About Us
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How we Started
In 2006 I started making beaded bracelets for my daughter, she loved them and wanted to wear them everyday, and of course wanted them to match all of her outfits. I soon started taking orders for friends/family and then decided to create a website and sell them.
In 2007 Bead Creations became Bead Creations International, LLC. This is a great way for me to be able to stay home with my daughter and make a little extra money, plus it doesn’t hurt that I love making jewelry!
In the Summer of 2008 my husband and I ventured into a partnership making Hand Stamped Necklaces and other stamped jewelry. This jewelry has become very popular and has really become the focus of Bead Creations International.
Our Business Philosophy
The objective of our business is to provide one of the best quality products you can get for your money while still providing timely and reliable service for our customers. We hope you will enjoy visiting our web site and using our products as much as we have enjoyed providing them for you.
About us and our Hand Stamped Creations
Frequently we get questions or comments about our Hand Stamped Items from our customers, some of them are interested in how we create our items, and sometimes we get questions about why it may take a week or longer to get their item shipped. With that in mind, we thought it might be nice to explain a little bit about us, and our process of creating a Hand Stamped Item.
Us
As a small “Mom and Pop” shop, we do not have a large building or warehouse to do our work in, and we are our only employees. Mom does all of the purchasing of supplies, assembling of the jewelry, communicating with the customers from their first questions to the final delivery of their items. She also packages, ships, and deals with all of the hassles at the Post Office. On top of this she continually updates and adds to our website, runs our household, and raises and home schools our young daughter, occasionally she will use her Real-Estate license to help find or sell a home for a customer.
Pop, works full-time as a landscape equipment mechanic for the City and part-time as a jewelry-stamping madman. He also runs errands for the business during his 100 mile per day commute and tries to keep the yard and home operating at a minimal, yet functional level.
The Hand Stamped Creation
Creating a Hand Stamped Item is a little more complicated and time consuming than it may at first seem.
From the beginning, our supplies must be kept up to the point that we can meet demand. As worldwide demands for silver and gold change, supplies can often dry up and prices can fluctuate dramatically. We have to be prepared for these changes, if not, then we can’t run efficiently, so Mom is always trying to keep on supplying us with the best quality materials in order to make the finest jewelry.
Most of the jewelry starts out in a raw form, meaning that we purchase our items in small bulk sheets or lengths and then process them into their final product.
A Hand Stamped Necklace will begin life as a small sheet of silver. The sheet is marked out with the item it will become, usually either a disc, or a washer. After the item is laid out, it will be punched out of the sheet by hand, it will be inspected for flaws, and if it is of nice enough quality, any scratches and all of the rough edges will be removed. The item is then meticulously stamped one letter or design at a time. This time-consuming process is done by hand with a hammer and a single punch for each and every letter or design. All letters and designs have to be carefully aligned with each other, and if one is too far out of alignment or doesn’t strike correctly, the disc or washer is discarded and a new one must be made. Assuming that the stamping is a success and meets with our approval, the hole for the necklace jump-ring is then drilled and chamfered. If you have ordered a cupped or domed necklace, it will be cupped or domed at this point using some more specialized tools to bend the silver into the shape you desire. The letters and designs must then be oxidized. An acid solution is used to create the blackened effect in the lettering and designs. This is applied letter by letter with a small paintbrush. After the acid has done its magic, it is neutralized with water and the disc or washer will be polished by hand. We then take one of our specialized power tools and very carefully machine polish the disc or washer to a very high luster until it literally glows. If you order an item that is tarnished, hammered or brushed, these processes will take place instead of the high polish, and your item will receive its very own unique finish using a very different method to achieve it. The completed disc or washer is then taken to Mom for her careful assembly of the necklace into its final form. Jump-rings are added, crystal or pearl dangles and charms are carefully selected and attached according to your desires, your choice of chain completes the creation and it then moves into the process of packaging and shipping, where it will begin its journey to its ultimate destination.
Hopefully if we do everything just right, the end result will be a piece of jewelry that is unique and special to you and that you will cherish for years to come. We pride ourselves on creating quality, and often that takes a little more time to get things “just right”. We try not to rush our items out to the point that quality suffers and we hope that you understand that as we have many orders to be filled, we want each and every one to get the level of attention that it needs to become a special creation of beauty.
Thank you for visiting our site. We hope that you will be able to find or create exactly what you desire. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have and we will be happy to try to provide you with that special creation that you have been searching for!
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