Category

Bead News

15/01/2016

Up and Coming Spring Colours to Work into Your Jewellery Designs

With spring not that far away, it is coming up to the time for us to start thinking about updating our winter wardrobe to something a little more vibrant. To help give you direction, we have sought out some of the most important colours for Spring 2016, according to Pantone, and how you can incorporate them into your jewellery designs. These colours are “influenced by the world of art”, focussing on colours that are calm and reflect the beauty of the world’s natural resources. Out of the top 10 colours... Read More

Swarovski Pearl Beads | The Bead Shop 06/08/2015
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Creating the Perfect Wedding Day Accessory

When it comes to weddings, every bride wants the perfect day. This includes getting every last little detail of her outfit and accessories right, in order to look and feel her best. Many of you will be able to relate to that feeling of looking in the mirror before you walk down the aisle, feeling the best you have every felt.           If you want to create that feeling for someone else, we have created the perfect bridal bracelet using traditional Swarovski pearls, so that you... Read More

happy mothers day 13/03/2015
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Make Your Mother’s Day with a Unique Necklace

Are you struggling for original Mother’s Day ideas this year? Perhaps you’re in competition with yourself  to top what you bought last year, or maybe you’re a bit bored of buying the same old bouquet of flowers and box of chocolates. With Mother’s Day on the horizon, we are all hoping to show our mums just how much they mean to us, and what better way to do so than with a thoughtful necklace that you can customise in whatever way you choose? If you’re looking to add more of... Read More

16/08/2013

Super Duo Bracelet Demonstration

We would like to introduce you to the latest new exciting product that has come into the bead world, Super duo beads,a  seed bead with two holes. As with a lot of new beads and beading products that come onto the market, many people struggle to know what to do with them, so we thought this would be a perfect opportunity to hold our first ever demonstration in The Bead Shop in Afflecks Palace Manchester and show our customers how to use Superduo seed beads. The Demonstration will take place... Read More

15/11/2012

The Bead Shop wins Blog of the Year award

We are delighted to announce that The Bead Shop has won the Make Jewellery Magazine Blog of the Year award! Make Jewellery Magazine is a leading publication dedicated to the art of jewellery-making. The magazine features step-by-step guides to create unique pieces of jewellery and includes a wide range of projects suited to both beginners and more advanced jewellery makers. It really is an honour to receive such an award from Make Jewellery Magazine and we could not have done it without the help of all our bloggers and customers. To... Read More

26/04/2012

The Bead Shop gets nominated for an award!

We are very excited to announce that we have been nominated for a Blogger of the Month Award! Make Jewellery magazine has contacted us to let us know they are very impressed with the blogs we have written. We invest a lot of time in ensuring we keep all of our customers up-to-date with what we are doing whether it is in our shop or at the academy and we wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all that have been involved. Especially to our customers who... Read More

10/03/2012

Blue Peter films in our studio with jewellery designer Fatz Kassim

The Blue Peter crew came to our academy in February to film a special Mother’s Day feature with our friend Fatz Kassim. She is an independent fashion and jewellery designer in Manchester who has some amazing ideas when it comes to making jewellery. Fatz likes the idea of reusing broken jewellery and transforming it into something you can wear. It is a great way to reuse an item of jewellery that has something on it that you love such as a certain style of bead or charm. The Blue Peter... Read More

28/02/2012

Pinterest: a new social media network that is perfect for jewellery makers

We have come across a new social media network that we think is great for ideas and inspiration for new jewellery making designs. For those of you who have never heard of Pinterest, it is a social network that allows people to create online displays of their likes and interests. Users can create their own virtual moodboard by “pinning” images or videos they like and share it with their friends. Pinterest has become hugely popular with women and has been dubbed “Tumblr for mums”. It is almost like an online... Read More

08/02/2012

Manchester’s new artisan market

Piccadilly Gardens launched its new artisan market on Saturday 4th February and it will continue to trade on the first Saturday of every month from now on. The new market will showcase local independent designers and artisans that will sell handmade jewellery & clothes and other bespoke products. If you are currently exploring ways of how to sell your handmade jewellery this market is a great opportunity. Stalls that took part in the first market last Saturday included vintage inspired handmade jewellery, handmade household goods and original mounted photography. The... Read More

