Potomac Bead Company Blog

2011-11-09T15:26:00.002-05:00

We are now carrying crystal pandora style beads. These beads have dozens of tiny crystals covering the bead, with a SS core. Visit any of our retail locations (http://www.potomacbeads.com/locations.html) or our new online store (http://www.thebeadco.com/CategoryProductList.jsp?cat=Pandora+Style+%28Silver+Core%29+Beads) to see them!

2011-09-06T14:58:00.002-04:00

The Potomac Bead Company's new retail online website is now active and running at http://www.thebeadco.com

Here we offer most of the products sold in our stores for those that are not within driving distance of one of our growing locations. Enjoy!

New Class!

2011-05-17T11:46:00.000-04:00

Not a subliminal message at all! It is the perfect time of year to enjoy learning something new. One of our newest classes to come is the Donut Cuff Bracelet Class.

This example is clean and versatile, change up the color of the donut to make it crazy and bold. Change up the wire to gold or copper and make it formal or rustic, there are so many options!

Look for this class in July!

Ceramic Inspiration

2011-03-11T12:35:00.000-05:00

Some inspiration photos of jewelry we have been making here in Hagerstown with our BOGO Ceramic strands!

March Ceramic Madness

2011-03-09T11:04:00.000-05:00

Get your jewelry wardrobe ready for Summer with these bright, bold and fun ceramic beads. This month only stop in the Hagerstown store to get a great deal on ceramic strands; buy one strand and get another free!

Fringe Bracelet

2011-02-23T15:05:00.000-05:00

Wishing Spring into being only worked for a mere 4 amazing days. I think Winter knew the plot against him and came back with a vengeance and 6 inches of icy snow. So in day dreaming about warm weather working with a fresh technique I have created this bright statement bracelet.

If you would like to learn how to make the fringe bracelet

we are offering the class Wednesday March 23 from 11:30-1:30!

Be inspired

2011-02-04T10:38:00.000-05:00

Gloomy days and frigid nights make getting a move on winter projects impossible. Sometimes a little inspiration is all we need. Here in the store we challenge ourselves with a string of beads we wouldn't usually use, or a color that we haven't made jewelry with for a while. Other times it is nice to simply take inventory of what is lying around in the bead organizers for goodies we've over looked. Fighting the Winter blues gets easier with bright, and bold jewelry. I think it helps find the deeply buried hope for Spring flowers and lower electric bills. A couple things on our minds for Valentine's Day are stamped metal pendants and charms, and Birthstone jewelry.

Stop in Tuesday February 8 from 5-7 for a metal stamping demonstration,

beading night out, and 10% off all your materials. We will be available to help stamp

your own lovely messages too!

Birthstones are a perfect way to personalize any gift or piece of jewelry for yourself.

These great stamped pieces can be used for names, dates and messages. Then add a

Birthstone to complete the look and sentiment.

Happy Spring thoughts and inspiration

-Jenni

Love It or Leave It

2011-01-28T12:14:00.000-05:00

There do not seem to be many people who just like Valentines Day, they either love it, or love to hate it. I guess I am one of the people who love it, having a Valentine or not doesn't seem to make a difference. I enjoy trimming out little paper hearts and mailing snail mail cards. Here at the bead shop we also like making love inspiring jewelry.

Here is a little charm bracelet in progress.

I'm pretty sure this little gem includes every style of our heart

shaped gemstone beads. I may also add a few charms.

Thankfully there is plenty of time to think about the people I would like to surprise with a silly little card or piece of love inspiring jewelry

-Jenni

How We've Grown

2010-09-07T11:32:00.000-04:00

Came across this little photo of our old location on Potomac street today. It is easy to see what we do not yet have to offer, be it classes, specialty items and beads, or knowledge. Looking at this photo, thinking about where we once were overcomes these feelings with those of awe in where we are now. To see the growth in the Potomac Bead Company, not just in our location or inventory, but also in knowledge, skills, and amazing customers is really great. We are coming, in the next few months, upon the start of another year, with new expectations of more growth and development. Which is so exciting! Thank you to everyone who continually makes this possible, and spends time growing with us.

