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I'm sure you have heard about going on cruises for holiday. But have you heard of bead cruise? And what do you do on a bead cruise? Why, bead of course! Pretty obvious from the name of the cruise isn't it? Doing your favourite thing while on a cruise holiday. Life sure can't get any better than this! Too bad it's such cruises are not available in Malaysia which I don't see why we can't especially with Star Cruises just around the corner. That's one luxurious jewellery making class for you.
p/s: The school holiday started today and yesterday was officially my last day teaching in the kindy. Yes, folks, I just quit and I'm now blogging and making jewellery full time. My bread and butter, if you want to put it that way. Not because I hated my job but there's something else that I wanted to do more. How
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Was at Malacca for the Deepavali weekend break with mum at my bro's place.
Ever since I started making jewellery, bead shopping almost definitely will be on the to-do list.
How could you not think about beads when you are going to a place like Malacca? The rich nyonya heritage and and nyonya shoes are what Malacca is famous for.
So, basically, I am hoping to be able to find a great variety of glass seed beads since that is mainly what those nyonya shoes are all about. Very intricate beading. What I was hoping even more, was to find a great variety of it AND at a very 'attractive' price. All these while, I get my glass seed beads from Ipoh. There's not many shops in Ipoh selling Japanese glass seed beads. Even they do, choices are rather limited. The same goes for Jusco.
Now that we are on the topic of Japanese glass seed beads. The Japanese seed beads are renowned for its uniformity in sizes and large varieties of colors and finishes which are unmatched to date by other bead factories in the world. They come in several standard sizes with 12/0 being the size commonly used for jewelry making. These are the 2mm size beads. Their productions are limited as there are only few manufacturers in Japan and they are much sought after by fashion designers and crafters all over the world. The three largest manufacturer in Japan are Miyuki, Matsuno and Toho.
Within the range of Japanese seed beads, the creme de la creme is the Delica beads from Miyuki. Delica beads feature a very even finished cone with astoundingl unifprmity. They are very easy to bead as the holes are very even in size. I've mentioned about seed bead comparisons in one of my earlier post. That is why they are favoured by beaders all around the world. If you don't do much of bead stitching or bead weaving, this might not concern you too much. But if you do stitches like brick stitch and peyote stitch, you'll understand how the uniformity of the beads will affect you work. Even beads from Matsuno and Toho would occasionally require some culling work but there will be none at all when you are working with the Delicas.
Culling means sieving through the beads, making sure that the beads which you are using for your work are at the very least of similar sizes if not the same. Yes, even with Matsuno and Toho beads. I've done some occasional culling work when I'm doing bead stitching. That's when I'm so obsessed with perfection. But now that I've loosen up a little, the discrepency is actually not all that obvious .
The thing about culling work is it's very time consuming and it definately will add on to the time frame for the completion of a project. I've already heard from one of my aunt that they definately will do some culling with the beads prior to stringing them into balls of thread with beads for bead crochet last time. When I first heard about it and with minimal knowledge on jewellery making, it wass horror and a nightmare to me. That sounded almost like insanity! I was initially working with Chinese seed beads and culling those beads seems almost nerve wrecking if not impossible!
Yes, those Chinese seed beads are indeed that horrible to work with. That is why I've since stopped using them altogether. No more Chinese seed beads for me, thank you very much. Yes, Japanese seed beads cost much more but it's so worthy of your money.
Needless the say, you would undoubtedly expect the delicas to come in a heftier price tag, which is true anyway. The most exclusive collection of Delica beads is coated with precious metal, e.g. gold and platinum. (That's the Japanese for you!) They are much more expensive than the ordinary Delica beads. No joke! I've seen them sold in those overseas site.