18/01/2012

Afflecks Palace starts 2012 on a high

Whilst the high street is facing another tough year, Afflecks Palace is starting the year with exciting news. The Manchester Evening News has reported that the popular Northern Quarter landmark had a record-breaking Christmas, welcoming more than one million shoppers over the festive period. Independent traders have noticed an increase in first-time customers visiting Afflecks Palace including older shoppers. People are often surprised when we tell them that most of The Bead Shop’s customers are in their 30s to 50s. Many assume the shop would attract mostly teenagers but in... Read More

07/01/2012

The wonderful world of beads & crafts

Did you know our shop has been in Manchester since 1993 and over the years we have met some very inspiring people. We have shared all of our jewellery making ideas with our customers and learnt new designs and tricks from them. We have gained a lot of experience over the years and our shop has grown to become known for its vast range of jewellery making supplies. We have all the supplies you need to make jewellery including tools, beading boards, glues and adhesives, storage boxes and jewellery gift... Read More

Mustard Tree Charity Day

Recently in Manchester there was a ‘I Love Manchester day’ due to the rioting which happened, so to show our support we decided to have a little competition in the shop, ‘guess how many beads there are in a Jar’. Customers put money in and had a guess; we wanted to donate the money to a local charity, so we had a look around and found Mustard Tree. We raised £80 and Mustard Tree were over the moon! ‘The Mustard Tree is a Manchester based charity committed to providing life... Read More

Jewellery Designs – Blackdragon

I have been a customer for awhile now and i’m more than pleased with your service. I have included some pictures of some of the things i have made with beads, charmsand jewellery findings that i have purchased off you…. not all the supplies come from you but at least half of everything used does. As you can see i have a slightly off-beat style…. Gothic and Steampunk are my favourite…but always with a twist. Thank you for taking time to read this…. i have a blog with some of my things on…. i’m... Read More

Hen Party Jewellery Class

We held a Hen Party for 6 girlies; in the class they made a charm bracelet each, using our wide selection of beads and charms. The girls had loads of fun whilst learning some beading techniques.  All their bracelets were unique to them, and matched the outfits they wore on their night out. A jewellery class is a great idea for Hen parties, which are reasonably priced and each class is bespoke to the individual.   “Really enjoyable – good instructions with really easy going atmosphere. Really nice bracelet to... Read More

Wire Work bracelet Class – June 1st

In this new jewellery class our students were working with craft wire, learning how to gradually build up to make this beautiful bracelet. Now they know how to use this technique, they can create so many different designs, the possibilities are endless!   Review by Kim Nolan, “Really enjoyed the day, lots of bead choice and enjoyable wire wrapping. Will make mine in to a necklace instead of a bracelet. Definitely come again and do more.”   *Included in the class was Lucite flowers, Swarovski crystal and pearls, also a mixture of... Read More

Customers Handmade Jewellery

These gorgeous handmade India opal white with pink, yellow and blue flowers glass beads have been reviewed by one of our customers Sarah Pether: “I made a lovely bracelet on elastic using cream pearls in between. Will make a great accessory for summer outfits!” Sarah has also sent in pictures of the bracelet she made using these beads, also in the aqua colour.

Looking Forward To The Next Relaxing Bank Holiday?

We’re enjoying some beautifully sunny weather now, looking forward to relaxing Bank Holiday weekends in April and May, those long late-spring and early-summer days where the temperature rises, where the skies are blue and where vibrantly coloured and fragrant flowers are in full bloom all around us, and it’s time at last to shed the last of your winter woollens and don your summer clothes and enjoy the very best of our weather. To go with your cool summer outfits we have something new and exciting for you: some fabulous... Read More

Classic cameos with a contemporary twist

Deliciously feminine with a timeless elegance, a cameo in one of our classical or modern design mounts will make a fabulous and attractive addition to your jewellery collection. Our cameos are beautifully detailed, with a choice of romantic figures, roses, and even a leaping dolphin. They come in a range of colours to match your mood or your outfit and will add a new dimension to your jewellery making. You can choose from our extensive range of mounts: pendants and brooches both come in various colour metals – gold, silver,... Read More

How the jewellery classes help with the kids…

The idea of the jewellery project is for the young people to volunteer by making new jewellery pieces out of broken jewellery donated to us by popular high street stores. They will then sell the new pieces of jewellery they’ve created and all money made from this project will be donated to the Newlife Foundation, a children’s charity.