I had a marvelous time rummaging round bead shops and charity shops today. First we found a bead shop by Brammal Lane and the prices of their beads are astronomical. They have 3g of seed beads for £2.25. Have you any idea how much 3g is? I am looking at 3g now and I estimate that they would very neatly fit into a thimble. In fact I shall go and try it right now, wait a minute....Gosh I am extremely clever, they fit exactly into a thimble with not a bead to spare! Most shops sell them in 3-5g quantities.We then went to Ecclesall Road in Sheffield to another shop only to find that they were mostly charging PER BEAD! Of course I wasn't able to spend that sort of money so we looked in the charity shops. I found loads of cool things:
Photo: Sindie Smith
From the top:
Green Chinese fabric top with bead fringing.
Blue and white beaded belt
Ceramic multi-stringed necklace
Green multi-stringed necklace
Dark red beaded necklace
Peacock multi-stringed necklace
The green top, the beaded belt and the bright ceramic necklace are second-hand, but the other items are new Fair Trade. Remember I had just seen the cost of beads in the other shops so I was very excited with these finds!
When I got home I cut all the strings, took apart the belt and took the beaded trim off the green top. I will keep the green fabric for my stash of course. I then weighed and bagged all the beads in order to prove a point. I then looked up all the prices of the beads in the two bead shops I had visited and did some quick calculations. The grand total for all those beads, had I bought them new from the shops would be....wait for it.....£141.75!!! Can you believe that people that sort of money for beads? That bright ceramic necklace had £26.31 worth of beads and the green and peacock necklaces would have cost £82.49!!! My flabber has been gasted.
Oh, and Gary found three books so he's happy enough. (it also took his mind off the money I was spending!!)
By the way, the auction for the box (see yesterday's post) went as high as the Buy It Now anyway.
2 comments:
Poo what size beads are you looking for? There are some very cheap boxes of assorted beads in the Chinese type shops here. They range from diddly dots to large Didi dots :O) I also have some beads you may like in different colours and styles.
I have a lot of 'ball' wooden beads and some long tear drop wooden beads. I took a door hang to pieces lol.
Let me know and I shall send you some.
It'll cost a fortune to post them though! I'd love most size beads, just not too big or plasticy. I think the door curtain beads would be too big. All the others sound wonderful. :0)
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