a new opinion in Shopping about beadsunlimited.co.uk - The Customers

As some of you may know from reading my ‘About me’, I am in the process of setting up a small jewellery business from home. All the jewellery is handmade using glass beads. There are numerous websites online selling beads and jewellery making supplies and of course I did a lot of research into finding the cheapest bead suppliers before buying my beads (of course they needed to be good quality too!). Through a google search I came across beadsunlimited.co.uk and took a look around their website.

-What do they sell?-
Well you may think this is a silly question, the obvious answer being beads. However, beads unlimited sell a wide range of different types of beads and pendants as well as findings and accessories. Some of the different types of beads and pendants they sell are glass, ceramic, aluminium, metal and wood to name just a few. They sell all the accessories that you are ever likely to need when working with beads, for example, wires and threads, earring fish hooks, tools and pliers.

-Quality of the beads-
Anyone who is serious about making jewellery or whatever it is that you need to use beads for, will agree that quality is everything. You don’t want to spend time and patience making something, only for the beads to crack or break within a couple of weeks. In my case, I would feel terrible selling bad quality beaded jewellery so this was really important to me when searching for my beads, yet I wanted to keep the cost as low as possible. When my beads arrived I was thrilled! They were of great quality and the glass my beads were made out of looked sturdy, not thin and ‘crackable’ as I often describe beads. The only negative I have to point out is that two of the beads of the same design that I purchased were slightly different (I wanted them to make earrings so is a bit of a bother), one of the beads was very clear, whereas the other was slightly cloudy, however, I am well aware that it is near enough impossible to make two beads identical as they are hand made and I would put this down to luck of the draw.

-Price-
For me, this is one of the websites strongest points. You can make fantastic savings by buying in bulk, you may instantly think ‘bulk’ means quite a lot of beads that you may not necessarily need, however, this is not the case. I will give you an example of what I mean – I wanted to buy glass heart beads, they were 40p each or £1.95 for a multi-mix bag containing 10 beads where colours are randomly picked, or if like me you wanted them to make earrings therefore needing two of a colour you can choose a ‘custom mix’ which is slighly more expensive at £2.50 but you get to choose your colours. Still a great saving if you are going to use the extra beads! Also, look out for the items in the sale! I purchased a bag of 65 beautiful red beads with a gold stripe running through for just £1.25 and they are great quality!. There is a minimum of £5 order but i’m sure after looking on the website you will find numerous things you want to buy and you can get quite a few beads for £5 on there!. Beads unlimited are definitely the cheapest website selling beads, tools and accessories on the Internet.

-Delivery-
Order value £5 – £50 is £2.50 postage.
Order value £50 or over is free.
I think this is a very reasonable delivery charge, taking in to consideration the rediculous charges on some of the websites I have viewed lately (£6.25 for standard etc). Beads unlimited say that 99% of orders are sent out within 2 days of making a purchase. My order took a little longer but I did order on the weekend so this is understandable.

-Final words-
On a final note, I would recommend taking notice of the size information that is written at the top of the page when viewing the beads as some of the beads look bigger in the pictures than they actually are being my silly self I took them at face value and ended up a little suprised when they arrived even though they were still pretty. Overall, beads unlimited is a great website offering you a wide range of beautiful beads and other crafty things for great prices! I will definitely be ordering from them again.