New & Popular Gemstones

2010-08-12T01:58:00.011-04:00

Here are some of our new and popular gemstones at The Potomac Bead Company in 2010

Very Classy Ribbon and Glass

2010-07-21T16:13:00.003-04:00

Over the past few months we have been stocking up on new czech glass items, metal beads, and ribbon. We have also started adding new classes to our list.

This necklace was created this week in our "Ribbon Necklace" class. It has been put together with Czech glass nuggets, faceted rondelles, and silver coated copper beads and spacers.

New: Pandora Style GEMSTONE Beads

2010-07-10T06:02:00.002-04:00

Just recently arrived in many of our stores are brilliant gemstone pandora style beads, with sterling silver cores in a variety of stones. Stones include blue laced agate, black onyx, colorful jade, aquamarine, and many more.

Visit our facebook page for more information:

http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/Potomac-Bead-Company/20272493577?ref=ts

To a Great 2010

2009-12-28T12:30:00.003-05:00

At The Potomac Bead Company we have been blessed by a great last year. New customers continue to stream through the doors despite many of the challenges facing the country's economy. We opened 3 new stores over the last year (Mechanicsburg PA, Phoenixville PA, & Medina OH), have seen growth in our US stores, and great opportunities for more expansion with our UK brand (www.thebead.co.uk). Perhaps most importantly, we've been able to help tens of thousands of new customers become more creative by using beads, stones, glass, findings, and jewelry to create whatever they need.

For 2010, we have a lot more excitement coming. New stores will be opening, a new website will be coming, and dozens of new products will be hitting the shelves of every store. This includes new gemstones, new Czech glass, new findings, new pendants, new glass, new acrylics, and much more. Be sure to stay tuned to both the website (www.potomacbeads.com), Facebook, Twitter, and our email list to find out what is happening.

Also, if you have ideas for things you would like to see in Potomac Bead Company retail locations, just drop us an email and we can determine whether there would be a market for those requests. These can be sent to requests@potomacbeads.com. Thanks to everyone for a great 2009 and here is to an even better 2010!

Another New Store

2009-11-16T22:13:00.003-05:00

We are heading to Ohio tomorrow to open our 10th bead store in the Potomac Bead Company Franchise organization. It has been a great honor for us having the privilege to put new entrepreneurs on their first steps and watch them grow and develop as store owners. The new store in Medina, OH is our first Ohio location, and is located just west of Akron and south of Cleveland. As with each new store, in this next week we will be adjusting final signage, hanging all of the products that have been arriving over the past 3 months, and putting the final touches on this beautiful new 2-level store. Potomac Bead Company Medina opens this weekend, and we will have new photos soon that highlight the improvements to this beautiful space in a great and thriving downtown.

Czech Glass Shipments

2009-10-17T22:07:00.005-04:00

This summer we received a shipment of thousands of strands of Czech glass to each of our stores. This included over 400 styles of glass in dozens of shapes, cuts, sizes, and colors. In November we will have a second shipment coming with even more styles. For a few photos, visit The Potomac Bead Company webpage for photographs. We also have photos of our tours of the Czech factories. To see these, just go to our Czech Factory Tour page.

New Gemstone Shipment

2009-06-19T22:16:00.008-04:00

A new gemstone shipment just arrived to our warehouse last week, and has been separated, photographed, and sent out to each of the retail stores.

We have dozens of new shapes in this order, including multi-faceted gemstone nuggets, wave discs, two hole discs, faceted barrels, turtles, faceted diamonds, and more.

