A gift certificate for you....

This has happened to me a few times lately and I guess it's a sign of something - increasing readership, I guess.  Some businesses have approached me with the idea of advertising or promoting on my blog.  It's all a bit weird as what they are selling has nothing to do with what I'm interested in or talking about, so I guess they are homing in on a certain demographic that they feel must be reading my blog.  After all, I make no pretence at youth myself - although in my head I feel young and full of ideas - funny, that!

Then last week, an online bead business called The Bead Chest asked me if I'd be interested in promoting their shop a little for a gift certificate.  Now, I make beads, and since I'm just starting this business, I try really hard not to buy beads - and this is despite the sore temptation that I experience in this area every day on Etsy.  There is so much beautiful work out there...but at this point, I'm better focusing on the task at hand:  that is, learning to make beads, learning to sell beads and learning to make jewelry with my beads/components.

But I did think about all of you out there in my weeny bead universe and I said 'Yes' to the gentleman who asked me - 'Yes, I'd like to do a giveaway on my blog and use your gift certificate!'.  And the lovely gentleman said, 'That's great!  So now I have a lovely 30$ gift certificate for The Bead Chest, and I went over to the store and found some wonderful images of  beads that are wonderful and classic.  Like looking through Lois Sherr Dubin's book 'The History of Beads'.

The Bead Chest carries a wide variety of trade beads, some modern, some older, and a wide selection of contemporary African beads.  The lovely gentleman (Isaac, by name) who dispensed the gift certificate told me: 

"Regarding our business, we are a small family-run business and have been selling beads for several decades. Our favorite part of being in the bead business is seeing what our customers are able to make out of the beads we sell. We are always impressed by their beautiful creations :) As far as acquiring the beads, we work with bead traders in Africa. We travel to Ghana regularly. We always do our best to ensure the beads are fair trade, and are committed to supporting developing communities and economies in Western Africa. We also focus on African beads because they tend to be more eco-friendly than beads that are mass-produced in China and India. We do not have a brick and mortar store, but we sell online 24/7, and have done gem & jewelry shows in the past."

If you click on any of the pictures, you'll go straight to their listings!

I am in love with these gorgeous red simple glass beads, and as an ex-glass person, I can tell you that reds like this are the Holy Grail for glass blowers!

These are probably made from old 45 records...

Beautiful bone beads..

You could do a lot of things with this brass filigree, just think of Gilder's paste...

 

Classic beads..

Given a chance, I would buy a ton of these snake beads, they are so beautiful and useful...

Well, there you have it!  If you'd like a chance to win a 30$ gift certificate from The Bead Chest, just comment on my blog about the first beads you ever really loved - something given to you, the first (momentous) bead purchase you made, the 'aha' moment from making something that really worked - anything at all!  I've been thinking a lot about my creative progression recently, so I 'd like to hear something about yours.

I'll be drawing for this next Wednesday, April 13!  Have a lovely spring weekend!