I love jewelry.  I also love sparkly things, and Swarovski crystals sure sparkle!  From Swarovski crystal hair accessories to beaded Swarovski rings, as long as they sparkle, they'd catch my attention and I'd just want to own them so I can admire them any time I want! 

I was given some handmade Swarovski jewelry as gifts a few years ago and I thought that they looked prettier than those sold in store.  The designs were more unique and you can pick your own color combination.  It inspired me to want to make them myself.  Since then, I started to look for Swarovski crystals and that's how I became interested in beading. 

The kind of beading style that really interest me is the Japanese beadcraft.  I have not yet made any, myself, as I am merely an beginning amateur; however, I have been compiling information regarding the subject on my website so it can maybe offer some resources to people who are interested in the same thing.

I invite everyone to look at my findings and also my list of online beads stores that seem to be carry the supplies that are most pertinent to Japanese Swarovski Crystal Beadcraft.   If you have any comments regarding any retailers listed under Shopping 411 or on the subject of Japanese Swarovski Crystal, please e-mail me or leave a note in the Message Board.

I hope you enjoy these pages!

Create Your Style with Swarovski is is an awesome site about Swarovski crystals.  It has great design pictures to look at, techniques, and other Swarovski information.  Awesome!

Bead & Button

Each issue of Bead & Button is filled with jewelry and project designs and resources on where you can get beads.   It seems like they pay a lot of attention to seedbeading.  The online version offers patterns and technique tips.  This is probably one of the biggest magazines on beads there is in the U.S. 

Bead and Button has other websites: Bead & Button Show and Bead & Button Products.

Other beading magazines that are published by the same publisher includes Bead Style Magazine and Bead Dreams Special issues.

In addition, I like to visit their forum and read up on what other beaders are working on.

Simply Beads

This is a very new beading magazine.  It contains beading projects not limited to only jewelry.  The projects seem to be rather simple (not that I can do all the them!) and uses bigger beads, not so much seed beads.  One thing I noticed that the magazine is different froms others is that it does not contain as many ads as other magazines, which is nice.

BeadStyle

My personal favorite beading magazine.  I love the designs showcased in their magazines.  Love it.

Step by Step Bead: Bead, Beading & Jewelry Projects

They seem offer 14 projects per issue.  They have various types of projects, includes instructions on how to make beads.  The instructions are more detailed than other magazines, but personally I don't see many projects to my personal taste.

Beadwork Magazine

This magazine is comparable to Bead Style magazine. I find that usually I am not that captivated by their cover, but when I flip through the pages, I find jewelry pieces that are surprisingly interesting to me.