The stones include Amazonite, Amethyst, Abalone, Antiqued Jade, Aquamarine, Aquad Jade, Azurite, Brown Amazonite, Bamboo Leaf Agate, Banded Agate, Black Labradorite, Black Moss Agate, Black Onyx, Blood Agate, Bloodstone, Blue Apatite, Blue Aventurine, Blue Candy Jade, Blue Crazy Lace Agate, Blue Goldstone, Blue Kyanite, Blue Lace Agate, Blue Onyx, Blue Agate, Blue Sponge Coral, Blue Tigereye, Blueberry Quartz, Botswana Agate, Bronzite, Brown Agate,
Coral, Candy Jade, Carnelian, Cherry Quartz, Tiger Cherry Quartz, Calcite, Citrine, Colorful Jade, Crazy Lace Agate, Dumortierite, Fire Agate, Fluorite, Garnet, Goldstone, Green Banded Agate, Green Crazy Lace, Green Goldstone, Green Kyanite, Green Onyx, Green Tourmalated Quartz, Green Nephrite Jade, Green Opal, Magnetic Hemetite, Howlite, Impression Stone, Labradorite, Lapis Lazuli, Lemon Agate (banded), Malachite, Moonstone, Opalite, Moss Agate,
New Jade, Red Ocean Agate, Ocean Jasper, Olive Jade, Opal Jasper, Orange Agate, Oyster Opal Agate, Peacestone, Picture Jasper, Pietersite, Pineapple Quartz, Purple Crazy Lace Agate, Pink Crazy Lace, Pyrite, Rutilated Quartz, Rainbow Jasper, Red Crazy Lace Agate, Red Jasper, Red Turquoise, Rhodonite, Rhodochrosite, Rose Quartz, Orange Sardonyx, Serpentine Jade, Silver Leaf Agate, Silver Smoke Jasper, Sky Quartz, Soapstone, Sodalite, Tibetan Style, Tigereye, Red Tigereye, Tourmalated Quartz, Unakite, White Coral, White Lace Agate.

To see photos from the shipment, visit our New Gemstone Page, or follow our twitter posts (@potomacbeads) for more frequent updates.

New class idea

2009-06-09T10:35:00.008-04:00

I was browsing the internet looking for new ideas for classes and I kept seeing different versions of the wire cuff that looked fairly simple to create, but were still very beautiful and funky. I would like to offer another wire cuff bracelet class (maybe call it "Freestyle Wiring") in our stores. It took me about 30 minutes to complete and I've gotten multiple compliments on it when I wear it, so I think it would be a great addition to our class listing.

I made this one with 16 and 22-gauge silver plated wire, citrine nuggets and rondelles, green and brown agate rounds and some size 8 seed beads. I call it "Orange Tree Inspiration"!

So since I was feeling overly accomplished and proud of my new piece of jewelry, I ventured to take on a wrapped-wire coin pearl pendant I saw in the latest Art Jewelry magazine. I don't think it turned out too badly! This one took me about an hour (I was forced to redo the inside section twice -kind of tricky!). I would have had an easier time using Sterling wire (I used silver plated copper) but I never like to use sterling on a project until I work out the kinks in case I have to start over.

Czech Glass Factory Tour

2009-05-27T21:30:00.005-04:00

We recently had the privilege of touring several of our Czech glass supplier's factories in the Czech Republic, giving us the ability to both take photographs and learn more about how our beads are made. This page specifically highlights the manufacturing techniques for pressed glass beads and firepolished glass beads. Additional links to other czech glass manufacturing are available below.

Most Czech Glass made today is manufactured in the the "Liberec" region, primarily in Jablonec, Prosec, Liberec, and several other small surrounding towns and villages. This area of the Czech Republic is located in the far northern reaches of the country, situated less than 30 miles from both Germany & Poland. The photograph below shows the snowcapped mountains that border the countries and that have created a natural border for hundreds of years.

The architecture, food, culture, & lifestyle of this region is 'bohemian' and will remind many of Bavaria. Glass has been made in these cities for hundreds of years, beginning in the 18th century, and growing and prospering into the 20th century. Around the region, one will see hundreds of little workshops like the one featured below behind homes. Historically, these were used for melting, faceting, and firepolishing the beads. All of this was done in these workshops which featured a hardwood-fired stove for the melting & firepolishing. Even today (and depending upon the size of the order), much of the work done in the Czech Republic is broken up by the factory and given to individuals or families who produce the beads and return the finished products to the factory. For more information on classic firepolishing techniques, see our classic firepolishing page .

The second world war sent many German artisans from the area back to Germany, but many artists remained, and continued their trait even through the Cold War. The fall of the wall in Berlin just 20 years ago has caused a great re-vitalization of industry in the region and more widespread acclaim and demand for Czech glass worldwide.

