I consider myself to be a fairly artsy, craftsy person; drawing, painting, sewing, crocheting, collage-ing weaving and the like. Every time I pick up a new craft obsession I stock up on supplies, work feverishly to learn it and when I finally feel adept at it, drop it altogether and move on to something else. This has gone on for years, until pressed for space in my small bedroom/studio/craft room, I forcefully cut myself off from buying anymore supplies. That is until recently, I was shopping in South Norwalk and discovered the delightful little nook of a store, Beadworks. Which sells, you guessed it, jewelry making supplies and every type of bead you could possibly imagine. It was the beautiful beads I fell in love with, I chose a bead I liked and it all devolved from there. Fortunately Norwalk is a bit far for me to drive to on a whim, thus preventing any more impulse jewelry projects. However there bead shop in White Plains that I have been dying to check out and on Wednesday I finally did.
Beads of Westchester on Westchester Avenue in White Plains is a bright and airy shop. It is dangerously close to where I live, has a wonderfully varied selection and a terrifically helpful staff.
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Interior of Beads:
Tons of beads and bobbles and a couple tables to sit at if you want to work on the jewelry in the store. |
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| Wall of beads in every color imaginable. |
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| Table holding an array of colors and sizes of Swarovski crystals. |
The wide selection made it difficult to choose a project, I definitely suggest going with a project in mind, however the shop had some beautiful finished jewelry examples displayed which helped me figure out what I wanted to make this go around, earrings. While I now had the vision of my finished project I still had some questions on the pieces I would need, configuration and construction. The staff as I said before were extremely helpful. Lynne and Iti were there to answer my questions, make suggestions and demonstrate any techniques I needed. Not brave enough to dive into jewelry making on your own, the shop offers classes for the neophyte and the more experienced beader. The classes fee covers instruction and materials, check the website for the
full schedule. I am thinking about taking the Spiral Rope Bracelet class or maybe the Knotting with Silk class or perhaps (oh no I should stop myself here).
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| Materials for my earring project all laid out, I choose silver metal with Garnet crystals. |
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| Finished earring, silver plated metal hoop and chain with Garnet Swarovski crystals. |
I love my earrings and I am already planning to make a necklaces to match, I know I'm in trouble. Do share my craft addiction please share in the comments section below. Thanks for reading this edition of Shop Local, if you are in White Plains make it a point to check out...
Best,
Jennifer
I am not an artsy, crafty kind of person, but even I was able to make a beautiful necklace that I wear all the time. It was great fun!
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