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 Cost: $27 ($22 for the subscription + $5 shipping)
The Products: A curated selection of beads and findings centered on a theme.
Ships to: US and Canada
Check out all of our Blueberry Cove Bead reviews and the Craft Subscription Box Directory for more great craft supply and DIY project boxes!
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There isn’t a traditional information card with this box. This month the challenge is to make a necklace with some of the charms in the box; the theme is “steampunk.”
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 that no directions are given and you have to supply your own needles, stringing materials, tools, and findings. Also, note that you will receive this towards the end of the month or the beginning of the next month if you live in the US since it is shipping from Canada.
Bronze Links with Eyeballs
These are a little strange. I am pretty sure you are supposed to glue the eyeballs into the bronze links. Actually, they are a good inclusion for Halloween since this was the October box (though it shipped a bit late and coming from Canada, it takes awhile to get to me).
Small Glass Bottle with Bronze Cap
This is a very tiny glass vial. It is probably too small for seed beads but you could put a few drops of colored liquid in it, or possibly some fine-grained sand, and then seal it up with glue.
Glass Vial with Bronze Cap and Base
This probably is big enough for seed beads. It is open on one end and I assume you glue the bronze bits on after filling it. You can hang it by that piece on the left with the loop. I have definitely never received something like this in a bead subscription before, but it works for both “steampunk” and Halloween (like in a mad scientist/Frankenstein kind of way).
Bronze Tubes
I always want to work with long metal beads but I never seem to have any around. I didn’t use these in my project this month, but I have half a dozen ideas of what to do with them. If the curvature works for a necklace, I definitely want to try these with some memory wire.
Bronze Filigree Pieces
These are pretty thin. I will probably try to hammer one around a bracelet mandrel to give it a bit of a curve and then make a bracelet out of it if it works (I’m new to hammering metal so I can’t yet predict success).
Round Red and Black Glass Beads
These are pretty and I will definitely use them for something. They don’t (to me) really mesh well with the aesthetic of the rest of the box, but I like them, and I have never felt pressured to use all the items from a box in the same piece – sometimes that would just not work.
Green Glass Hearts
These are a very similar color to the eyeball beads so of course I immediately think about how they could be used together. It would be, um, interesting, but it could work for the right person.
Assorted Bronze Gears
The challenge this month was to use these in a piece of jewelry. I actually did that (although I didn’t enter). Anyway, I found the best way to attach these to anything was to use jump rings in the same color to turn them into charms. There are probably other options as well.
Bronze Dragonfly Charm
My taste in pendants is small so I will probably use this as the centerpiece of a necklace since it is not much bigger than an inch in any direction. It could look nice with some natural materials or earth-toned beads.
Bronze Filigree Bead Caps
These are quite large and didn’t actually work with any of the beads in this shipment. However, I have been collecting beads since the late 1990s and I am sure I have something they will fit perfectly. (Or, I can use them as an excuse to buy more beads.)
Bronze Flower Bead Caps
These are a little smaller than the others, as you can see, but still larger than I would like for the round beads that came this month. I definitely have some beads in the correct size, though. You could also use them as flower dangles with headpins instead of as bead caps.
Blue/Gray Faux Pearls
I found the color of these appealing and I ended up using some of them in my finished product. I have a lot of them left over so I may make some coordinating pieces.
Red/Violet Faceted Glass Rounds
I thought these went nicely with the faux pearls so I used them in my project as well. I am amassing quite the collection of faceted glass beads but that just means I can make more sparkly things, so it’s OK!
Here is a bracelet I made with the gears, the faux pearls, the faceted glass beads, and some bronze rounds I had in my stash. If it looks short, it’s because I have super small wrists.
Verdict: I did not calculate a value here but if you divide the total cost + shipping by the number of items, you are paying a little over $2 an item. Because of the high amount of metal this month, including some unusual/rarely seen components and charms, I think that is a decent value. Although steampunk really isn’t my thing, I did like the gears quite a bit and some of the other items could work well incorporated into a gift for a true steampunk fan, or a Halloween-themed necklace.
What did you think of the October 2016 Blueberry Cove Beads? Do you subscribe to any beading or craft boxes?
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