There are many different styles of Czech glass beads, but most can be broken down into one of three categories: Pressed Beads, Firepolished Beads, and Table-cut Beads. There are of course also seed beads & machine cut crystal made in the Czech Republic, but we shall focus on the first three styles. All firepolished and table cut beads first start as a pressed bead, and all Czech beads first begin with one or several of the different colors of glass rods featured above and below.

These glass rods are each about 3 inches in diameter and about 3 feet long. They come in dozens of different color varieties, and can also be mixed together in the kilns to create new colors. In all, hundreds of different color varieties are available. Fortunately for us, most factories use the same item numbers to track colors and shapes. The color card below lists many of the colors that are available for shape 151-99054. This shape's colors are listed on the sheet. For example color 60060 (towards the bottom) is typically called "sapphire.' Color 60070 would be slightly darker, and color 60050 would be slightly lighter. The item above that (60010/28701) is a lighter blue with the 28701 finish. The items above that have the AB finish (#27001).

The company ordering the beads will have color, shape, and finish sheets at their disposal so that they can order beads that are identical to previous orders. To make the faceted firepolished beads shown above starts with a glass rod entering the pressing machine:

As this glass rod is into the pressing machine (below), the kiln portion turns the hard rod into molton glass. In this method, several colors can also be mixed together. As the glass becomes liquid it is dripped down in a molton stream where it is pressed or stamped by two identical molds into the desired shape. The photo below shows the pressing occuring, then cooling after being pressed.

The picture below shows the pressing process up close. The room where the pressing what taking place was fairly dark, and the photograph is a bit blury, but you can make out the molton stream coming from the top, then being pressed by the mold in the center, and beginning to cool at the bottom.

The image below shows one half of one of the molds, which presses four round beads and their holes as in one stamping motion as the two molds come together.

As the glass continues down the shoot and cools, it is then broken into more manageable pieces and fed into a bucket.

What this pressing process has created can be seen below. The shape has been pressed into the glass (round beads in this case), and will be tumbled to break off the outer portions and separate the desired bead shape from the scraps.

The shape below is often called a 'dagger' or 'drop'. Like the rounds, the desired shape will be separated from the scraps through the tumbling process. In this case, these beads had a mix of red and black rods to creat the color you see, and the mix means that each bead is unique.

Here is another example of round beads once they have been separated from the scraps. These beads had several different colored rods combined to create the mix you see here.

At this point, all beads go through the tumbling process to remove the scraps.

The remains of the scraps can be reused again and again, and fed back into the kiln to melt into new beads (above). The tumbler is shown below. Tumbling involved a mix of water and sand (or other grit) to break apart and separate the scraps, as well as smooth the rough edges from the beads.

At this point, the beads will be washed, sorted, dried, and packaged for distribution if the design is a pressed bead. If however the bead is meant to be faceted and firepolished, the beads are prepared for the next phase in the cutting and faceteing machines. To see how table cut beads are made, visit The Potomac Bead Company's Table-Cut Bead Page.

The photo above shows a room full of cutting (faceting) machines. Each machine is manned by one worker, who loads a tray of round pressed beads (below)

The tray (above) is loaded from a trough of pressed round beads (below). Generally each worker is working with several faceted trays at a time.

As the worker is loading a new tray with beads, the faceting machine (below on the right) is cutting all of the beads down to the programed size using a series of spinning wheels with a rough finish (like sandpaper).

Water is also applied to the wheels, both to make them last longer and to cut down on the dust.

When the faceting phase is finished, the beads from the tray are dumped into this trough, and the empty tray is filled again with new round beads as the process repeats itself.

Once the beads are faceted, they washed, then hand strung onto small metal rods as seen above to dry and prepare for firepolishing. Prior to the firepolishing, the facets are very sharp and pronounced, however, the beads have a slightly matted look.

Now the trays of faceted beads are placed onto a conveyer belt, which will carry the trays through a large kiln (about 20 feet long). The beads take about 5 minutes to travel through the kiln, the temperature of which is about 1000 degrees farenheit.

