Amazing $1 Bead Source

Look at the crazy colorful sugar glass beads in different sizes, the rondelle slab cane glass, the red eye beads, various lampwork; in the top corner it can't really be seen but there are little coffin shaped drizzle beads and long white glass with blue spots...

And here are striped glass, big chevrons, huge speckled glass nuggets, gigantic glass tribal type black and white spool shapes, root beer flowers that must be 45mm--they are gigantic.

This is the box they came in--a medium size flat rate. I'd already removed about 1/3 of them; it was absolutely stuffed. I can't stand it when this links my text and I can't remove the link. Oh, blogger.

Here's another strand. Yes--this is a single strand. 84 inches. These are glass rice brown luster glass beads. They've got almost a labradorite blue flash deal going on with their particular iridescence.

Guess how much each strand cost. A dollar. Every single strand is a dollar. Nothing on the site is over a buck. Some things are on sale for 25 cents and 50 cents. Shipping is a flat rate, 5.95.

It's amazing. I came across it after being determined to find out the source of all the weird little bagged beads found in places like Joann's (which I believe has now phased them out), Hobby Lobby (here they actually sit on an endcap in plastic canisters and are pretty expensive) and Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart $1 bagged beads are my secret weird bead supply, and obviously, actually entering Wal-Mart is my secret shame.

But I live in a really small town and sometimes if you want an avocado or lemongrass on a Sunday, this is the price you have to pay. So of course at one point I looked at the craft section, and I found these dusty little bagged beads for a dollar. The thing I love about them is they are very unusual in that they are nothing you would ever expect to find in a craft section or craft store--the glass is full of bubble inclusions, some are really weird, like the flesh colored eye beads I use a lot, the teeniest and most colorful wedding cake style lampwork beads ever, really odd muddy colors, etc. Lots of it is cheap junk, too, of course.

But the turnover is really stagnant--the stock is hardly ever replenished. The other day I was thinking there must be a source for these beads--what a dream to be able to actually shop for them. I'd looked at the website printed on the package long ago--it doesn't seem to be a real site.

So I just started searching and came across this site: http://dollarbead.com/

It's not the source of the bagged beads, but they have many of the same ones, including my flesh eye beads and teeny lampwork. I wondered if they would arrive in the same little bags, but they just came on regular strings and in long cellophane covers. They're really amazing--MUCH better quality than the photos at the site would suggest. They arrived in just a couple days in good packaging and no broken beads. Highly recommended!

The site is organized pretty well, but I found using general site-specific search terms for items you prefer helps narrow down a search. for example, I used the term "mix artisan glass" when I realized that was the title of many different types of beads I liked.

I'm placing a second order!