking) bunny on your hands. Spaying (for females) will cost you a minimum of $200 (males are cheaper) and then do you even HAVE a rabbit savvy vet in your area? They're really hard to find...trust me. Spaying and neutering is just the beginning. Rabbits can have all types of illnesses...when we got Domino, he had an ear infection and required injections, that we had to give every day. Domesticated rabbits can't be kept outside in a hutch. They just can't handle the different temperature changes as well as other animals. And if left outside...they will eventually be forgotten (Domino was found abandoned and loose in a caring families yard that caught him and took him to the shelter). How will your bun jump, run and play if left outside in a tiny hutch? House rabbits can be kept in a big cage (larger than what the average pet store sells, Domino has a two story large dog kennel) for most of the day, but need playtime in the morning and evening. A minimum of 2 hours twice a day for them to run around a rabbit safe room or rooms. Rabbit safe you ask? Yep, they'll chew on all your cords and cables (so they have to be covered), they'll chew on wood furniture, dig on rugs and bedding. You've got to make the rooms safe and then supervise the rabbit when out. Rabbits can live about 10 years or longer, are you ready for that type of commitment?

A great option if you decide to get a house rabbit is to find a local rabbit shelter. There are House Rabbit Societies all around the country if you can't find a local shelter. We were lucky to have The Rabbit Habit shelter about 10 minutes from our home where we were introduced to, and chosen by, Domino.

I'm certainly NOT saying you shouldn't get a rabbit. Rabbits are my absolute favorite pet. When our first rabbit died, Allen and I discussed getting a dog (now that we owned a house) and opted for another rabbit. If you get one for your child, know that YOU, not the child has to be resposible for it's welfare. I touched on a few things, but the best site for information is the House Rabbit Society's website. That site will give you ALL the information you need.

Whew. Okay I said it. If you have to get a rabbit for your child this Easter, read the above links and consider getting a rabbit from a local shelter. Let me know your thoughts by emailing me at blog@eebeads.com or leaving a comment below and this year for your child, make your bunny a stuffed toy or a tasty chocolate one. Happy Easter!

p.s. A couple weeks later: I thought I was a bit harsh in this posting, but then I went on craigslist.org and just in the Philadelphia area (where I live) there were HUNDREDS of unwanted rabbits listed for free or for sale...just something to think about...I wish I could take them all in.

African Trade Bead Challenge is Here!

2008-03-08T15:05:00.006-05:00

If you heard about my Peruvian Bead Challenge and have been waiting for another, now is your chance! This new challenge involves African Trade Beads. Many of our African Trade beads were created in Europe and traded in Africa during the 1800s. Some beads are newer like the bottle glass beads. These beads are old and worn and are not for those looking for a "clean, perfect bead".

I have one supplier for these beads and his name is Zakari. He is a delightful man that hails from Nigeria. I received my first email from him about 10 years ago. I love him, but his English isn't all that great and I didn't really understand what he wanted of me. About a week later, a HUGE box arrived at my warehouse overflowing with African Trade Beads and I was hooked. Although a little worn, these beads are colorful and funky and unique beads on the market.

So what is the challenge you ask? I will send you three packages of some of our most popular beads. One package of Cobalt Bottle Glass from Ghana (these beads are newer), one package of Silver Roundish Beads from Ethiopia (older), and one bag containing a little more than half a strand of Christmas Beads from Ghana (older) all shown to the above right. You will have three weeks from the mailing date to make a project with these and any other beads you want to add (they don't have to be from eebeads.com). When you're done, email me a picture of what you made and a blurb giving me your opinion of these beads. You must also agree to let me post your full name and city and state where you live.

This challenge is now closed...I have the five participants. The beads will be mailing out soon and in about 3 weeks I'll post what the participants made and their opinions of these beads. It'll be fun to see what the 5 different designs are so check back!

I'm Now Offering You a Bead Bonus of the WEEK!

2008-02-27T17:06:00.004-05:00

Are you a member of our email update list? If you are, then you know that we offer you a free bead Bonus of the Month with a minimum purchase. Well, lots of you have been asking if I'd make it a weekly bonus so you can get it more than once a month. Well, I heard you and I changed it. Starting this Saturday, I'll have a new Bonus of the Week you can get when you spend $40 or more! That's right...a new giveaway every single week. These will be our same, high quality bonus packs that we offered monthly. Let me know what you think of them or what you'd like to see in the future by emailing me at blog@eebeads.com or leaving me a comment below. If you're not a member of our list, you can sign up by clicking here. I hope you love this new offer that you asked for!

