Peace signs, love beads, and hemp 

My goodness, the face of bead art has changed tremendously in the past 30+ years. If this is all new to you, may I suggest that you start by looking at some of the fantastically creative work being done today. You'll find links to artwork that will just blow you away.

And if you're a veteran of bead art, may I suggest that you start the very same way! You'll find yourself saying, "Oh, I've got to try that!" over and over again as you look through the links that follow.

A feast for your eyes 

Wildest Dreams Designs

Jewelry that gets you noticed

Bead Creative

Nancy Eha's fantasyland of beading bliss

Mazel Tov! Jewelry Treasures

For outstanding women who don't mind standing out

Robin Atkins

Bead adventures in embroidery and more

Sherry Serafini

Stunning bead-embroidered jewelry

Eni Oken

Ornament and fantasy with wire and gemstone beads

Creative Chick's Blog

Ramblings of a Southern Fried fiber artist!

Joan Babcock Designs

Jewelry and fiber art, original designs using micro-macrame

DarkHare Beadwork

Stunning boxes and vessels that are not to be missed!

NanC Meinhardt

Fabulous lush sculptures

The Beadmeister

Mel Jonassen's outrageous sculptural work

Lots and lots of bead lovers to schmooze with you 

Jewelry Making at About.Com

Friendly and knowledgeable, Tammy Powley guides this lively forum.

Bead Art Forum

Very personable and talented group. Lots of off-topic community building discussions.

Bead and Button Forum

Well organized forum with lots of talented and helpful members.

Wet Canvas Wearable Art Forum

Wonderful community with on-going projects, daily show and tell, and "wear" it's at threads.

Beadwork at About.com

Nice community with some serious beaders!

All About Beads Forum

A friendly forum with lots of lively discussions.

"Mermaid" 

Fused glass and Czech crystals

Techniques galore! 

Jewelry Making at About.Com

Articles and tutorials on every topic related to jewelry, from the basics to advanced work.

Beadwork at About.Com

Articles and tutorials on all beading stitches you could possible think of!

All About Beading

Tutorials and patterns added by the authors.

Beadwrangler

The bead and fiber junction with lots of info on combining the two.

Mazel Tov! Jewelry Treasures Blog

Tutorials which encourage you to make the project your own!

HGTV- Beads

Instructions for a wide range of projects.

Beadage

Tutorials, glosseries, and links to supplies.

Related Lenses 

Beads

Name your favorites ~ we got links!

Beaded Jewelry

Marvelous handmade artisan pieces

Beading

My own personal tutorials

Handmade Beads

Learn to make your own ~ glass, clay, paper...

Seed Beads

Do you dream in bead color?

Art Quilts

Fabric delights

Mixed Media

When you want to try all forms of art, all at the same time...

We need beads! And other stuff... 

Online suppliers of beads and everything else you need to use them, shows where you can run your greedy...*ahem*...beady little hands through the strands, books and magazines that are guaranteed to make you drool.

If you want a more comprehensive list of suppliers, check out the Beads Lens. The links below are my "best of the best" lists to get you started!

Beads, beads, beads!! Also string, needles, wire, and a few other things... 

Rio Grande

A comprehensive selection of raw materials, findings, chains, gemstones, beads, stringing, art jewelry supplies, display and packaging.

Fire Mountain Gems and Beads

Huge assortment, aimed at uniting the world, one bead at a time!

Rings and Things

This wholesale catalog is your one-stop source for beads, jewelry findings, charms, cord, polymer clay, Swarovski crystal beads and prisms, Czech glass beads, jewelry display items and other jewelry components.

Ornamental Resources

An enormous selection of beads and other decorative materials, with many hard-to-find items.

ArtGems Inc

A fabulous collection of beads, findings, and charms from all over the world.

Empyrean Beads

Fantastic selection of vintage and modern seed beads.

BeadRoom

All types of vintage glass beads, arranged by color. BeadRoom also carries Czech molded glass beads, made from the old molds!

African Accents

Wonderful beads, great selection, but wholesale only.

Hands of the Hills

Specializes in Hilltribe silver but carries so much more!

Nina Designs

Beautiful beautiful Bali silver ~ the real stuff, handmade.

Venetian Bead Shop

Wait until you see these beauties! Direct importers of Venetian and Murano glass beads.

Guestbook ~ reader feedback 

The place where you can share other resources that you think we all need to know about!

"Each According to Their Kinds" 

Bead embroidery

Bead and gem destinations 

Tucson Show Guide

Tucson is the wintertime destination for bead buyers. This is a good guide to all the shows that cluster there.