Above, at the opposite end of the kiln, the a gloved worker removes the rods of beads from the trays, and places them in a bucket to cool.

Once cooled, the beads are removed from the rods, washed, and either packaged or hand-strung according to the customer's instructions. The fire-polishing process has given the beads a bright, glossy, shiny finish that beaders love.

There are litterally thousands of color and finish options for any shape and style of Czech beads. In addition to the endless color options, most factories can produce hundreds of different shapes, from pressed, to fire-polished, to table-cut. Some favorites include rounds, faceted rounds, faceted ovals, pressed leaves, daggers, nuggets, faceted rondelles, flowers, cubes, discs, squares, diamonds, and more.

For more information on table cut beads, see the Czech Glass Table Cut Information Page

For more information on classic firepolishing techniques, see the Classic Czech Firepolishing Page

Beading Across the Continent

2009-05-02T15:11:00.001-04:00

I always enjoy seeing products, but there is one bead in particular that I am particularly excited to see arrive in the store this summer. I hope that by giving you all a brief introduction to Rudraksha beads, you’ll anticipate their arrival as much as I do!

I love beautiful beads, but what I love even more are beads that are both beautiful and cultural. A couple of years ago I found an example of a Hindu rosary with Rudraksha beads at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. As a student of art and religion at the time, I began researching the history of the Rudraksha. The Rudraksha bead is a natural seed from the Rudraksha tree that grows in Nepal. Hindu monks have worn these beads for centuries and put faith in the bead’s mystical powers. While some claims in favor of the beads’ powers are hard to swallow, the medical community is still on the fence when it comes to their healing properties. For the non-Hindu (like myself) a fascination with Rudraksha is born out of a curiosity and respect for other cultures. Although it is just a bead, for me it was a catalyst towards learning more about the Hindu religion and developing a greater understanding of Eastern cultures. So, for a little bead, it can have quite an impact!

Someone interested in buying these beads should become familiar with the mukhi system of measuring in the bead’s properties. The Rudraksha is a very wrinkly seed, similar to a peach pit, with many sections, like slices of an orange, called mukhi. Generally, the greater the number of mukhi, the more valuable the bead. One can find various charts that outline the specific properties of each mukhi.

Art, Beads, and Architecture

2009-04-30T08:56:00.007-04:00

The newest Potomac Bead Company location opened last Tuesday in the heart of downtown Phoenixville, PA. Having opened all of our stores in downtown locations has given me a new love for architecture and the revitalization of the amazing old buildings that are hidden, just waiting to be brought back to life. I truly believe that our stores are prefect to highlight these turn of the century buildings that we have been so fortunate to find.

Because our products are fairly small, we are able to leave the walls exposed with very little display or furniture. This allows the natural beauty of the architecture to be exposed and open for all to see. The exposed steel beams and rustic 1920's look of this space and the old town Alexandria location make you forget that you are in the 21st century. With all of the modern displays, colors, and technology available, it is nice to look at our retail spaces and not feel overwhelmed by the use of the space. In my opinion, the industrial spaces actually add to the creativity and the Potomac Bead Company experience.

When I walk into the downtown spaces, I marvel at the amount of work that went into making these magnificent buildings despite the lack of modern technology. There is such a vast amount of history behind these amazing architectural wonders. It is truly inspiring to think that the materials used in jewelry making are some of the same keeping our turn of the century buildings from crumbling. These materials act as wonderful mediums to inspire and create jewelry as well as other works of art.
Overall, I have learned through this whole amazing experience of opening stores in wonderful old industrial cities, to take advantage of the architecture and detail of the buildings. So many buildings are over looked or discarded in people's minds because they are not modern marvels or of certain materials.
This point connects me back to jewelry and beads. It is often possible to over look the materials we already have and want to trade them in for something new. Be inspired by the history of the materials. They often just need a little help, like our buildings, to make them shine. Often, the simplest pieces are the most appealing and beautiful once they are reconfigured and re-worked. I am inspired to unpack the old beads and materials that I have accumulated over the years and bring them back to their glory.
A final thought to finish this out: In an essence, we are housing the art of beads as well as finished jewelry inside what is already a work of art. If you visit one of our stores, allow the architecture and the environment inspire you to create.

