Blueberry Cove Beads is a beading subscription from Canada. Every month they ship beads and supplies and post a challenge incorporating one or more items from the box. If you choose to enter the challenge, you share photos of your project and may win your next month’s box free!
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
The Subscription Box: Blueberry Cove Beads
The Products: A curated selection of beads and findings centered on a theme.
The Cost: $27 ($22 for the subscription + $5 shipping)
Ships to: US and Canada
Check out the Craft Subscription Box Directory for more great craft supply and DIY project boxes and make sure to add Blueberry Cove Beads to your subscription list or wishlist!
There isn’t a traditional information card with this box. This month the challenge is to make a necklace with an exotic feel. I assume the photo on the other side of the card was meant as inspiration.
A note on prices: Items like this can come from a variety of different suppliers at many price points depending on how many you buy, etc. Even different colors of the same size and shape of glass beads are priced differently due to materials needed to make the colors! So I have opted not to provide prices in this review.
Please note: This is a review of the FEBRUARY box. I had this for a long time. But once again, I was a little too ambitious with my project idea. First I decided to order chain and eyepins and jump rings from Fire Mountain Gems. Well, shipping by ground from Oregon to Georgia is not fast. Then I discovered that my wire cutters were terrible for cutting chain. So I ordered some new
Hollow Silver-Tone Beads with Red Accents x 2
Hollow Silver-Tone Beads with Green Accents x 2
Oh my, this picture turned out blurry. This is what happens when I try to do close-ups without a proper lens (can’t change lenses on a point-and-shoot digital camera anyway…). I haven’t decided what to do with these yet but am thinking they might look nice in some macramé if I can find a good color of twine to use with them (the holes are large).
Gold-tone Jingle Bells x 18
Green Window/Cathedral Beads (about 10 mm?) x 10
Once I made an anklet with bells like this. You could hear me coming from a mile away. I’m still trying to decide what to do with them. As for the green beads, you will see them again in my finished project.
2 mm Light Blue AB (I think) Coated Fire-Polished Glass (1 strand)
Length of Blue Fabric
Without an information card, I have to guess at a lot of things. These could be some kind of crystal but I am guessing fire-polished glass because it’s less expensive. You’ll see them in the finished project. I bought some large blue glass beads that I’m going to use with the fabric to make a wrap bracelet. One of these days.
Large Gold-Tone Findings x 2
Small Gold-Tone Findings x 6
I have a couple of ideas for these although I am not keen on making any more multistrand necklaces for awhile (see below). Maybe some earrings?
6 mm (?) Frosted Red Glass Rounds (1 strand)
8 mm (?) Orange Crackle Glass Rounds (1 strand)
The sizes are just guesses based on the bead caps I used with these (see below) since I don’t have calipers. Not much more to say about these but you will see them in my project.
4 mm (?) Gold Tone “Pearls” (1 strand)
6 mm (?) White “Pearls” (1 strand)
These are obviously synthetic when you look at them close up (or even far away, since they are too uniform to be an inexpensive natural product). But they generally have a nice finish.
And here is my final project. Too big for the necklace form, but that’s what happens, I guess. I supplied eyepins, chain, bead caps, and jump rings, as well as a 5-strand clasp that is not showing. This has a tendency to get really tangled up but I think it turned out great. I think I am a little tired of working with chain and jump rings for awhile, though…
Verdict: I did not calculate a value for this box, as explained above in my note about prices. I am sure that if you are buying wholesale, you could get prices better than $2.25 an item (the total amount of the box plus shipping divided by the number of items). And my $87 order of supplies from Fire Mountain (plus the chain cutting pliers from Amazon) didn’t help matters from an economic standpoint…but I was really happy with the result (when I was finished, it actually looked like what I envisioned for once) and I still have some fun items left over to play with. So this was worth it to me.
Please note that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings.
What did you think of the February 2016 Blueberry Cove Beads? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?
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