Oh and by the way... I loved when we did the Peruvian Bead Challenge so I'll be offering another Challenge with different beads very soon where you can get free beads and send in your opinions. Keep an eye out on my blog for the new Challenge coming soon!

Rejects in the Bead World?

2008-02-16T17:16:00.005-05:00

Ever wonder where some of the wonderful things in bead land come from? I most certainly do. Last year, two HOT new products came to the bead market: wire protectors (also known as wire guardians) and crimp covers. For a while, we had a hard time keeping these items in stock (okay, a lot of the time).

One of my favorite sales reps, Peter, came for a visit and we were chatting about new products and where the ideas for them come from. He said to me "Now that was a genius who figured out what to do with those rejects and how to sell them." So here's a quiz....what item was he talking about? The crimp covers were the "rejects". Crimp covers are seamed beads that didn't seal and would normally have been thrown out. The first person that emailed me the correct answer was Debbie Gilligan of Troy, NY and I'll be sending her a pack of plated crimp covers for free!

Cutting Heavy Chains...duh!

2008-02-08T15:47:00.001-05:00

Last week, our idea of the week was a Made with Love Charm Bracelet. I was the one who came up with the idea and I was delighted with how it turned out. Now don't fall off your chair with the next sentence. Everyone here was in total shock that I used crystals...I like crystals, they're just not my favorite bead *gasp*. I know...I'm weird. Anyway, my bracelet idea didn't sell well and I think I know why. Under the chain in the materials list was the following statement: "Please note: This heavy chain can not be cut with a normal side cutters, we had to buy a small bolt cutter to cut it. Because the links aren't soldered, it is possible to separate the links with two flat nose pliers, but it's difficult." Not a great thing to read if you're a beader...why bother, right?

I was irked. We've carried this chain (and another heavy one similar to this one) for a few months and the bolt cutter statement was on the page with the chain too. I thought it was only right to warn people, but come on! There's GOT to be an easier way. Duh! Ask the supplier how to cut it. I'm sure they all got a good laugh at my not asking sooner, but my supplier did email me back and tell me that this, and most heavy chains like it, can be cut with a memory wire cutter! I didn't believe him...but went and tried it. It's like a hot knife through butter...easy as can be.

So next time you need to cut a heavy chain, use that memory wire cutter you have. While you're at it, next time you think you've waited to long to ask a question, send me an email and I'll see if I can answer it for you!

Peruvian Bead Challenge - the opinions are in!

2008-01-31T15:22:00.005-05:00

Two weeks ago I posted a little challenge about our Peruvian ceramic beads. I asked for 5 customers to let me mail them a package of beads and then for them to email me their opinions and pictures of what they made (if anything) with them. I've now heard from them and here are their comments as well as a picture of the beads that I sent them! I hope you enjoy their comments and it spurs you on to take a second look at these little works of art.

Annita Wilson, Wagoner, OK
"I just completed my project with the Peru Blue & Red Oval beads and I think it turned out quite well. I had some mixed blue "e" beads that had around for a while and they worked great with the color in the oval beads. Click here to see Annita's necklace and earrings. I really liked the beads, the colors were not what I usually gravitate towards but I liked the finished projects. I had a little difficulty deciding how to use them, I'm not used to such large holes in my beads so I had to adjust the size on the beads I used with them.."

Cheryl Verive, Carol Stream, IL
Cheryl was the only respondant who had a specific bead request.
"I really do like to quality of the beads. I think they are well made and a beautiful color blue. I have not had a chance to make anything with them yet. I am up to the challenge though. I know that I would only use the blue beads that I chose, that is mainly why I have not purchased them. The other colors are a little bold and I really do not like them."

