BeadCrate Subscription Box Review – July 2016

BeadCrate is a monthly subscription box for bead enthusiasts. Every month you’ll receive a curated collection of beads, findings, and other goodies to enhance your beading creations! There are three box sizes – Hobbyist ($7.99), Enthusiast ($15.99), and Collector ($35) [prices don’t include shipping] to choose from. This is the Enthusiast Crate!

The theme of this month is Lava! Look at the lava lamp drawing!

The beads come well package in a red organza bag that fits the theme. The box comes with a curator’s note explaining the theme. For the first time, they included genuine crystals!

The crate comes with a chart that tells you exactly what you’re getting. I really like that we know where each bead come from.

Lot’s of black and orange/red colours! Everything comes in plastic bags and well labelled.

2 12mm firepolished faceted hyacinth AB czech glass. The color is gorgeous! A deep orange with an AB coating on half the sides. I really want to use them as a centre piece or on earrings.

10 8mm opaque red antique style triangles. Very unique, they are not see-through but they remind me of stained glass. I wish the grey/greenish colour would have been more metallic, but they are very pretty.

3 6x10mm jet teardrop czech crystal (Machine Cut). The cut is great! Even if they don’t have an AB coating, they have a lot of sparks! I would see them dangling from earrings or at the end of fringes on a necklace. The size is great and they are light so it’ll be easy to add them to any project, even a heavy beaded one.

Dark beads! 3mm hyacinth/white/jet fire polished and 3mm fire polish matte jet. Both strands are barrel shaped and very small. These would be great in bead weaving with the 8/0 toho beads (transparent-frosted light grey). The coloured beads have different colours in each beads, and they do fit the Lava Theme perfectly! Together, they would make a nice weaved bracelet or necklace.

Yellow! 4mm matte mojave/yucca hurricane glass fire polished beads and 4mm luster opaque yellow cubes. The colours are amazing! So bright and sunny! The fire polished beads are a mix of two shades of yellow and they remind me of big bright yellow flowers. The cubes have an opalescent sheen to them and are very cute and unusual! I was surprise to see yellow beads in the lava theme, but they would be perfect in a graduated hues necklace, from yellow to black, through orange and red. They would be great in a bead weaving project.

Reds! 6mm hyacinth firepolished round beads and 3mm opaque matte red english cut rounds. The round beads are more red than the two hyacinthe colored beads seen earlier, but they are still in the orange range of color. The small beads look like little candies! Their colour is very close to the one on the triangular beads, so they would be great with them. I feel they would not do well in a bead weave as the cut makes them quite abrasive. But they would be nice as accent in a wire project or strung on a stringing wire.

9 mm coral round (dyed) and 8mm round lava stone. I love stones and seeing lava beads in this box makes me happy. Fun fact: dark lava stone (named scoria) are like the lighter pumice stone (that we use to scrub our feet), but they are denser so they will sink in water. I’ve tested it, just to be sure! The coral beads have a nice pattern and they would go so well with the lava stone in a simple black and red bracelet!

At first, I wanted to do a necklace with lots of seed beads, with gradation in the colours from red to black, but it didn’t happen. I’m still picking up the tiny beads from my floor. Always tie a knot when using thread in a project!!! So instead, I decided to go with the biggest beads from the box and wire wrap from there! I barely touched the tiny beads, but I’m planning on making a cute little bracelet with them. I’ve added some silver findings, but I wish I went with golden colours instead.

I loved this month’s BeadCrate’s box. The lava theme was fun to work with and gave us a nice colour combination!  It’s great to have those colours to work with in summer so our designs are ready to wear for fall season. I love yellows, but I don’t usually go for those colours when I buy my own beads, so that’s a plus! But as you can see, I didn’t even touch them for my necklace. There was a lot of tiny beads, so bead weavers should be happy with this box!

What do you think of this month’s BeadCrate box?

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