Bead On

When I was younger, I used to love when my mom would take me to the bead store. I would pick out beads mostly all sparkly, pink or labeled with a "Y" (or a combination of the three). While my tastes have evolved to be a bit less flamboyant, I rediscovered an old passion for making jewelry at the Brooklyn Bead Box last weekend. 

Venturing out to Cobble Hill on the F-train (an adventure in itself), I found the little shop and was instantly welcomed by the warm staff. Through a $20 voucher purchase from Lifebooker, I had signed up for the "Crimping Class" (normally $35). I was told we would be making floating-bead necklaces, given a bead tray and asked to pick out beads with small holes. With small-holes being the only constraint, I went wild in a sea of colors, materials and sizes of beads. I eventually settled on three ruby jade teardrop-shaped beads, called briolettes, and some turquoise and clear quartz spheres. The other ladies in my class included a graphic designer, who cleverly made the best out of losing an earring by placing a large bead from the other earring as the centerpiece of her necklace, and a woman who worked in finance at The Economist. I'm sure the shop gets people from all walks of life in for their classes, and that makes it fun.

Our class teacher taught us how to use the crimper tools and we were off! Crimping is actually a very relaxing process, and in less than an hour not only are you refreshed, but you have a personal piece of jewelry to show for it! Here's my finished product. You can see that I've come a long way since I was a kid - no sparkles or "Y"-labeled beads, although I couldn't resist the pink!

If this looks like something you would want to do, you're in luck! Scoop St. is selling $60 vouchers today for only $25. You can spend $35 of the $60 on a class and have $25 left over to buy beads! The beads on my necklace alone cost about $11 (with a 10% discount), so today's deal is a great price. I might buy two because I want to go for both the Earrings I and the Hoops Earrings classes. And if you're not a member of Scoop St. yet and you use my link to purchase, you'll get an additional $5 off your voucher! Happy beading!