Martha Smith, Cincinnati, OH
"Hi, I got my beads today and, to be honest, my first reaction was not a positive one. I was not expecting fish! I had been thinking about getting the beads and what I would make with them when I got them. The fish threw me off. But then I started looking at the colors and details and thought, wow, these could be fun. The colors are vibrant and exciting. I fell in love with the fish I didn't like. I decided these were earrings. I put a small 4 mm yellow Swarovski on the bottom to keep the pin from falling through, one fish, then as bubbles an 8 mm, then a 6 mm and a 3 mm Crystal AB Swarovski. I think they turned out very cute. (Even my husband like them.)"
.

Othella Morris, Upland, IN
"I just got my beads yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to make something with them yet, but as soon as I saw them, I fell in love. They are beautiful beads, and just what I've been looking for to use on some beaded bookmarks for myself and a few friends. The beads are just the right size and weight for what I've been wanting, and the design is perfect, even in the color combination. I can't wait to take a break from my monstrous homework load this weekend and play with them! Thank you so much for putting on this challenge and introducing me to these beautiful beads. Now that I know what they are, I won't be able to talk myself out of trying them in the future."

Kelly Abbott, Tonawanda, NY
I did share them with my beading partners and they loved them as much as i do. I think they are great and I was going to put them on black leather.

Another added comment is from Jan Mueller Pewaukee, WI. She wasn't part of my challenge, but sent in the following comments on the Peruvian ceramics and gave me permission to post her email:

First let me tell you that I am not at all concerned with not being one of the first 5 to get beads. I had ordered a few prior to reading your blog and I just "had to order more" because I love them so. I thought I could use all the colors in them to bring out in a piece but what I realized is that they look the best being the whole show and anything else being supporting characters. Click here to see Jan's bracelet.

And yet another idea sent in by a customer who bought the Peruvian ceramics. This playful necklace was made by Anna Skebäck of Gothenburg, Sweden! I was actually in Gothenburg to meet my husband Allen's relatives last year...what a small world!

Luscious Blown Glass Beads

2008-01-25T15:58:00.000-05:00

I was so excited about the beads I put up this week that I just had to come and babble a little bit about them. Like the title says, I've added six new blown glass beads...but there's a catch. These are NOT $4.00 each beads from Venice, they're from...gasp...China! The least expensive is $0.68 each and the most expensive is $0.98 each.

So other than the price, why I am I so excited about these beads? Well first, the colors are so vibrant they practically glow (really). Second, they are extremely high quality beads. I've heard you can take a Venetian blown glass bead and whip it against concrete and it won't break. Hmm....these Chinese beads are so delicate and light, I thought there is NO way they'll stand up to that kind of torture. Well, guess what? I tried it...took one of these Chinese larger rounds and whipped it at our concrete floor and it BOUNCED. Impressive to say the least. I also sent a test package (nothing fancy, just our plain First Class packaging) to my sister-in-law all the way across the country in Washington and she reported they arrived in perfect shape. I was sold!

I've always wanted to carry blown glass beads, but besides being ferociously expensive for me to buy...what about your price? So, I just avoided them and drooled at a distance. When my supplier brought these in for me to see, I was just floored and I hope you will be too. Send me an email or post a comment below and let me know what YOU think of these beauties.

Anyone out there? YOU are! Talk to me?

2008-01-23T18:11:00.002-05:00

Last Wednesday I posted my little Peruvian Ceramics bead challenge. By Friday afternoon I only had one taker and I was looking for five. I was perplexed, but then got the idea to put a link to my blog in the Saturday email update. At 3:00 Saturday afternoon, Allen came and got me and said "You better come take a look at this". My email in box was just loaded with people wanting to take part in my humble little bead challenge (look for the first 5's comments after January 31st). I couldn't believe it! While most people simply stated they wanted to "play" and I wrote them a simple email back, many people wrote me very personalized emails, not just about the Peruvian ceramics, but about the site, ideas and all sorts of stuff...I felt so bad saying "I have the five for my challenge", but had such fun answering all those emails.

On Monday morning, I had some more emails, but it was the usual stuff of "Did you get my order?", "Can I add this to my order?", etc. Now don't get me wrong, those emails are a complete necessity to my business, but it certainly doesn't tell me anything about who these customers are that are ordering from me.

So what do I want? You got it...an email (or even a comment you can leave down below). Talk to me...tell me what it is you want or like or don't like about eebeads. I want YOUR opinion on EVERYTHING eebeads!

