Where I shop for beads and findings

Well, mostly online. :)

I know I haven't update already for a while. Been a little busy with work and also obsessed with tweaking the layout of all my blogs to my satisfaction. I can get really obsessed with perfection sometimes. I know perfection do not exit among the mere mortals but still it never stopped me from striving for it. I think those sites are pretty much done already, well..for now at least. :P

So, I'll just do a short post today on where I do my bead shopping. As you all should know by now, I don't get out of the house much due to the limitation of my physical condition, which means I don't travel too much. The place where I stay now {i.e. my hometown) also hasn't got any bead shop. So, it would be difficult for me to continue doing beading if I depended on retail supply of beads.

I might as well take advantage of all the local online bead shop that are booming over the cyberspace like mushrooms. They also offer better prices compared to retail, I believe (I said I believe because I haven't done much retail bead shopping to actually make a comparison). The ability to buy my supply of materials online was also the reason which prompted me to make jewellery in the first place. After all, I did started it all from eBay.

Another important thing was for these bead shops to be based locally, for the most obvious reasons. Price quotation in Ringgit. There are many online bead shops which ships internationally but exchange rate and shipping fees might add up to the cost significantly. Furthermore, it takes a bit longer to arrive. The local ones only take one business day to arrive if you opt for local courier by PosLaju at RM6.00 which I think is a reasonable charge. I said that it is reasonable considering that a bead enthusiast are buying in a bigger quantities than those who are merely doing it for fun. Smaller quantities might want to opt for Registered Mail which may take from 3 to 5 business day. It takes a bit longer to arrive but the shipping charges are much lower around RM3.00 I believe. Certain bead shops offer both for their customer to choose from but some however only offered PosLaju.

Ease of making payment is also another thing I consider. These local online bead shops accepts payment through direct deposit or bank transfer and as you know with online shopping, the faster you pay, the faster goods are delivered. I think this method of payment would benefit those who don't own a credit card and would most probably also include students and my guess is that beading is now a hobby widely picked up even by students.

I don't own a credit card you see and neither am I fond of it. If I need to use a card to make payment, I'ld rather use a bankcard or debit card. I know that payment of certain stuffs like car installments and stuffs need to be made by credit card but that's another issue. I'm talking about lower value consumer purchases. ..... I'm digressing already....

Yes, as I was saying.....So, these are some of the bead shops that I've found so far. It has always been rather mind boggling for me searching for beads and findings because sometimes I can get rather particular in looking for the things I want.I know, I know... that may not be a very good practice because a true artist can work with whatever he has to create but then still.... a true artist is also very meticulous in their work. No? Self-contradicting...... o_O

Anyway, I've been rather satisfied(for now, :P) with the selection of beads and findings that these stores carry. So I thought I'll compile them into a mini directory of some sort for easy references for those who might be interested. I've added to the bottom of the left sidebar; The Work Room Directory; a mini Malaysia online bead shop directory. Mini because for one, it's unofficial. These are sites which I bookmarked in my browser for my own personal references and two, as you can see. The list is very short only. LOL

These are just some of the online bead shop that I stumbled upon while I was googling for the things that I was looking for, some of which I've bought from before and some not. So, if you are a Malaysian online bead shop owner who would like to have your shop listed here or you would like to share some of the online bead shops that you know that are not listed here, just gimme a holler at atelierworkroom@gmail.com or leave me a comment at the end of this post. No worries, there are no charges. ;)

Findingbeads4u.com.au is actually an Australian company whose warehouse is actually in Kuala Lumpur. Prices are quoted in AUD but they sell in greater quantity. I wouldn't exactly call them bulk because they also sell in bulk and their bulk is REALLY bulk. Their non-bulk could probably be considered as bulk if compared to how others are selling. So, even if prices are quoted in AUD, but due to the greater quantity, they are still give good price even after conversion. Just do the math. But still, I think this shop is more suitable for the more serious beaders due to the quantity that they sell in. If you do buy from them, shipping is only AUD$2 which after conversion comes up to around RM6 and item is send by PosLaju. Ok wat. I've bought from them a couple of times already.

One glitch though. Since they are an Australian company, payment is is either by direct deposit to their Australian bank account or PayPal. I've paid them using PayPal. Nevertheless, I'm quite certain Malaysian are no longer a stranger to PayPal. With so many trading in eBay, most would have a PayPal account already (I will not be talking about PayPal here. If you do not know what it is but would like to learn more, you can do so here).

The rest are Malaysian online bead shop, some of which even accepts international orders. So, do scroll down the page and have a look see.

Marinacraft.com was not found by me by the way but by another beady friend of mine who asked me if I knew of any shop which carries Czech glass beads. I told her that I don't know because the only one that I know is no longer in service. She did a google search and found Marinacraft.com and told me about it. So, that was how I got to know bout Marinacraft.

Oh, and one more thing. Some of these online stores are hosted by ebay.com.my or lelong.com.my. Two very popular local online auction market place. Therefore purchasing from these sites will require you to sign up with the host first. But then, that shouldn't be a problem as signing up is free!

Happy browsing, folks! :)

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Postscripts:
I recently found the Malaysian Eni Oken in de Cor's Handmades. I think her work is just as amazing as Eni's. I think both of them are very talented wire jewellery artist. Their work are very original and decidedly theirs. Whilst Eni's style of work is more varied, de Cor's focuses mainly on the Chinese knot. I myself don't really know much about Chinese knot but my guess is that it's one of those common symbols within the Chinese culture. I believe I've seen that knot before in some Chinese culture ornaments. She adapted the technique onto wire wrapping and come up with magnificent pieces of jewellery. The technique is the same but the results are astoundingly varied. Very brilliant work she has there. She also has some tutorials on sale on her site in PDF format. I've yet to try out any of her tutorials (time seems to be an issue for me here!) but will definitely do so in time to come and I'm looking forward to that day.
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