NEXT BEADER'S NIGHT OUT

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012 5-9PM

The new and improved Ladies Nite is now Beaders' Night Out. This is one night a month we are open late and offer a FREE open studio. Come and bring your projects and share with other beaders in fellowship and fun. Meet other beaders in the area and learn new techniques. Come join us in on the fun! Sorry, we will not have Beader's Night Out in December due to the holidays.

NEW BEADING CLASSES FOR 2012

We have a fantastic new line up of classes for 2012. We are proud to be offering these classes and introducing our instructors:

Beginning Wire Wrapping: Monica Hedman has been an avid beader for many years and brings her expertise to Beadtopia. She has her own jewelry company White Peacock Designs which she sells on Etsy and Artfire. She has taught beginning wire wrap for many years and is an enthusiastic and engaging instructor. She will be teaching you the basics of wire wrap and in her class you will learn how to make a pair of wire wrapped earrings and a rosary chain.

Pearly Bling and Lilly Pilly Bracelet: Linda Hardinger is bringing two new fresh classes to Beadtopia showcasing right angle weave. These two designs are Linda's own as she has been desiging and selling jewelry for many years. Linda taught previously at Brea Beadworks, one of our sister stores in the Southern California Local Bead Store Association.

Cabochon Wrap: Lynette Vandeveer is back with Beadtopia and we couldn't be happier. She will be teaching her Cabochon Wrap class for us. Lynette is a award winning jewelry desiger. She won the prestigious 2011 Orange County Fair Professional Jewelry Design award and in previous years has won the Blue Ribbon at the Los Angeles County Fair for her wire wrapped jewelry.

Tila Wave: Marissa Gomez has been a beading enthusiast and staffer at Beadtopia. She brings us her Tila Wave bracelet showcasing a unique but easy design using the new Tila beads from the Miyuki Company. Tila beads are tile shaped beads with facets and two holes. The Tila Wave fully uitilizes the design capabilities of the Tila beads and is a suitable class for beginners to stringng.

Orchid Pendant and Victoria Necklace: Anita Reinehr does it again for us and all of her beading followers with two incredible designs. Her classes are always so well received. Anita's designs are feminine but unique. She brings different off loom bead weaving techniques and her expertise of technique to us each month on the last Friday of the month.

Briolette Necklace, Pineapple Charm and Crystal Wire Ring : Grace Hikido has been teaching the most popular classes at Beadtopia, the Briolette Necklace and the Crystal Wire Ring, for the last 5 years. She has taught so many new beaders we have lost count! If you see someone wearing a wire wrapped ring and ask if they made it, we bet that they probably took Grace's class or bought it from someone who took her class. Grace's friendly teaching style has been a student favorite.

Pearl Knotting: Caroline Morales has been teaching our Pearl Knotting class for 4 years. She has been an enthusiastic teacher as she has been beading and crafting since she was little. Pearl Knotting is a staple in a jewelry designer's arsenal and a basic technique to know.

TUCSON 2012 BOUND

We will be at the Tucson Bead Shows 2012 to check out the best merchandise for you. Look for new fresh merchandise the second week of February. At Beadtopia we strive to find new jewelry products and beads and always at the best prices we can get for you.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012 5-9PM

The Kao Family of Irvine made it back to Beadtopia on Sunday, September 11 with the completed Shop Hop 2011 Passport.

BEAD SHOP HOP 2011 ! SEPTEMBER 8-10, 15-18, 2011

The Southern California Local Bead Store Association's Shop Hop 2011, was over two long weekends (Thursday to Sundays), September 8-11 and September 15-18. Similar to a Quilter's Shop Hop, this was one of the first in the bead store industry. A shop hop is a time to check out independently owned bead stores and get fun freebies and giveaways, too. Beadtopia is in Region 1 out of the 3 Regions of the Shop Hop. Visit all 8 of Region 1 shops and you will qualify for a drawing for 8 gift baskets, worth $100 each. Visit all of the shops in Region 1, 2, and 3 and qualify for more drawing and prizes. It's all good fun and Happy Beading for all. Only select and qualified stores are part of the Bead Shop Hop 2011, sponsored by the Southern California Local Bead Store Association (SCLBSA). Check out the SCLBSA blog for more details .

GOLD AND SILVER PLATED BRASS BEADS: WE HAVE THEM BACK!

