Sunday 25 July 2010

Bead Bonanza

Anyone who uses lots of beads in craft projects will know just how expensive they are too buy. Glass beads can be ridiculously expensive and can really push up the cost of making items. Too keep costs down, I try to utilise second hand beads by breaking up jewellery.

This weekend I managed to accumulate quite a good stock of beads. Yesterday I bought two beaded hair ties and three bead necklaces in a wildlife charity shop. The whole lot cost just £3.50. All the beads are plastic but they are useful colours, shapes and sizes and I quite like the turquoise and white striped beads.

Today, I had another good haul at a car boot sale. I bought four bracelets and two necklaces. The bracelets are all glass beads, so I was really pleased with those. The white bead necklace is crystal, so really sparkly in the light and the black necklace is plastic but has a good tassel which I can see being used on an evening bag perhaps. All of the items were being sold to raise funds for a donkey sanctuary. The sellers only wanted £1.00 but that seemed far too cheap, so I gave them £2.00 instead.

All in all, I am really pleased with the beads and a couple of charities got some money. The jewellery will be broken up shortly and the beads will probably be used to make some new handbag charms.

Bookmark and Share

2 comments:

  1. We have a lot in common! I love treasure hunting at car boot sales most weekends and get so much fun making something from nothing! I buy t- shirts, shirts and duvet covers for making into rag rugs and if I find especially nice fabric I make it into patchwork goodies and hearts :) I also buy old frames to fill with embroideries. I am responsible for 'Eco School' at my school and am going to start an eco craft club this autumn getting the pupils recycling and creating too!
    Heather ~ The Patchwork Heart ♥

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love gathering really random items and then trying to figure out what to do with them too. Jumble sales are another good hunting ground. Love you rag rugs by the way, just taken a look. Excellent blog as well!

    ReplyDelete