Beading offers infinite variety for all levels

  • <b>FAMILY TIME | </b>By Caroline Lippert-Burrows For the Weekly Herald
  • Tuesday, February 14, 2012 6:53pm

For a chance to express your creativity through the multi-colored, upbeat world of beading, visit the gals at Garden of Beadin’ in Bothell.

Whether you’re a novice like me or an experienced beader, the Garden ladies offer useful tips, answer questions and help you choose the best class to learn or enhance your beading design skills.

When you first walk into Garden of Beadin’, it’s hard not to notice the array of red, pink, blue, orange and green walls of beads available for beading project.

From glass beads to seed beads to semi-precious stones, the colors are bright, bold and inviting. I know I felt inspired to design a piece of jewelry just by looking at them.

There also are lots of amusing trinkets to choose from to enhance your beading design, such as dangling dogs, fish, stars and butterflies.

Charms come in glass to blown glass, hematite to nickel- and lead-free, gold, silver and pewter to the more elegant Swarovski Austrian crystal.

Beading is definitely something the whole family can do together. On the day I visited the store, Kerri Gill, of Lynnwood, and her daughter, Kiran, were shopping for supplies for their next joint project.

“I pick out the beads,” Kiran said. “Mom puts on the clasps for me.”

Well, after taking a class with instructor and sales associate Erin Martin, I can see why Kiran lets Mom do the clasp part of the design. There is a lot more to beading than stringing a few beads together and tying them off. Attaching the clasp takes patience, focus, glasses if you wear them and practice. It also takes knowledge and good tools, both of which you’ll get when you take Garden’s introductory class on beading.

One thing for sure is that the time you put into your beading creation is well worth the effort. It was particularly rewarding for me to walk out wearing the coral pearl and black seed-bead choker I not only designed but made myself in class.

For a chance to create some beading designs of your own, Garden of Beadin’ offers a variety of beginning and advanced classes for adults and kids as well as supplies for new and experienced beaders.

Garden of Beadin’

WHERE: 23718 Bothell-Everett Highway, Bothell

PHONE: 425-482-2323

WEB: www.beadinseattle.com

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.