Wednesday 15 October 2014

3 days of bead shopping

Hi my lovely beading people!! :)

How are you today? Sometimes I really get a little nuts of having to shop for beads. Of course, I bead a lot and if you bead a lot you eventually run out of beads. And it is not that I don't like getting new beads, but it takes so much time out of my hands!

Shopping list:
4 Swarovski light rose rivoli's
48 4mm Swarovski light rose bicones
11/0 Matte Dusty orchid Miyuki seedbeads
15/0 Matte Dusty orchid Miyuki seedbeads
11/0 Pink lined Crystal AB Miyuki seedbeads
15/0 Pink lined Crystal AB Miyuki seedbeads
11/0 Galvanized Duracoat Dusty Orchid
11/0 Baby pink ceylon
15/ Baby pink ceylon
Pink superduos

Now that does not sound like a list that would take me 3 days to get together now doesn't it? Well actually it is not that simple! I do not know about other countries, but the color pink seems to be very hard to get my hands on. I am on a tight budget, so I can not afford to just shop anywhere as I have to make the most out of my money.


Day 1

The search for pink superduos;
If you think pink seedbeads are hard to find around here, you should try pink superduos! Every time again the same thing happens to me. *sigh* I look at the picture, it looks pink and when it gets here, it turn out to be purple. I think I already have bought at least 5 bags of superduos this way! And yes I could have returned them, but as I have to pay for the shipping cost myself so that would be just as expensive as the bag of superduos. No of course I can use the superduos, just not for the project I have in mind. So I have to go 'bead hunting' again.

After a very long search I found a shop that seemed to have them. As I did not know the shop, I had to check first if they where trust worthy. Luckely they where! So because I did not want to risk buying the wrong superduos again I emailed them a photo and asked if they where the same or at least close to the same superduos I used in this Zianna pendant:


Now before you think, why didn't you just go back to the store where you bought the same color of superduos, I did and they are sold out never to return. The lady said that the superduos where not the same but where not purple either, and that I could return them if they where not the color I am looking for. Good enough for me! So now the shipping cost at this shop are 3,50 euro when you order under 20 euro's. So I will order for 20 euro's,  but I will only put things in my cart for now, as here comes the problem I have with every single store here in the Netherlands. *sigh*

Shops in the Netherlands never seem to have everything I need. So this shop dit not carry Swarovski, the pink 15/0 seedbeads and the 15/0 dusty orchid seedbeads. That means I am forced to shop at one or more other shops to get my order together. At this moment I have to look at all my options. Most of the beadshops in the Netherlands do not carry Swarovski, so I will go to a special shop for that. But it seemed that the 15/0 pink lined seedbeads are nowhere to be found.


Day 2

So the search continuous. When I finally found a shop the next day that seemed to have the seedbeads I needed, I found out they have a minimum order amount of 25 euro's and they only sell seedbeads. *sigh* But on the top of there page it said that they have corresponding color numbers, so when I need 11/0 beads they also have those in 15/0. As I found that to be a good deal, as 11/0 with matching 15/0 beads are hard to find. I would just order some beads that are hard to come by also and so be it. So after I spend an hour on there site, getting all the colors together (so also the ones that I did not need), I found out that there statement was not true. So I spend 1 hour for absolutely nothing. *sigh*

Now I do not have many options left as all the other stores don't carry the 15/0 pink lined beads. So I have to get them from somewhere else. After a good long search I decided to go to my last resort, I looked on Ebay. Found a shop that said 'spend 25 dollars and get free shipping'. Well now thats a good deal! After another hour I filled my cart and was ready to check out. But my shopping cart still said: shipping cost 9,98 dollar... So I had to email the to ask how come. Well the free shipping was only for US people... *sigh*


Day 3

So after 2 days just looking through all the beads shops, I have to make a decision. I have to at least spend 20 euro or more to get my free shipping on my superduo order. The shop at Ebay has all the Swarovski and other things I need. However, I can only shop for 22 euro's as otherwise I have to pay 13 euro's of clearance cost, and they also charge me 10 dollars, which is about 8 euro's shipping cost. So I will have to see what I can put in my cart the best (as seedbeads are cheaper from other countries) so probebly I still have to get my rivoli's from another shop here in the Netherlands. Total cost? About 60 euro's, that is around 75 dollars. KATCHING! And what can I make with that? Well 4 Zianna pendants as showed above on the photo (or at least close to that one). And I will use some of the seedbeads for other projects.

Conclusion: beading is a time consuming and expensive hobby!

But I think most beaders already know that :) I hope you liked my little story, how do you do your bead shopping? Do you have a store where you can just but everything at the same place? Or do you need to go nuts and spend 3 days just searching and emailing for that one color, like me? Let me know in the comment section :)

Have a nice day!
HoneyBeads

4 comments:

  1. I spend a lot of time looking for the best deal, too, and to get matching superduos and seed beads, or 11's and 8's to match, or 11's and 15's, so I know exactly what you are talking about!

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  2. I have exactly the same problem as you do. That's why I've stopped buying beads for a single project. My favourite shops (not affiliated with any of them) are PerlesAndCo and Jencel as I usually find many supplies that I need for bead weaving.
    Thank you for sharing your experience.
    Ana

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  4. Being disabled keeps me from doing the local shopping for beads, my pocketbook probably appreciates that as I'm real bad with impulse buys :) So online it is for me, and my favorite is Fire Mountain Gems and Beads. Hands down. With their pricing, the more you buy the less the cost per item. If I can't find something there, then I have to start hitting the smaller higher priced places. A suggestion for the shop on ebay you mentioned that has all the other stuff you need, buy in multiple purchases up to 22 euros....just cover the free shipping. Complete order. Make new order, rinse and repeat. Means more packages arrive, but its how I get around things when I need to :) Something about those 'free shipping' deals, I gotta get it. :) just saw the date on this blog post lol.

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