Beads & Beyond

Very satisfied with service and the stuff, keep it up ladies.

Very pricy, at least as far as beading/​necklace making. Maybe my expectations are off — I just moved from New York, where there were blocks of bead stores. A filligree finding the size of a .50¢ piece there would have run about… well .50¢. Here it was $ 4.10.
Very friendly staff though; big store with lots of quilting, etc too.

Beads and Beyond is OK. It was better when it was a standalone store. Now they don’t have a lot that’s particularly unique, although the natural product beads on the back wall and the stashes of vintage beads are worth an extra star.
Other high points: chain and soft flex (etc.) by the inch and some amazing — and expensive — custom beads from the bead show.
Low points — the service. It’s a quilt shop. They aren’t interested in you. They’re annoyed by small sales and let you know it. They shrug you off if you ask for opinions or assistance. I’ve been many times and never felt better about it.

Not a lot of bead stores in the seattle area. This one’s good though. Spent a good amount of time here. Got discounts. Enjoyed it. All sizes of seed beads in tubes. Some unusual beads as much as $ 25 each. But most range from 15 cents to $ 2.00. It’s also a fabric store. With regular earthquakes.

Beads & Beyond is a fabulous bead store. They have everything… wire, crystals, seed beads, gemstones… you name it, they have it. And they have gorgeous classes… you can make the most beautiful things. The teachers are the best ever. The people who work here are so friendly and helpful… all can help you with your project. I love this store … I give them 5 stars!

I don’t know much about beads/​bead stores, but this place seemed okay. It was quite packed at lunchtime and there were long lines, so it must be popular. My goal here was to pick up enormous silver beads to fit over my dreads. It didn’t go very well ’cause 99% of their beads have teeny holes, but I suspect that’ll be the case at any bead store. The clientele was quite odd… many women were muttering to themselves. The staff also seemed confused/​fascinated by me and asked a lot of questions about my outfit, hair, etc. Most of the people in the store seemed to be middleaged women so I might’ve just been a curious anomaly. I successfully picked up silver wire to thread through my hair and the only larger beads they had (which at $ 1.25/bead didn’t seem to be cheap). I didn’t go through the class schedule thoroughly since I’m not actually a bead/​jewelry person but they seem to offer a lot of options.

Bead nirvana. If you need to make a pair of earrings, a necklace, bracelet, whatever, this is the place to go. Yes, its in Bellevue which is a complete pain in the ass to deal with (all those SUV-​driving yups on the way to a sale at Nordies clogging the streets – barf!), but its so worth it. The selection is second to none, and the staff is knowledgeable, helpful, and enthusiastic. The prices are good, and if you can’t find something, someone will help you get your bearings.
Note: parking can be challenging here, but if you can’t find street parking and you don’t want to face B&B’s itty bitty parking lot, go to the park just across the street and park there. :)

I love this bead store. This is the only Seattle-​area store I have been to where I have admired a piece of jewelry on display and the staff has jumped to say, «you like it? Do you know how to make it?» and instantly start harvesting supplies from the shelves to teach me something new. Bead stores are busy places, and I always feel a little bothersome to ask about techniques and such when the staff are running about, helping people, sorting, and generally busy. I loved that they were so eager to teach me something new.
LOOSE BEADS:
Four big tables of loose glass. The selection seems to rotate often, so I come here every other week or so and always find new stuff. The price range is great. 0.05 and up for the loose glass.
They also have a huge selection of other loose stuff. An entire table of stone beads, another one of metal, and then another of other materials as well as loose findings. I can spend hours browsing the tables alone.
Then up against the wall, there are little plastic drawers filled with a lot of your basic Czech glass beads. You get a discount if you bag those according to predetermined quantities.
VINTAGE BEADS:
They have a lot of unique vintage beads here, mostly Czech and German. While the selection doesn’t seem to rotate in the vintage section much, they have so much I always find something I have missed before.
SEED BEADS:
There is a fairly large selection of seed beads and lots of unique types I haven’t seen elsewhere.
BEAD STRANDS:
The strands they offered were very basic styles and colors of Czech glass. You had you 3 mm, 4 mm and 6 mm facetted rounds and druks. They had a good choice of colors for $ 2.25 per strand. There were also glass bicones for $ 2.25/strand. They had a unique selection of finished as well as opaque colors.
CRYSTAL:
The selection on crystal is rather small and there is no quantity discount, which is a little disappointing. This is not a place I go for my crystal needs.
GEMS/​PEARLS/​ETC:
Aside form the stones table, they have a wall of stones and other natural materials. I love their non-​stone selections, such as wood, bone, horn and shell. If you like working with non-​glass materials, this is a great place to find treasures!
OVERALL:
This is one of my favorite bead stores and I visit it frequently. The overall selection rotates and there is always something new to see. But they never run short on the basics. They also get in a fair amount of seasonal items for holidays, which is nice. They keep them on a small table near the door so you can always find the snowflakes at Christmas, or hearts on Valentine’s day.