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 two box sizes – Enthusiast ($18.99 + $5 Shipping) and Collector ($35 with free shipping) to choose from.
This is the Enthusiast Crate!
We also have a curator’s note explaining the theme. This month’s theme is Tropical Sunset! You can share your creation on their social media (Instagram or Facebook, don’t forget to tag them!)
The crate comes with a chart that tells you exactly what you’re getting.
The beads always come neatly packaged inside individual well-labelled plastic bags inside a cute organza bag.
2mm Luster Transparent Amethyst Firepolish. I like small faceted beads as they can be added to any design for a bit of spark, without being too much. They are small enough to work well with seed beads, or as an accent around bigger beads.
6mm Aquamarine Firepolish. Usually, I like working with 6mm, they are probably my favorite size of beads, but with all the small beads in this box, they seemed huge! I love the color and they would look good with some silver colored bead caps or spacer beads, and they really feel like the ocean. They look amazing paired with the Honey Shimmer (see below).
8mm Cobalt Round. A dark blue glass beads.
4mm Honey Chimmer Crystal Firepolish Rounds. We usually get some kind of firepolish beads in this box, and these are soooo pretty! I needed to do something with them this month. I like how they are both neutral color, but with some sparks! I like firepolish beads with spacer beads or small bead caps.
3mm Tango Firepolished Mix. I like getting mixes as I like to be able to choose if I want to use only one color, or two, or all of them.
7x14mm Hyacinth AB Fish. They are so cute! The AB coating is only on one side of the beads, giving them a fun shiny scale look to them. The hole goes from the mouth to the tail and I was thinking of making an anklet with cords for the summer, but the holes are too small for what I had on hand. But it will happen!
3x8mm Siam Ruby Dime Beads. I really like the color, even though I never know how to use this shape in a design.
9x11mm Crystal Sunset Tear Drop. Lovely teardrop beads, perfect for simple earrings with rondelles or matte gemstone beads. I used them in my final project, and their color was calling for some copper findings! The coating is only on the back side, giving them some depth.
18mm Backlit Tequila Round Cabochon. The back side is silver in color and this is a nice cabochon to make a beaded bezel. Sadly, when I tried, it ended up in a mess, so I need to practice before being able to really showcase how pretty it is.
12mm Aqua Picasso Hawaiian Flowers. They look like there’s some vert-de-gris on them! I’m probably gonna turn them into earrings with sparkly turquoise rondelles on antique brass findings. They would also make lovely components on a beaded turquoise bracelet.
22mm Quest Antique Silver Connector. I like when we get some metal component in this box, as I mostly work with metal. These can be used as links on a simple silver chain with a statement focal piece, or for earrings.
2.125″ BeadSmith Large Eye Beading Needle. I was so happy to get a new needle, as I tend to break mine (I’m clumsy when it comes to designs with thread and small beads). But I was confused by what seemed to be a two-sided needle.
But then, I realized what the “Large Eye” meant! The whole needle is a giant eye!
8/0 Toho Transparent Sapphire AB. Every month we receive a type of seed beads. This month, they are a lovely shade of blue, but I think they are slightly too big to work well for making a cabochon bezel. Of course, this is solely based on my non-existent experience with beading a bezel!
5x7vmm Alexandrite Gemstone Donut. They are a light blue-purple color, depending on what you pair them with.
So, I tried to make a beaded bezel for the cabochon, but it ended up being a mess. So instead, I went with a wire wrapped necklace using the teardrops as my inspiration for the copper wire.
This month was another great BeadCrate box, with lots of fun summery colors, perfect to bring the Tropics to your bead mat. Even though I wasn’t able to work with the cabochon, I’m happy to have the opportunity to play with it and practice my beaded bezel skills! Coming from a wire heavy design background, I like how this box is pushing me to experiment with different techniques!
What do you think of this month’s BeadCrate box?
Comments
This is gorgeous! I love the colors and copper wrapping ?
I LOVE the necklace that you made…it is gorgeous!