So just send off that email or post a comment below and babble a bit to me, I would love to hear from you.

Customer Blog About Ceramic Beads - aka The Peruvian Bead Challenge

2008-01-16T18:09:00.000-05:00

The other day I was on Technorati (a search engine for blog sites) to see if they had picked up on my humble blog yet (nope) and found an interesting blog entry about eebeads. Apparently a customer had ordered some foil glass beads and was sent a package of Peruvian ceramic beads by mistake. She was baffled how that happened, but I'm sure the filler just transposed numbers. Anyway, we of course said we'd send her out the correct beads when she contacted us, but her blog entry tells how she then went to the ceramics page and started taking an interest in these little beauties. To quote her "I've been missing a whole area of beads that are truly worthwhile."

Well, I was just delighted (hence this post) because I adore our Peruvian ceramics. I've been importing them directly from Peru for years. They are hand crafted, hand glazed and some of the most unique beads out on the market (in my humble opinion). With that said, we certainly don't sell a whole lot of them. Why? I just don't know. Their bright colors definitely take center stage and may make them hard to design with.

I've now got 5 people who I'm sending a pack of Peruvian beads to for their opinion. As soon as I have their answers, I'll post them here - even the negative ones (if any are negative). Keep checking my blog for more offers of free beads for your opinion of them. Thanks to everyone who emailed me!

2008-01-15T15:32:00.000-05:00

Are you a member of our update list? Ooo I hope you are. Tomorrow morning, starting at 7am EST we're having a sale on eight new copper beads and two new toggle clasps only for members of our list. These beads and toggles will be on sale at 15% off until next Wednesday the 23rd at noon EST. Not a member or our list? Send me an email and I'll sign you up and also let you know the secret website address where you can find this nifty sale.

Working Conditions in India

2008-01-11T15:02:00.001-05:00

I asked you to send me questions and this week I got a doozy. Bev, a customer of mine, asked about the working conditions in the factory where I get my Indian glass beads. Excellent question! One I avoided asking myself in the beginning for fear of the answer.

In my last post, I told you how my supplier from India came for a visit quite a few years ago. While he was here, he asked Allen and I if we wanted to see pictures of his factory. Why? Well, he was very proud of the working conditions! Now don't get me wrong, the conditions are not what we're used to in the United States, but they certainly were NOT the horrors you might read about on the net. Lampworkers sat on the floor in front of a torch. They had eye protection and tons of ventilation from open windows. I asked long ago if he employed children and he was rather insulted by the question...the answer was "Absolutely not!".

While I realize the working conditions are not as good as ours, it's just reality that I could never afford to buy my lampwork beads from the United States. I've contacted numerous lampworkers and the usual discount is about 20% off their retail prices. I can't run a business on that low a discount.

It's certainly up to you if you want to buy beads from India, but I hope this post will reassure you that the conditions in the factory where I buy my beads from in India are pretty good and no child labor is used. If I pulled my contract and discontinued our Indian glass, I'd be putting a lot of people out of work as well.

Keep those questions (even the challenging ones) coming!

Our Shipment from India Arrived!

2008-01-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

So many of you have been waiting, you'll be glad to know our order from India finally arrived! Yippee! I ordered approximately 260 kilos (573 pounds) of lampworked and pressed glass beads as well as bone and horn beads and after about 3 months this big ole shipment arrived. Most of the items come pre-bagged so we'll have those back up on the site today. For the rest of the items, we'll get our pieceworkers on them and we'll have them up in no time.

I've been importing from India for over 10 years. Why? I simply love Indian beads and especially the prices. Over the years I've had lots of Chinese designs reproduced in India for a fraction of the cost that Chinese beads would cost. We've also been using the same supplier and just love him. We were actually graced with a visit from the owners brother and partner a few years ago.

The picture to the right shows how the order arrives. The large boxes are covered in hand stitched burlap coverings and inside are smaller boxes holding 1 kg each. Sometimes customs will seize the shipments and go through them and the opened boxes are covered in bright green tape. Not this time though, they came through quickly and without a hitch.

We sent out over 600 email notifications about these beads being back in stock so I'm sure you're as excited as I am to have them back in stock!