New Beads & Photography

2009-04-19T23:15:00.006-04:00

As I've said before, we love going through new bead shipments... at least for the first day. After the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th days, unpacking can become tedious, but odly exciting at the same time. Often as Allie and I are unpacking and photographing new shipments, Allie will suddently grab a strand of beads, run over to her bead board, grab some wire, leather, or silver spacers, and start creating. "I have an idea and don't want to forget it" she will say.

Of course, as Allie and others are unpacking, checking off against the order sheet, and distributing for shipments to each of our stores, I am often photographing each new item as it comes out of the box. Some months this means thousands of new pictures, each of which must be edited, saved, filed, and resized for various future uses (signage, order sheets, website, etc.). Although my focus has always been business, I've always enjoyed and dabbled in photography. Having spent quite a bit of time around a darkroom when I was younger, I must say that the advances in digital photography are both amazing an useful! Over the years, we have photographed nearly every one of the 50,000+ items that have been sold in our stores. Obviously, this has forced me to become quite efficient at doing so, even if we have several thousand photos waiting for editing at any given time.

Because many of our customers have jewelry design businesses of their own, we are often asked "how can I make my jewelry photos better"? To answer that, we created the Potomac Bead Company Photography Tutorial to help anyone with an interest in photographing jewelry, beads, or other small detailed items in an affordable and efficient way. While this is by no means the only way of taking photographs, perhaps you will find it useful!

Good, clean, beading fun

2009-04-14T19:30:00.003-04:00

My workday usually consists of serving customers, making class schedules, managing employees, keeping the store clean, labeling products, and teaching classes. Every day an awed customer says to me, "You're so lucky to sit around and make jewelry all day!" and I laugh inside because it seems that's always the last thing on my mind! Although it is part of my job to create jewelry, I'm too distracted by the more urgent tasks. But today I took some time to stretch my creative muscle, and boy was it tight! I truly love to create interesting and beautiful pieces with the products we carry, but I don't dedicate enough time to it. So I am resolving to spend more time diving into new ideas for ways to use the products in our stores...and to just have fun! I know this will help to keep me interested in my customers' projects and personally knowledgeable about what to do with the products we supply. I'm so thankful to have a work environment that is so creativity-friendly!

New Gemstones Arriving

2009-04-09T16:32:00.010-04:00

Our latest shipment of over 30 cases of gemstones recently arrivedto our warehouse, and we are going through them now. This is always one of my favorite jobs, as we get to see hundreds of styles cut at our request. With over 250 styles of stones and over 500 shapes, there are hundreds of thousands of gemstones varieties available. When we place orders, we use customer requests and sales histories to determine which shapes and cuts to get in which stones. Many of these are often new styles, never before made.

NEW STONES: Among the new stones in this order are blue & green crazy lace (above), gorgeous new labradorite (above), various colors of banded agate... blue, red, yellow, & green , dumortierite, impression stone (above), silver smoke jasper, silver leaf jasper, tibetan style banded agate, and blue coral. Most of these will be available in most Potomac Bead Company locations

NEW SHAPES: In addition to dozens of new stones are also dozens of new shapes. A few of our favorites include the photos below: 12-14mm Irregular Tumbled Multi-Faceted Rounds, 30mm Wave Discs, 40mm Open Hearts, Carved 18x25mm Ovals, Graduated Fans, Graduated Rounds, and Multi-Faceted Nuggets. There are still dozens of new shapes and stones to come. To see photos of the new gemstones as they come out of the boxes, visit our "what's new" page at www.potomacbeads.com/whatsnew.aspx