We just got them back- those brass strands everyone wants and we have it now in great metal finishes, gold, silver, copper or brass plating. These are the perfect beads to use for your boho chic projects such as wrapped leather bracelets.

NEW CZECH FIREPOLISH COLLECTION

Beadtopia now has new Czech Firepolish in new finishes and in sizes 3MM and 4MM. Czech firepolish has great colors and finishes from metallic to matte. The sizes work great for an assortment of projects as the beads are uniform in size. Our customers love the Czech firepolish for bead weaving and fashion jewelry, such as the wrapped bracelets. Come on by and check out our "wall of beads." We hand pick the color and finishes and know what our customers like!

WILLIAM RAND VINTAGE COLLECTION

Beadtopia is honored to carry a cache of vintage beads from the William Rand Company of New York City. We have an assortment of vintage crystals from the 1950- 1960s. Many are cuts no longer to be found.

William Rand Company was in business from the 1940s to the early 1990s and was a successful costume jewelry company manufacturing beautiful crystal jewelry for fine department stores. They were located on West 36th St. in New York City's garment district and occupied up to 3 floors. This company was one of the first importors of fine Czech and Swarovski crystals and had a reputation of making high quality items. Here is a photo of Mr. Rand in his 80s being honored by one New York City's jewelry associations.

Mr. Rand. was a holocaust survivor, lived up to his 90s and passed away in 1995, but his legacy of beads follows him. Mr. Rand had a successful jewelry business in Paris in the late 1930s and barely fled the Nazis in 1940. He was one of the refugees on the Portugese freighter USS Quanza, which was famous as Eleanor Roosevelt herself pleaded for the lives of the refugees.Mr. Rand set up his company in Manhattan's garment district and became successful for his beautiful crystal necklaces, bracelets and earrings. We met up with Kathy Rand, Mr. Rand's daughter, now living in Southern California, and her husband Ruben and they graciously have shared his incredible story and his incredible vintage collection with us.

We are open late until 9PM on the last Friday of each month for a evening of beading fellowship, project support and sharing, and most of all FUN. Our Beader's Night Out is a FREE open bead studio. Bring your projects and come and bead with us and meet other beading artists who share your passion.

MORE SEMI-PRECIOUS STONES! We like setting trends and not copying them, so check out our fun new cuts of semi-precious stones. We put out more beads for individual sale so you can experiment without committing to a whole strand. Explore outside of your comfort zone and try some of our new bead cuts and finishes in your jewelry.

CHECK OUT OUR NEW CZECH BEADS! We love our new Czech faceted rondells in a rainbow of lucious colors. The cuts and finishes are A+ and at only $5.95 a strand, the value is outstanding.

MORE ADVANCED BEAD WEAVING CLASSES TO COME! We are so proud of our new beading classes. Our Beadtopia customer is one who always enjoys the newest techniques and innovations. We also know our sophisticated customers want to learn and always improve their skills.

"BEAD" THE RECESSION: MAKE YOUR OWN GIFTS AND ENJOY YOURELF AT THE SAME TIME

It always amazes me when I get the "Ooh, I didn't realize beading was so simple" look. Then there is that pause and the new beader is already thinking, I can make earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and so on. Yes, this is tough recessionary times, but you can beat it (or "bead it") by immersing yourself in a craft that has so many benefits. You can make so many beautiful things for that special person or yourself . However, what is more important is that most of us bead because it is gratifying and satisfies our creative souls. We bead to relax and work with wonderful colors and textures. We destress by going to our beading table and forget about the world for a time. The beading artist is special because the fruits of her labor can spread so much joy to others.

Beadtopia, The Poem

Beadtopia is the place to be,

Come here and let your mind run free,

Colors here of every kind,

Do your thing and you'll be fine,

Just remember when you stay ,

Creativity will take you away,

Thank you for stoppin' in,

Where I made a loving friend.

Written with Love on January 7, 2008 by Wanda Shannon, a new customer and friend.

Check out our new beading class list posted on the Class section.

We are offereing an exciting line up for the Winter classes. We have a wide array of beading techniques and class offerings for all levels. .

Beadtopia,... Bead Heaven on Earth.....

Beadtopia is a full service bead store located in the Los Angeles South Bay community of El Segundo. We are just south of the Los Angeles Airport and north of Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance.