From Trash to Treasure

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

We recently wrote about how jewelry makers and beading pros can turn old or unwanted gifts into personalized new gifts for their family and friends this holiday season. Using old material to create new gifts got us thinking about recyclable material, and how we can use our craft skills to turn trash into treasure.

Try creating handmade jewelry using material that may otherwise have gone to waste. Using recyclable material in place of your traditional beading supplies is a great way to “go green” with your beading. There are plenty of ways to make cool jewelry with materials you most likely already have.

Two of our favorite “green beading” projects involve making handmade jewelry with supplies you already have around your home.  Paper beads and bottle cap jewelry are two examples of easy projects to get you started.

Below is a video from ThreadBanger that takes you step-by-step through how to make your own bottle cap earrings.

Also from ThreadBanger, the following video walks you through how to create beads using paper

Brazos Online Beading Class: Necklaces

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

In our last lesson we learned how to make earrings. Today we are going to teach you how to make a beaded necklace to match.

Handmade jewelry is a great Mother’s Day present. Hopefully by following our tutorials you can get a head start on your Mothers Day shopping.

Follow the instructions in the video below to learn how to make your own bead necklace.


CLICK HERE to Download this lesson in PDF format.

Get your business buzzing! How to bead out the competition.

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Every business has to have some sort of marketing strategy.  But when you think of marketing events, what usually comes to mind?  Most likely something to do with coffee shops, leaflets, and emails.

Here’s some food for thought: coffee shops smell of burnt beans, leaflets are trash can fodder, and the natural habitat of the email is a spam folder.

It’s time to kick it up a notch with some beading!  Few people can resist the natural allure of shiny, beautiful glass beads and other such components of fashion jewelry, so why not use it to your advantage?  That’s right, we’re talking about bringing beading to your next marketing event.

Of course, this all depends on your type of business and whether or not you think that it will fit your business aesthetic and model, but if you think a beading event might be right for your business, here are some ideas of what you can do to highlight your business.

Let’s say you work as a web designer and you have a booth or a table setup at a conference or exposition.  You can have a little session of a simple beading exercise while you talk about your services!  It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate, and it can tie in with your business.  Perhaps a bracelet made of cracked glass beads colored with your business colors.  You can have your crowd follow along with you while you create your item.

You can even have it as something more functional, like a bookmark!  This way, the person is creatively involved while you tie in your services with the jewelry (or whatever else) that you’re making.  If you’re good, you can get some pendants and put your business name on it.  The purpose is having something that people can take away and associate with your business while they use it (hopefully) in their everyday activities.  The next time they need a web designer, they’ll be sure to call you!

You get the idea!  If you’re in a creative industry, you could also make something yourself while people looked on.  Imagine the crowd you could generate by skillfully looping wires through gorgeous tiger eye and semi precious beads instead of just waving paper at people.

Don’t know how to bead?  Come check out one of our free beading and jewelry making classes!  At Brazos Collection, we know that beads are more about just jewelry. It’s about expression, and we’d love to help you out.  Who would of thought you could bolster your business with beads!

Brazos Online Beading Class: Earrings

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

Today we are going to focus on teaching you to make a custom earrings using beads you bought from Brazos.  After all, the more you know the more you can make yourself.  Follow the instructions in the video below to learn how to make your own bead earrings.


What you will need:

  • 2 Frenchwires
  • 2 Headpins
  • 4 Spacers
  • Beads that you want to use for the earrings
  • Round Nose Pliers
  • Scissors or Wire Cutters
  • Needle Nose Pliers

CLICK HERE to Download this lesson in PDF format.

Wholesale beads for you and for me.

Friday, March 19th, 2010

As you might already know, Brazos Collection began buying directly from China in 2007, and we have been importing the highest caliber of quality beads, components, and all types of fashion jewelry ever since, receiving around 6 shipments of 600 boxes every year in addition to other smaller shipments all year long.

That’s right, wholesale isn’t just for Costco and Sam’s Club, but for fashion jewelry makers and bead enthusiasts everywhere! (You don’t even need a membership with us!)

Why is this important? Not only do we prides ourselves in that our goods are of the highest quality, but we like to pass on the savings to our customers. We’ve scoured the world for only best, and we’ve done our homework enough so that we can offer our customers the absolute lowest prices for beads and other fashion jewelry components.

Our business savvy ways in the world of beads enable us to offer great prices on such products as: crystal beads, glass beads, natural stones, tiger eye beads, cracked glass beads, clay beads, jade beads, mother of pearl beads, miscellaneous fashion jewelry components, and any other beads or stones for jewelry that you can think of.

As you can tell, Brazos Collection beads are very well traveled. From the land of China, all the way into the heart of Texas. Don’t you think these beautiful beads deserve a home? Close to your heart? Possible… dangling from around your neck? We think you get the idea.

Just look around our store and see what kind of exciting new beads and fashion jewelry components that we’ve wrangled up from China all the way into the Lone Start State! Because when you buy from Brazos Collection, you’re not only getting the highest quality beads around, but you’re also getting the best prices.

Beading is for everyone!

Wednesday, March 17th, 2010

What do you think when you think of beading? What do you think other people think of beading?

You know how to make jewelry. Or maybe you don’t and that’s why you’re visiting our website. Either way, you have an interest in fashion jewelry so it might be a little difficult to imagine how other people perceive beading. Heck, they might not even know what beading means! We think its about time people dropped preconceived notions about what beading is and take a look at some practical applications for hobby jewelry making.

Beading for Kids:

The average attention span of children has dwindled over the years, and parents have been struggling to keep up with ways to keep them busy ever since. What about beading? Introducing your children to hobby jewelry making at younger ages can help stimulate creative thought and give them a start on developing the types of thought processes that will help them in school and higher levels of learning.

Not only that, but surrounding a child with glass and crystal beads of all sorts of beautiful colors might actually calm them down enough for mom and take to take a quick breather!

Beading for Adolescents:

So you have a cranky teenager who listens to loud music in their room all day and only ventures into the world to surprise you with inflated phone bills, right? It’s okay, we’ve all been there. How can beading help? Why not make it a bonding activity! Teenagers are all about self-expression, so if you frame the activity in a creative context, they might just take to it! Beading with an adolescent might be an interesting experience… but let me ask you this: Would you rather them adorn themselves with homemade fashion jewelry made of the most beautiful semi-precious stones and crystal beads? Or would you rather them surprise you with an impromptu tattoo? Not only are you bonding with your kids, you’re keeping them out of trouble!

Beading for Adults:

Aside from loving beads and fashion jewelry, adults also love things like accomplishment, money, and the ability to afford food. Why not combine them all? This business started as a sandwich shop and antique store, but we were able to fold in all the things that we loved into what is now the Brazos Collection you see today. If you truly have a deep love for beading and making homemade jewelry, why not try to sell your art? Sure, not everybody can pay the rent with a hobby, but you never know until you try. Plus, you can save yourself some money by making your own designer jewelery! (Hey, you designed it, so you’re a jewelry designer, right?)

Beading for the Elderly:

When you get older, staying active mentally and creatively is a necessity to keeping your mind sharp. Creating your personal jewelry designs and finding new ways to arrange glass beads and semi-precious stones can help boost your mental activity and give you something to do in between visits to relatives and fishing trips. You can also make all your family members unique and creative gifts made from high quality beads that they’ll be sure to love!

No matter how old you are, you’re never to old to explore the world of jewelry making. Beading and making jewelry is not only a means of expressing your artistic thoughts to the world, but it can have practically fulfilling uses too.