Actually, you'll find most of the overseas site that sells Japanese glass seed beads carrying the Miyuki Delicas range. I've yet to actually come across any local bead stores, online or brick and mortar, that carries any of the Delicas. Most of them carry beads from Matsuno or Toho. Therefore, I have not personally seen any of those Delicas before. Even shops that do sell Miyuki, it's just those ordinary rocailles i.e. the round ones or shapes like cube, the three cut triangle ones or the hex cut ones but none of Delicas. I guess the shop carries these beads to cater to people who do bead embroidery and not so much for jewellery making. Admittedly, the Delicas, due to its squarish cut may not be as appealing for bead embroidery as those round ones.
If you are interested to know about the manufacturing process of seed beads from raw material to products, Miyuki's site here offers a very detailed explanation. It involves a very lengthy process and it shouldn't be a wonder anymore why it's pricier.
I was hoping to 'bump' into Delicas in Malacca but I wasn't the least surprised that all I found was Toho
I remembered Wendy from Diary of a Miniature Enthusiast compiled a directory of some sort of the bead shops that she has been to around Malaysia. I remembered seeing Malacca on that list and found An Yang in Jalan Bunga Raya. Well, I didn't find it. My bro did.
I quote her description of the shop
"The most variety of seed beads found in all the bead shops i've been to. Be it in Malaysia or not. Imagine the entire wall from ceiling to floor, shop front to shop end, an entire display of different packets of seed beads. Then you're at the right shop."
When I first entered the shop I was already looking around at the walls with great expectations and I sure did not see display of different packets of seed beads neither on the walls, from ceiling to floor nor shop front to shop end. No sight of packets of beads can be seen at all!
So, I asked the sales assistance about it. Then only did I realized the An Yang that I walked into is their branch that sells flowers. The An Yang that sells beads is in another branch, which is just across the road! No wonder there's so many flowers displayed at the entrance.
(Malacca roads are insanely narrow by the way!)
I walked across the road, found the shop, walked right in and lo and behold!
Indeed a display of different packets of seed beads, from ceiling to floor! Although I wouldn't agree with the shop front to the shop end part because the seed beads section is actually only at the back portion of the shop. But the thiing is, this shop is what I would say as a huge craft store! So, even if it's only at the back portion of the shop, it is still a rather big area. It is also a bead shop with the most varieties from all the bead shops that I've been to, which is, ok .... not that many to begin with. -______-
There were some charms, findings and chains but like I said, some only. None of which that interest me much. It is after all a craft store rather than a bead shop. The amount and variety of materials that they sell is the most I have seen from all the craft store that I've ever been into. That place is like an craftsman haven!
Although it was I who initially wanted to go there to get some beads but my bro also ended up getting his wedding favours from there. The sell these really adorably small and cute packages with soft gel sweets in them. Too bad I forgotten to take any pictures of them. My bro ended up getting a hamper like package but that were adorably small and cute. I'll try to take a picture of it when he brings it back for his wedding.
Ouh..... I'm degressing already.... o_O
So, as I was saying, I found a great variety of seed beads, alright. The prices were not exactly that attractive but still, it didn't stop me from getting something.
Well, this is what I ended up getting.
To know how much it cost me, you can start punching on the calculator. The prices are all shown in the picture. If you're lazy to take out the calculator, I'll just tell you. It costs me both my arms and legs.
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Naah, just joking. Only an arm and a leg.
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No, seriously. RM56.50 for 7 tiny packets of beads. I don't even have a clue what I'll be doing with them yet! -_______-
But then the beads are just so pretty that I couldn't resist it! I had to actually tried very hard to stop myself from buying more. They are Japanese glass seed beads after all .........
And just in case you are wondering, the beads that they sell are from Toho.
When one of my relative in Malacca heard that I came all the way to buy beads, she told me I don't really need to because she knows a place where you can also get a lot of beads.(But then, I didn't really went all the way JUST to buy beads also)Well, she didn't told me exactly where yet, so I've yet to know where.
But of course, that is not all that I did in Malacca.
Savouring all these........
While staring into...............
Tell me life's not a bliss........................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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