We screwed up (confirmation emails)

2008-01-01T16:04:00.000-05:00

Boy did we screw up! We were closed from December 19th through January 2nd. We put a notice on our home page, but lots of folks missed it. We were inundated with emails over our break asking if we had received peoples orders because they didn't receive a confirmation email after placing their order. We've done this in past years...closed that is...but never did we get this many emails from people concerned about whether or not we received their order. What went wrong this year? Was the closed message on our home page too small? We're not really sure. One thing is for sure though...next year, if we close again for a week, we'll be sure to set up the program so you receive a confirmation email right after you place your order. Sorry about the confusion!!!

You've got to try flower arranging too!

2008-01-01T14:29:00.000-05:00

Every year for our annual Christmas party, I order flowers. And every year I am completely disappointed regardless of what florist I choose. The arrangements are small...maybe 6 carnations, 2 mums and a red ball with some green stuff. My employees are way to sweet to complain, but I just feel like a cheap jerk when they see the arrangements. I've tried several florists, tried spending more money, but I'm never pleased. Why is it that I go to a grocery store and see a gorgeous bouquet for $14.99 loaded with flowers, but when I order them from a florist for $40.00 I get junk?

This year, I decided to stop being disappointed, skip trying yet another florist, and take these flower matters into my own hands. After a bit of research on the web about flower arranging, my husband Allen and I went to a place called Produce Junction (which is like a wholesaler open to the public) and loaded up a box with tons of gorgeous, colorful flowers. We then took them back to our warehouse and I took over the kitchen...and I might add I had an absolute blast making the arrangements! If you don't have a place like Produce Junction around you, consider using those pretty bouquets at the grocery store.

Here's some tips if you want to try making your own arrangements too. Start with medium height flowers ( I used mums and carnations). Each of my arrangements has about 10 of these. Next, put in your focal flowers that are taller and shorter than your medium height flowers (I used one white hydrangea, three pink roses and two purple statis). Then add your greens for filler ( I had ferns and some other pretty greens I don't know the name of). And finally, I filled in the "blanks" with baby's breath.

This year, the arrangements were colorful and lovely and best of all, loaded with gorgeous flowers. Another added bonus was these loaded with flowers arrangements were about 1/4 the price of the florists flowers. You may not need to make a bunch of arrangements, but consider trying flower arranging yourself next time you need an arrangement and skip the overpriced florists.

The Joys of Inventory

2007-12-19T18:51:00.000-05:00

Saying the word "inventory" at eebeads is pretty much akin to using a four letter word. We all hate it...no doubt about it. But, it's gotta be done doesn't it? Believe it or not, there was a time when we didn't do inventory...

When I started eebeads, I didn't have any type of degree or education in business. I went to college and got an art degree with a teaching certificate. I taught high school one year and elementary the next and then moved from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania where eebeads was born. I had a huge love of beads and actually put myself partially through college by selling jewelry at art fairs...so eebeads was born.

Okay, back to the inventory part. So we're going along for about 2 years without doing inventory and a friend who owned several businesses said "You don't do inventory?". Well geez, never occurred to me! But it made perfect sense. Lots of the items in the database didn't match what was actually on the shelves. How could this happen? We enter in the data, we take out of the boxes....the stuff should match right? Nope! Human error up the wazoo.

So that's what we've been doing for the past two days even though we've been technically closed. Thank goodness we've got it down to a science these days and it only takes about a day and a half with a lunch of pizza on the last day. *sigh* Thank goodness it's over for the time being!

Happy Holidays from all of us at eebeads.com!

Why am I writing a blog?

2007-12-18T14:31:00.001-05:00

Good question, what provoked me to write a blog about eebeads? You, the customer and general public! I want to communicate and find out what you're wondering about. I get a lot of interesting questions from customers and jewelry designers via email that I answer, but with a blog, you can post a comment and I can share the answers with everyone!

What is eebeads? We're an internet retailer that sells beads to the public. We are not wholesale and we don't have a store. Our specialty is selling smaller packages of beads (versus a gross or a strand) so you don't have to buy a lot, just what you need. We add new items every week and a new jewelry design you can make as well. All our jewelry designs are free to anyone.

Even though we're now closed for the holidays, I'll be coming in to do some work and checking email so I will be blogging. Feel free to email me a question/comment or post a comment below.

I look forward to blogging WITH you so send in those comments!