Sorting Day

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...!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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?

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

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

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

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?

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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?

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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:

1. Should we keep the tab navigation on top or switch to a left side navigation bar?
   
2. 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?
   
3. Are the colors on the tabs at the top too bright?
   
4. Is the background distracting?
   
5. (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?
   
6. Is the home page cluttered or do you like all the information you find there?
   
7. Is there anything on the site you find confusing or completely baffles you?
   
8. 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!

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!