Store Opening

2009-04-07T16:48:00.005-04:00

April 4th was the Mechanicsburg, PA location's Grand Opening Celebration. It was great to see lots of new customers that we anxiously awaiting to come to the store. An amazing thing to witness was the degree to which the customers varied in age, beading experience, and what they use beads and findings to produce. We had a great opportunity to speak with many of them about their beading past and their excitement about their beading future with the Potomac Bead Company. It dawned on me that although there was such a variety in people, every one gets equally excited about beads. It is always fun to interact with children, excited to string their very first stretchy bracelet, agonizing over which beads to choose but most adults in a bead store are just as excited as the eight year old standing next to them. Bead stores really are more like toy stores for creative, crafty people of all ages.
During the busy events of the day, I did manage to have time to sit down and demonstrate some wire working techniques that we offer to customers in the form of classes. Many people look at wire as too hard or difficult but I tried to convey that wire is the next logical step to basic stringing. There is so much that can be done with wire to enhance jewelry. More then any other class, I believe the Introduction to Wire Working is the stepping stone into a whole new world of jewelry making. After the class, I always suggest that people buy a package of 20G wire copper wire and play at home with their tools to see what wonderful things they can create. Often people are stunned by how easy wire working is once they have learned the basics. I also advanced from the basics of wire working and demonstrated cabochon wrapping using 20G square wire as well as 20G half round wire. Showing how to wrap cabs answers the inevitable question "what do I do if the stone or pendant does not have a hole." Hopefully everyone enjoyed all the demonstrations on Saturday which varied from seed beading, to dichroic glass, to chain maille and so on.
Mechanicsburg's opening was a huge success and I am anxiously waiting for the Phoenixville location to open at the end of this month.

Trunk Shows

2009-04-06T19:56:00.003-04:00

Most Potomac Bead Company locations will soon be offering trunk shows for our customers. A trunk show is when we take either new products or old stored beads and lay everything out on tables for a period of time. This gives our customers a chance to get new beads, sort through old beads, or find that once-in-a-lifetime item. We encourage each of our locations, as well as our wholesale accounts to do trunk shows several times each year if possible. Look for trunk shows to come to a Potomac Bead Company store near you in the coming months! For more information, visit our bead store locations page, and while you are there, sign up for the newsletters for your nearest stores. This will allow you to receive discounts, updates, schedules, and more! You can also sign up for email using the link below.

Join the Potomac Bead Company mailing list!

Bead Store Challenges and Opportunities

2009-03-31T23:16:00.012-04:00

Running a network of bead stores has given us more fun, excitement, and opportunities than anything we've ever done. At the same time, managing the operations, websites, payroll, growing bead store franchise system, can be challenging! One of the greatest challenges is distribution. At any given time, we have 5-6 shipments one the way to us from overseas. We must think and plan months ahead to keep inventory in stock. This week is one of those where we receive more orders than can be processed. When we receive shipments of gemstones, pearls, crystals, pewter, copper, silver, findings, chain, pendants, and lampwork beads all at once, we have to pick which must get out to each of our bead stores first:

Well, this week is pearls, pewter, and the nice high end gemstones (ruby, malachite, peridot, aquamarine, and more). Next week the metals will follow. Sorting through orders can be great fun, looking to see the new items ordered based on our drawings or ideas. We often welcome input and ideas from our customers as to which shapes, stones, beads, and findings we carry. Potomac Bead Company stores can find nearly anything if given the opportunity, and we sometimes love the challenge. Of course, after days of sorting, it feels good to finally get those products on the floors and to our customers. Finally, eeing the excitement on their faces each time new shipments arrive is the most satisfying feeling of all!

Bead Store Franchise Information
Potomac Bead Company Locations

Travel, Beads, and Networking

2009-03-26T01:37:00.000-04:00

One great advantage of our bead industry, as well being in the fortunate position of franchising bead stores, we have the great advantage of getting to travel frequently. I will probably repeat this again, but this is such a blessing to us, as we get to see so many parts of the world from so many different angles.

This week we are in Chicago, IL taking advantage of some franchise sales and operations seminars to improve our customer's and franchisee's experience at and with The Potomac Bead Company. One of the focuses this week is placing an emphasis on better use of networking utilities such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and of course, our Blog. Well, we are constantly making a more concerted effort to keep our customers, our stores, and our potential future store owners apprised and aware of the exciting growth and happenings at The Potomac Bead Company. Keep in touch with our blogs, or join us on Facebook, LinkIn, or Blogger. We are happy to share our experiences, network, and get to know all of you better.