Out With the Old, In With the New

Happy New Year my favourite beaders!

I don’t know about you, but I need a gentle start to this year. So, rather than put pressure on us with goals and expectations for 2025, I thought I’d recap some of the highlights of 2024. And as I mulled this over, I recalled that the year had some hard life stuff, and some lovely beady stuff!

Hard Life and Business Stuff

I spent nearly 5 months at home last year due to foot surgery. (Ouch! It was way more painful and took way longer to heal than I could have imagined!) My husband Paul prepares the orders for me so he was kept busy.  (Thanks honey!)

Then, of course, our recent Canada Post strike took a toll.  We got no Christmas cards at all this year.

To keep orders filled throughout the strike I used Chit Chat delivery for Canadian orders, which I regularly rely on for US and international orders (phenomenally reliable). With those hiccups behind me, I am gearing up to go full speed into the New Year.

Beady Happiness Stuff

Now for the lovely beady stuff! My biggest “yahoo!” from last year is that the Beading Room added Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Chile to our list of countries delivered to.  Welcome! And thank you to all!  Vielen Dank, Merci Beaucoup, Muito Obrigado, Mil gracias, Tusind Tak, Muchas gracias!

Also, we added a few new products:

• magnetic clasps (partial images featured below)

• a few basic colours of Faux Suede, which is a little thicker than UltraSuede, to fill the gap while UltraSuede takes care of production issues.
• a new selection of needles, which includes a range of Pony brand needles!
• and lots of new Delica 11/0 colours

As I reviewed last year’s business activity, I was surprised by the top sellers:

• Swarovski top-drilled bicone, in jet
• Flip top rectangular storage boxes, large
• Superduo Side Bead ‘Kaparia,’ Antique Silver Plated – photo below:

•  Half Tila Bead Substitute “Ornos,” both 24k gold plated and silver plated – silver plated featured in photo below (isn’t it a lovely, sophisticated “bead substitute”?):

Although I cannot explain why any one colour catches beaders’ attention, I can tell you that the most popular Miyuki Delica colour this year was DB723 Dark Cranberry Opaque, pictured at left, below, and the most popular Czech seeds were the basic Black Opaque and  the creamy Amethyst Opal Solgel (love this finish!).