International Gem and Jewelry Shows

My very favorite shows. Take your wholesale info with you so that you can shop the "wholesale only" section.

Bead Renaissance Shows

The ultimate bead, button, and jewelry events, retail and wholesale.

The Whole Bead Show

Workshops and merchants.

Bead and Button Show

A week-long beading festival!

Intergalactic Bead Shows

If it's a bead, you'll find it at IBS!

The best beady books and mags 

For thems what want more ~ and isn't that all of us?

The links that follow are for the books and magazines that I consider to be the very best for getting started in their respective forms of bead art.

A much more complete list of beading books can be found here: Book Shop.

Beady art books 

Bead Embroidery

By Valerie Campbell-Harding, Pamela Watts
Emphasizing how beads add color, texture and beauty to a piece of work, they guide the reader through a variety of traditional and contemporary techniques, including bead weaving; sewing "trapped" beads; stitching beads onto mesh and canvas; and adding them to fringes, edges, cords, chains, and tassels.

Beaded Embellishment

By Amy C Clarke, Robin Atkins
Beaders, quilters, and fiber artists will find this book invaluable for its solid technical information about how to apply beads to cloth, resulting in unique creations that will stand the test of time.

Off the Beadin' Path

By Nancy Eha
A unique and creative experience for beaders. In addition to detailed instructions for dozens of stitches and techniques, Nancy shows you how to explore your own creativity.

The Beader's Guide to Color

By Margie Deeb
Demonstrating how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork designs, this guide will interest beaders at all skill levels.

The New Beadwork

By Kathlyn Moss, Alice Scherer
The exquisite works of nearly 100 supremely talented bead artists. There are pieces of very elaborate jewelry as well as vessels, purses, decorative accessories, wall hangings, and sculptures. You won't find any how-to projects, just dozens and dozens of gorgeous beaded artworks.

Beads and Threads

By Diane Fitzgerald, Helen Banes
Page after page of beautiful, showpiece necklaces you can make following the instructions in this book.

Creative Bead Weaving

By Carol Wilcox Wells
Learn to weave beads into beautiful textural patterns to create jewelry, bowls, baskets, purses, and even sculpture. Contains step-by-step instructions and detailed diagrams.

The Art and Elegance of Beadweaving

By Carol Wilcox Wells
This book picks up where Carol's last one left off! Not for the faint of heart or for beginners.

The Best in Contemporary Beadwork

Beadwork Magazine, ed
Inspiration overload!! More than 100 stunning full-page color photos catalog the works chosen for the juried exhibit "Beads International 2000." The winning pieces include such materials as glass, stone, and found objects-they are set in jewelry and mosaics, woven into fabrics, and sewn to clothing. There are purses and wall hangings, masks and earrings, everything from the funky to the classic.

Making Beautiful Beads

By Suzanne Tourtillott
So why not learn to make your own? This is a good overview of glass, metal, poly, and fiber.

The Beader's Companion

By Judith Durant, Jean Campbell
A nice little guide to all the basics for the beginner. Compact to travel well.

Exquisite Beaded Jewelry

By Lynda S Musante
A fantastic guide to creating jewelry with wonderful art beads, including wiring, stitching and multi-strand stringing.

And beady magazines 

Step by Step Beads

A great first magazine for beginners.

Beadwork

One of my personal favorites. There is usually a good mix of projects and information.

Belle Armoire

Well beyond beads into other forms of wearable art.

Ornament

The rolls royce of wearable art. Often features beadwork of other cultures.

Fiberarts

All types of textiles, often incorporating beads, but not always.

Jewelry Crafts

One of the standard jewelry magazines. Best for beginners.

Lapidary Journal

Covers stone much more than glass, as the name would suggest, and the Bead Annual is spectacular.

Books for bead collectors 

Beads of the World

By Peter Francis
A must-have if you want to collect beads and know what you have!

Collectible Beads

By Robert K Liu
Another important reference book to have for the collector.

The History of Beads

By Lois Sherr Dubin
OK, I promise (maybe), this is the last reference type book I'll recommend. But I really do recommend it if you're at all interested in the materials you claim to love!

"Wind and Waves" 

Bead embroidered neckpiece

For those times when the beads just sit there and look at you 

Creating Lens

The more I create, the more I can create...

Art Lenses

Lenses which focus on various art forms! All lenses, all the time :-)

Beadwork Blog 

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Jewelry Making Blog 

Fetching RSS feed... please stand by

Techorati Tags 

beads
bead art
beading
mixed media