Root’s Beads

Great inventory and good customer service. Adorable charms and owner is hands on with selection and makes sure you’re satisfied.

Roots Beads is on Hwy. 101 just north of Depoe Bay. I’ve been passing by since I first moved to the coast a couple of years ago — it seems there’s a bead shop in every town around here. It took me a while to figure out about the whole «bead thing» –
Well… okay. I got it now.
In a past life, I was a knitter — but had to stop because I damaged the carts & ligs in my hands and can’t really hold knitting needles without deep regrets the next day. but I have this stash of beautiful yarns and cords and strings and such that I’ve hung onto like a magpie. And since idle hands are — boring…
I stumbled on a book about Japanese braiding — called kumihimo — and it turns out to not hurt my hands at all. — and you can add beads to the braids and knots — and it turns into jewelry!
So I’m driving down 101 on my way to Newport and I see this shop — it is a very large store for a place that specializes in something as tiny as beads — and I STOPPED.
Heh. It’s amazing. Hundreds of varieties of beads, stones, tiny carvings, and pendants, findings and fittings, clasps and cords, tools and looms, scissors and wire cutters and pliers and hemp and silk and cotton and nylon and silver and copper and nickle and brass and WOW.
And I feel like I’ve stumbled upon a real hidden gem, here (so to speak.) This is not a shop for pre-​adolescent friendship-​bracelet-​making little girls. (though I’m sure they’d find what they needed if they shopped here…) This is a shop for artists. This is the kind of deep-​into-​it artists’ supply store that draws artists and crafters from the four corners.
Her selection is thoughtful, and of a sufficiently high quality that these bits and pieces in the hands of a competent artist could become something much more than a hobbyist’s doodling. There are the makings of real art and beautiful pieces in this shop.
The owner, Sheila Root, has just opened her second shop, and it’s off the coast. She is evidently a former professor of fiber arts design but has been a bead shop-​keeper for several decades — and has written a few books on the subject that have a nice anthropological bent to them — I’ve been looking on Amazon. If I get good enough at the braiding and knotting to start using more beads, I may become a «beader» — but for now, she has all the paraphernalia I need to braid and knot simple jewelry and other tiny goodies to my heart’s content!

This is a great bead shop! The workers here are extremely friendly and helpful. Sheila Root, the owner, is a master jeweler and her necklaces and bracelets are works of art.
They have a huge selection of beads, findings, tools, books and even kites. This is definitely the place to go if you need seed beads. And if that’s not your thing, they also have beads in natural stone, swarovski crystal, cloisonné, thai silver, pearl, wood, bone and more. From crimps to headpins, they have it all!
It’s definitely worth a stop!