The Best Sites To Buy Vintage Beads, Stones, & Findings Online

1 - I can do better 2 - Jury's out 3 - Pretty darn good 4 - Splendiferous 5 - Awesometastic by 31 people | Log in to rate

Ranked #105 in DIY, #1,942 overall

The best Vintage & Antique jewelry bead & findings sources I have found, gleaned through many hours of page clicking headache.

About A Few Of The Stores Listed... 

Splendor In The Glass
Well designed site with easy navigation. Beautiful selection and prices. This is the kind of bead site you come back to just to see the pretties. Antique & vintage Swarovski, Czech, Japanese, Art Deco & Art Nouveau beads, pendants, hat pin tops, findings, & stones (cabochons).

Site search engine and Product Index

MC/V, AmEx, PayPal
Eartly Adornments
Earthly Adornments has vintage beads & findings catagorized broadly by Color, Material, & Type of Findings.
Antique & Vintage Jewelry catagorized by Era, Material, Style, & Type.
Randomly wonderful selection of items, the prices are OK, and the website is well done if not updated enough.
Earthly Adornments Site Map
MC/V, PayPal
Jan's Jewelry Supplies
Great findings, stones, and prices.
Another messy site that requires a lot of back button use to navigate, but worth it.
A complete site workover with an eye to navigation, and seperating out the vintage from the contemporary, would make this the "check here first" site for me.
Jewelry Making Instructions / Projects
Jewelex
The website is a headache if you try to go in through the front, so I've given you the super secret backdoor entrance. The prices are higher than I like, and the website is not well laid out, but the selection extensive with a helpful ruler in many of the pictures.

Patience is required to get through the site.

MC/V, Disc, AmEx, eCheck, PayPal
The Beadin' Path
Easy navigation, good selection, but overpriced.
Worth the visit:
Vintage Cabochons ~ Better prices than the rest of the site, and a wide variety of funky lucite cabs.
Antique Nail Heads ~ Yum.
Vintage Lucite Beads ~ Mostly. Again, I feel that mixing vintage and contemporary beads on the same page is a mistake.
Ozzy Beads
Vintage Glass Beads, Vintage Lucite Beads, Vintage and Bohemian Buttons, Vintage Pendants and Charms, Vintage Focal Beads.
PayPal, V/MC, Amex, Discover.
Vintage Crystal Beads
Vintage Swarovski, Discontinued Swarovski,
Vintage Lucite Trumpet Beads, Findings & Chain.
V/MC, Check, Money Order.

Jewelry Making 

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Jewelry making and related arts techniques, news, and tutorials.

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Vintage Jewelry Findings 

Used, recycled, and NOS (New Old Stock) findings.

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eBay

Tools For Jewels 

30x Jeweler's Loupe with Leather Case

Amazon Price: $18.99 (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

BEADERS TOOL KIT

Amazon Price: $29.95 (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

Useful Jewelry Links 

Free Online Or Downloadable Tools For Jewelry Makers & Buyers

Free Jeweler's Assistant Software
Free software download that converts old jewelers' measurements such as pearl plate and stone size into millimeters and inches. Calculator and bead estimation worksheet included.
Stone Size Conversion Chart
Online conversion chart at Jan's Jewelry Supplies for pearl plate (PP) and stone size (SS).
Authenticating Miriam Haskell Pieces
A short overview of how to spot a Miriam Haskell.
Vintage Antique Jewelry Research Information Articles
Online source for Vintage Costume and Antique Jewelry Research Information. Find articles on buying, dating, identifying, cleaning, care, value and history of vintage and antique jewelry

SoftFlex Soft Touch Beading Wire For Tiny Antique Beads 

Beautiful, flexible, and fitting for beautiful vintage beads and findings.

Soft Touch Seed Bead Stringing Cord 3-Spools

Amazon Price: $30.84 (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

About Vintage Jewelry... 

A little history of beads to get you going.

Miriam Haskell Jewelry (Schiffer Book for Collectors)

Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

Fabulous Fakes: A Passion for Vintage

Amazon Price: $23.10 (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

The History of Beads: From 30,000 B.C. to the Present (Beadwork Books)

Amazon Price: (as of 07/12/2009) Buy Now

~ Visitors ~ 

Leave a comment...
Jewelry designers are welcome to leave a website link!

Wysiwigs wrote...

Great lens ~ I'm bookmarking it to come back to check out the sites (and thanks for the resource!) I'm not a jewelry designer per se, but I do make some from time to time so this is very handy information - 5*
Http://www.Squidoo.com/Wysiwigs

ReplyPosted March 29, 2009

Lensmaster

vicalla_com

A lot of my customers are jewelry designers, I will put your link to my website at vicalla.com so it will be useful information for them.
Vicalla

ReplyPosted March 05, 2009

NaturalMindset wrote...

I enjoyed your lens! Five stars and lensrolled at Cute As A Button Crafts with Vintage Buttons .

ReplyPosted March 02, 2009

Suko wrote...

Great lens! I will forward this to a friend who makes jewelry!

ReplyPosted February 12, 2009

deliese wrote...

This has been helpful. I have used Jan's and yes it is scattered.

ReplyPosted December 31, 2008

 
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