Tributary....nature + craft

Yesterday, I went to my local Michaels store and marveled over the beading aisles. It's really amazing how much craft stores lately have been expanding their selection and style of beads. When I was in high school, I worked at AC Moore (the competition...although Michaels wins by a landslide if you ask me!), and the beads offered were okay. There were a ton of seed beads and findings, but as for charms and such, they were non existent. Except if you like cat or dog jewelry. I remember seeing a TON of those types of charms. Anyhow, the selection is so much better now!

These little wooden beads I picked up yesterday:



I think these will be perfect for a few necklaces I have in mind!

Here's a few charms I got a while ago:






I love this cute bird charm! I came with four other birds as well, but this one was the reason I bought the pack.

Even if you don't have a good local bead store around where you live, it's getting easier and easier to find the beads you want at Michaels or another craft store. Although, if you're planning to make and sell your creations, be warned....it seems like everyone else is discovering these beads too! All it takes is a simple search on Etsy and these charms pop up all over the place! So the trick is making yours look really different from the rest.
A good example of a store bought bead popping up all over Etsy is this charm I bought yesterday:



Just try and search "branch bird necklace" and you'll be overwhelmed! Regardless of how many different necklaces use this charm, it is beautiful! I couldn't resist making one for myself!



It's really nice to be able to see what other crafters are doing with the same beads you have. That's one of the really great things about being crafty....there's so many different way to do things!