Walmart Cousin Bulk Beads

Ok, I am not a big fan of Walmart, but I am also in the same position as a lot of people across the country. Once Walmart arrived it was catastrophic for the local small businesses and as they closed one by one, choices for shopping became mighty slim. Aside from a few small specialty shops (all of which are lovely, but very limited in what they carry) the next closest craft or hobby store for me is about 40 miles away. As a result, I do a good portion of my shopping on amazon.com and while I can usually find everything I need, I do miss the element of actually touching and comparing materials and the perks of instant gratification. There is also something to be said for a friendly and knowledgeable sales staff and the swapping of ideas and inspiration that comes from browsing their goods.

Back to the point, if I do have a sudden need for basic supplies or a burst of creativity that just can't be denied, 9 times out of 10 the only place to get what I need locally is Walmart. So earlier today when my mom requested that I replace some of the fasteners on her bracelets with toggles as my father can't quite manage lobster clasps and with only one hand that works they are beyond her and serve a constant reminder of her new disability, off to Walmart I went.

 After getting the findings I needed I was distracted by a fairly new display of bulk bead packages by Cousin Corporation of America. Each one contained just over a pound of loose beads created in India for $9. While the price was a bit high for me, the packages did seem varied and, with the glass beads, at least made of solid glass colors and not cheaply coated glass with finishes that would wear off in little time.  Deciding that at the very least they would add some flexibility to my modestly growing collection of beads, I bit the bullet and picked one up.




Always a sucker for a grab bag, I hurried home to see just what was in my box of goodies. I grabbed a fairly standard sized dinner plate from my stack of craft plates (because everyone has a stack of old plates to use when crafting right?) and proceeded to dump them out for inspection.

The first thing that I noticed was that beads that are all packed together in a box must rub up against each other quite liberally. The beads were dull and coated with bits of powdered glass and ceramic, definitely not in the best condition. Keeping up hope, I gathered up a few more small plates and a damp rag and started sorting and cleaning. My first impulse was to pick out some of the more impressive pieces, as the bulk of the beads were fairly plain solid colors. After the first pass I had a good handful of goodies.

After a wipe with the damp cloth the majority of the dullness was gone though some of the finishes were still mildly worn. They were, at the least, good enough to be grouped with my recycled and upcycled beads which was a relief. I spent a quiet hour cleaning and sorting the beads by color ranges (and cursing my lack of a good light box) since there were very few like pieces. There was a number of flawed and broken pieces in the mix as was to be expected from a bulk package. After everything was sorted out I estimated there was around 300 or so usable beads in all, bringing the price per bead to about $0.03.

All in all, for someone like myself who is just starting to build their collection of materials, this was an ok buy despite the poor quality and wear. I thought it would allow me some variety that would otherwise take a long time to achieve through normal finds. When I sat down to actually work with these beads I found it difficult because there were few matching pieces so creating a pattern or matched set of items was impossible. That said, I would not purchase another as I personally don't think that I would get much benefit from more of the same randomness of materials. The $9 would be better spent in the future on two or three quality strings of beads.

Posted in: Beads,Glass,Jewelry,Materials