Believe it and you can bead it
That necklace in Vogue is $60 but Jenkia Perry, owner of Beadles, a bead shop in Logan can make it cheaper.
Beadles was founded by Perry and her mother shortly after Perry graduated from USU in interior design when they decided to turn a passion into a career.
“People had nowhere to buy beads and no one to help them,” Perry said. “When we opened the store people just came out of the woodwork to buy beads.”
Perry said she thinks the price of her beads and the help she can offer her customers is what inspires people to make their own jewelery instead of buying them.
“Anything you see in a catalog such as Cold Water Creek or the Sundance catalog, you can make yourself for cheaper,” Perry said. “People love the style of catalog jewelry but the price is way out there. What you can buy in the catalog for $58, I can help you build for $10.”
Perry said even if people are looking to get more affordable jewelry by making it themselves, they should realize they get better quality by making it themselves too.
“What you can buy at Wal-Mart out of plastic, you can make here out of glass or stone for the same price,” Perry said.
When somebody walks into Beadles for the first time, they are often overwhelmed, Perry said. The staff tries to be there from the start to help beginning and experienced beaders find what they are looking for.
“We bombard you from the very beginning,” Perry said. “We ask a lot of questions. We want to know how to help you and we try to help all of our beaders, especially the beginners, avoid design pitfalls.”
Perry said they have a table set up right in the middle of the store so customers can work on their projects and seek help when they need it.
“We encourage beaders, especially beginning beaders, to sit down and do their project right here in the store,” Perry said. “When people sit down in the store we can help them measure it and finish the project.”
Perry said people come in the store looking for supplies for all different kinds of projects, from the normal everyday jewelry to the more abstract.
“One of our customers came in and bought hundreds of crystals and built a chandelier with them,” Perry said. “The number one thing that most people make are bracelets. After that it is even between necklaces and earrings.”
Jenn Nielsen, graduate student in ASI, said she considers herself to be an advanced beader who got her start at Beadles. She said one of the reasons she keeps going back to Beadles even after she has gained more experience is because of the selection they carry.
“Beadles has a good selection of inexpensive beads but they also have a great selection of experienced supplies,” Perry said. “They have a good spectrum. They keep it well stocked.”
Perry said in order to keep her store well stocked, she has to watch popular magazines and she has a personal hand in almost every bead selected to be sold in the store.
“I watch Vogue and Cosmo because they help us know which styles are going to be catching up to Utah in a few months,” Perry said. “My employees and I pick out every bead that is here. If the beads are stone or glass, I pick them out myself. We import beads from every continent but Antarctica.”
Nielsen said besides the wide selection the store carries, she keeps coming back to the store because of the service and help offered.
“If you are there working, Jenika will help you, even if it is not one of her projects,” Nielsen said. “You can even schedule one on one time with her for which she charges by the hour.”
Perry said it is important to her to help people learn to bead correctly because it is frustrating for people to spend a lot of time on something and have it not turn out well.
“Some of our weaving projects can take up to eight hours,” Perry said. “If they don’t do it right, it is like you just put 300 hours of work into that and it is ugly.”
Although some projects can take a long time, Perry said, not all projects have to, and Beadles offers ideas and projects that even beginning beaders can do.
“It doesn’t take a lot of skill to bead,” Perry said. “Anyone who can put a bead on a wire can bead, so it is just fun.”
-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu